Prior to carving out his own legendary career as drummer of both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, a teenage Matt Cameron played in a KISS cover band. Unfortunately, paying musical tribute to his rock heroes led to a cease-and-desist letter from the iconic band itself.
Cameron and the rest of Pearl Jam were recent guests on The Howard Stern Show, promoting their new album, Dark Matter. During the visit, the drummer shared his KISS story, which also involved meeting Paul Stanley.
“I was in a neighborhood KISS cover band when I was 13/14, something like that,” began Cameron. “We played local high schools, keggers, what not. And my dad was friends with the head of the stagehand union in San Diego, so when KISS was playing there … during the ‘Alive’ tour, that was ’75, we got to go see KISS do a soundcheck at the San Diego Sports Arena.”
He added, “So I brought the two guys I was in the KISS band with, Tim and Dave Mahoney … and we brought our photo album from our stupid KISS cover band … to meet Paul Stanley, and we got a photo with him. We were like, ‘Hey man, we’re in a KISS cover band, here’s our stupid little photo album.’”
Cameron continued, “Cut to like, I dunno, four-to-six months later, we get a cease-and-desist letter from Aucoin Management. We were big KISS fans, and KISS used to put the logo from Aucoin Management on their albums. So [before we opened the letter], we were all excited, ‘Whoa, we’re getting a letter from Aucoin Management, we’ve made it!’ And it was a cease-and-desist from KISS.”
While KISS notoriously have been known to be litigious about their brand, Cameron admitted that he and his bandmates made a crucial error 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 cracked up. “We didn’t really think ahead there. So after that, we had ‘KISS’ and in parentheses: ‘Imitation’.”
KISS wrapped up a farewell tour in December, but Pearl Jam are still going strong. The band is set to support Dark Matter with a 2024 world tour that kicks off May 3rd in Vancouver, and includes a couple of sets at Vedder’s Ohana Festival in September. Pick up tickets to Pearl Jam’s upcoming shows here.
Check out Matt Cameron telling his KISS story on The Howard Stern Show below, followed by Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard’s recent appearance on Consequence‘s Kyle Meredith With… podcast.