We went to Big Sur about three years ago and hung out at the Esalen Institute.

- Jeff Ament

I don't have a great voice or even a good voice.

- Jeff Ament

I feel like in a lot of ways I can relate to the fans, just being a fan of music myself.

- Jeff Ament

I played djembe, percussion, keyboards and I sang.

- Jeff Ament

I'm a big fan of power trios where there's only three instruments.

- Jeff Ament

I'm not going to say no to playing a show in Missoula.

- Jeff Ament

I've been interested in Eastern religions since I went to college because I was trying to figure out where I stood with Catholicism.

- Jeff Ament

That's probably half the reason I wanted to be in a band - I wanted to see the world.

- Jeff Ament

Unless you're a vegan freak of nature like Tony Gonzalez, I don't think you can play sports much past your early 30s.

- Jeff Ament

We just finished making a record. Everybody wants to play shows, so we're going to after that.

- Jeff Ament

I didn't write this song. Someone was talking in a room. I just wrote down everything they said.

- Jeff Ament

With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, 'Can I sing this part,' or, 'I want to play guitar.'

- Jeff Ament

I had a portable 8-track player under all my ramps, cranking one of my four 8-tracks - Cars/'Candy-O,' Ramones/'Road To Ruin,' Cheap Trick/'Heaven Tonight' and the first Devo record. I don't remember skating without music.

- Jeff Ament

I led the state in defensive interceptions my senior year, with seven in nine games. Then I went to Montana to play basketball and found out quickly that my college career wasn't going to work out how I'd envisioned it.

- Jeff Ament

I'm healthy enough to still skate, so I gotta go because growing up I didn't have - I mean, I grew up in Montana so... there was kind of a little half-pipe in my yard, and that was the extent of the skate terrain in Montana. So I've got to go out and make up for lost time.

- Jeff Ament

It was hard to figure out what were the good causes, the bad causes, even the good politics and the bad politics. So we started taking requests and figuring it out.

- Jeff Ament

It's great that people are basically spending their two weeks of vacation to come out and be with us in some weird part of the world. And I think we owe it to them to take 'em to some cool places.

- Jeff Ament

Right after 'Backspacer,' my best friend got killed tragically. Something happened to me then where I got super motivated. I had a shelf of all this unfinished music... So I just went to work and made a conscious decision that I was going to finish a bunch of stuff. Life's short.

- Jeff Ament

There really is a certain magic that happens when you're in the studio. And it's important in life to feel that magic: to feel that there is something greater moving all this along.

- Jeff Ament

Where I grew up, I could be a punk rocker and a jock. But in college, it became apparent that those two worlds didn't mix. When I brought my guitar back to school after Thanksgiving break, a friend handed me his bass and said, 'Listen to the Ramones.'

- Jeff Ament