Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard has revealed he’s a fan of Motley Crue amid Eddie Vedder’s feud with Nikki Sixx.
The glam-metal group’s bassist recently branded the Grunge rockers “one of the most boring bands in history”.
The ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ rocker was unimpressed when frontman Eddie slammed the 1980s hair metal scene, calling the movement “vacuous” and singling out Motley in particular, but insisted he was going to take the ‘Jeremy’ singer’s words as “kind of a compliment”.
And now, the ‘Alive’ group’s guitarist has insisted he has a differing opinion of Motley to Eddie and insisted he and his bandmates Mike McCready and Jeff Ament both love “hard rock”.
Stone, 55, said: “Jeff [Ament, Pearl Jam bassist] and Mike [McCready, guitarist] and I loved hard rock, like, went through it all. I bought the first Mötley Crüe on Leathür Records.
“I thought it was, at the time, it was punk-like. It had that same [energy]. It’s like Motörhead.”
He added to the ‘Fan First’ podcast: “There was things about it that I was discovering about British hard rock at that time that felt also rebellious or against the norm or something that made me interested in it. And I always liked heavy.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Eddie recalled his old job at a club in San Diego, where he helped to load bands’ gear and said: “I’d end up being at shows that I wouldn’t have chosen to go to – bands that monopolised late-‘80s MTV.
“The metal bands that – I’m trying to be nice – I despised. ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ and Mötley Crüe: [expletive] you. I hated it. I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous.”
Nikki hit back on Twitter on Saturday (05.02.22).
He wrote: “Made me laugh today reading how much the singer in Pearl Jam hated @MotleyCrue. Now considering that they’re one of the most boring bands in history it’s kind of a compliment isn’t it? (sic)”
And in response to a fan who wrote that they “can’t stand” Pearl Jam, Nikki replied: “They can’t stand Pearl Jam. Little inside scoop?”
The 63-year-old musician insisted he wouldn’t let anyone get away with “dissing” his band.
He tweeted: “Your not allowed to diss my band and our 40 year history and not get a little smack back. All good. More focused on us playing stadiums right now. Moving on.”
And he slammed a commenter who branded him a “loser” for his response to Eddie, 57.
He wrote: “You’ll be fine. Remember there were zillions of brown haired bands for brown haired fans…..Go find them. You will know them by the bored look on their face.”