After the break up of [Mother Love Bone]? following the death of lead singer Andy Wood, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, longtime friends, recruited guitarist Mike McCready? and recorded a 3 song demo tape. This tape made it to ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, who passed it on to Eddie Vedder during one of their one-on-one basketball games. Eddie Vedder, inspired by what he heard, put his vocals to the tracks and mailed the tape back to Gossard. Gossard and Ament were so impressed that they had Vedder fly up from San Diego to see how the group played together. Things went well and, with the addition of Dave Krusen on drums, Mookie Blaylock was formed. However, the issue of naming a band after the then NJ Nets point guard raised problems, and the band was renamed Pearl Jam.
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