PEARL JAM's Guitarist MIKE McCREADY Is Writing A Rock Opera About The Grunge Years

It seems that Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready is working on a rock opera about the grunge scene in Seattle, honoring Chris Cornell and other legendary figures from the alternative rock movement. The opera is still in its early stages, but McCready has said that it will explore the triumphs and tragedies of those early years in the 90s.

McCready told Guitar World that he was inspired to write the opera after the death of his friend and former Temple of the Dog bandmate, Chris Cornell, whose untimely passing was a major loss for the music world: "I look at him as one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time, aside from being a friend. I love Chris and I'm working on a little project about the Seattle scene and a musical kind of rock opera thing. He's part of it."

“I'm just in the middle of it,” he continued, “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.”

The acoustic composition "Crying Moon", which the guitarist recently shared, will be part of this upcoming rock opera, even when the guitarist is still unsure as to what final form the project will take.

In the 1990s, the grunge scene took the music industry by storm, and dominated the airwaves for years, sidelining metal in most of its variant to the backseat. The sounds of the time were defined by bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Nirvana, and their music is still immensely popular today.