Mike McCready is working on a special project that certainly has some legs.
The Pearl Jam guitarist shared with Guitar World that he’s working on a rock opera about the Seattle music scene. This project is still very much in the works, but he has big aspirations for it, including evolving it into a stage production.
McCready noted, “I’m working on a script and I’ve got about 18 songs that I’m working on, and I’m singing on it. It’s been a long journey.”
This rock opera will act as a partial tribute to late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who McCready considers one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time. McCready and Cornell were close friends and also bandmates in Temple of the Dog.
Cornell has clearly been on McCready’s mind lately. During a July show with his side band The Rockfords, the guitarist performed an unreleased song titled “Crying Moon,” which he wrote in tribute to Cornell.
McCready shared the performance via Facebook. He wrote, in part, “‘Crying Moon’ is part of my process in dealing with his death. Chris opened up my world to new heights when he let me play on ‘Temple Of The Dog.’ … I love and miss him.”
Additionally, McCready says in the clip below before performing “Crying Moon,” “A lot of the singers have died in this scene. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I get the drug aspect of it, but it’s such a horrible cliche.”