Before forging his own legendary career as the drummer for Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, a teenage Matt Cameron played in a KISS cover band. Unfortunately, paying musical tribute to their rock heroes led to a cease and desist letter from the iconic band themselves.
Cameron and the rest of Pearl Jam were recent guests on The Howard Stern Showpromoting his new album, Dark matter. During the visit, the drummer shared his KISS story, in which he also met Paul Stanley.
“I was in a neighborhood KISS cover band when I was 13/14, something like that,” Cameron began. “We played at local high schools, kegs and all that. And my dad was friends with the head of the stagehands union in San Diego, so when KISS played there… during the 'Alive' tour, that was in '75, we got to go see KISS do a sound check at the San Diego Sports Arena. .”
He added: “So I brought the two guys I was in the band KISS with, Tim and Dave Mahoney… and we brought our photo album of our stupid KISS cover band… to meet Paul Stanley, and we took a photo with the. We were like, 'Hey, we're in a KISS cover band, here's our stupid photo album.'”
Cameron continued: “Wow, I don't know, four to six months later, we got a cease and desist letter from Aucoin Management. We were big KISS fans, and KISS used to put the Aucoin Management logo on their albums. So [before we opened the letter], we were all excited, 'Wow, we got a letter from Aucoin Management, we did it!' And it was a cease and desist from KISS.”
While KISS is known to be litigious over their brand, Cameron admitted that he and his bandmates made a crucial mistake when starting their KISS tribute act. “I think we just called [our] band KISS,” he recalled, as Eddie Vedder and the other members of Pearl Jam roared with laughter. “We don't really think about the future. Then after that, we had 'KISS' and in parentheses: 'Imitation.'”
KISS wrapped up a farewell tour in December, but Pearl Jam is still going strong. The band is ready to support Dark matter with a world tour in 2024 that kicks off May 3 in Vancouver and includes a pair of performances at Vedder's Ohana Festival in September. Get tickets to upcoming Pearl Jam shows here.
Watch Matt Cameron tell his KISS story on The Howard Stern Show next, followed by Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard's recent appearance on Consequence's Kyle Meredith with… podcast.
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