Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard riffs on road trips, walking to school and why he’d rather bike than drive.
On walking to school as a kid:
“I walked to Seward School first through fourth grade. It’s just amazing to me now that we’d walk down 10th Avenue on Capitol Hill [Seattle, WA]. It’s a mile or a little less, and my parents would let me walk when I was in second or third grade, which I don’t think people do anymore. Which is just sad because I think people could do it.”
On riding his bicycle:
“I really enjoy not getting in a car and running errands on bikes. I’m excited about it from a lot of different points of view. You see a lot more, and you get the flow of a city a lot more.”
What he notices about cities when he’s on the road with the band:
“The cities that I really like to go to tend to be the ones with running paths. I think the cities that are coming up economically and in terms of their psychology, the city psychology, have people interacting and exercising between parks and corridors that allow people to either ride their bikes or run."
How U.S. cities compare to cities abroad in terms of being activity-friendly:
“You go to Holland and everybody’s on a bike—nobody would think to have a car. Now that they’ve gone that way I don’t think they’d go back. You see people really enjoying themselves and it’s just part of it, nobody would think twice about riding 20 minutes home on their bike after being out or going to work. And there’re trails everywhere. Instead of roads they’re building more bike trails. How much cheaper is a bike trail than a road?”
On changing the direction of planning and design in America:
“When more green design and the more holistic approach to community building takes over, people are going to [see change]…I think what has to be incorporated into that equation is transportation, and particularly walking and biking or alternative transportation--getting away from one person in a car driving 18 blocks to get a bag of Doritos.”
On creating car-free urban corridors:
“It would be great to take one city street and turn it into a pedestrian corridor and see what kind of effect it has on the businesses in that area. It’s the future I think. I see it. There’s always the big resistance, but I think there’s a way that economically you can make these things make sense. There’s a way to allow people to see them not as a cost to the taxpayer but as a benefit to the whole city, and maybe as a way of actually increasing the economy. Particularly the small business economy—cafes, small restaurants.”
On the link between active living and a sense of community:
“I think it’s all tied together in terms of making a leap to a different way or a broader way of thinking about the whole. We’re pretty fractured. We’ve gone a different direction in terms of how our communities have interacted—gone away from the ‘it takes a village’ mentality to nuclear families that are sort of isolated.”
On encouraging physical activity in kids:
“I think if there is a bike trail kids will use a bike trail—you know what I mean? I think there’s something to be said for making sure there are creative people at schools that are inspiring kids by their own behavior to be active.” Pearl Jam promotes healthy eating on North American tour Pearl Jam is giving a dollar of every ticket sold on their current tour to a charity or nonprofit organization. Read how the organic food for kids program—Mixed Greens—recently received an unexpected gift from the band.
Last updated 5/22/06
