Pearl Jam's Mike McCready prepares 'my version of a rock opera' with 'Farewell to Seasons' project

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready is releasing a new graphic novel called Farewell to Seasons, which is set in the Seattle music scene of '80s and '90s. It will be accompanied by a soundtrack of original music, which McCready tells ABC Audio he wanted to sound like "my version of a rock opera."

"I wanted to push myself to be able to write something that's specifically about something," McCready says. "Not just a song, but a whole story."

While he's known for shredding songs like "Even Flow" and "Alive," Farewell to Seasons showcases another aspect of McCready's musical repertoire.

"I wanted to write something where I sang on it," McCready says. "To be honest with you, I took four years of singing lessons and I wanted it to be good, so I've been working on it for a long time. And I feel really good about it now."

The Farewell to Seasons soundtrack is presented as a piece written by David Williams, a character in the graphic novel. To bring that to life, McCready recorded with musicians including Duff McKagan of Guns N' Roses, Stefan Lessard of Dave Matthews Band, drummers Mike Musburger, Chris Friel and Nate Yaccino, and vocalist Molly Sides.

"It's not necessarily any genre really," McCready says. "It's just, I want it to be part of the mythology of the story." 

Farewell to Seasons and its soundtrack are due out in October, and are available to preorder now. As for McCready's day job, he says Pearl Jam is still looking to find a new drummer following the 2025 departure of Matt Cameron.

"The four of us are ready to keep doing stuff, but we don't have anybody in line right now," McCready says. "I'm excited when that happens, because we'll get right into it when we do." 

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