PEARL JAM's MATT CAMERON Recalls Getting Cease-And-Desist Letter From KISS As A Teenager

During an appearance on SiriusXM's "The Howard Stern Show", PEARL JAM and SOUNDGARDEN drummer Matt Cameron recalled how he was threatened with legal action by legendary rockers KISS nearly 50 years ago. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I was in a neighborhood KISS cover band when I was 13, 14 or something like that. We played played our local high school's keggers, whatnot. And my dad was friends with the head of the stagehand union in San Diego. So, when KISS was playing there — it was during the 'Alive!' tour, so that was '75 — we got to go see KISS do a soundcheck at the San Diego Sports Arena. So I brought the two guys that I was in the KISS band with, Tim and Dave Mahoney, to the soundcheck, and we brought our photo album from our stupid KISS cover band. My mom made my costume, Tim's mom made his costume. We built these rickety plywood platforms in Tim's garage. We made flash pots out of coffee cans and a light socket with a little flash powder inside of it. It was janky, low rent, horrible. So anyways, we took this photo album to meet [KISS frontman] Paul Stanley. We got a photo with him. And so, we were sort of, like, 'Hey man, we're in a KISS cover band. Here's our stupid little photo album.' Cut to, like, I don't know, four to six months later, we get a cease-and-desist letter from [KISS's then-management company] Aucoin Management. And we were big KISS fans. So, KISS used to put the logo from Aucoin Management on their albums, so we were all excited [when we got the letter]. 'Whoa, we're getting a letter from Aucoin Management. We've made it.' And it was a cease-and-desist from KISS."

As for what KISS's management was objecting to, Cameron said it was "because I think we just called [our KISS cover] band 'KISS'. We didn't really think ahead there. So after that, we had [changed our name to] 'KISS' [and] in parentheses [the word] 'imitation."

"The Howard Stern Show", which airs on SiriusXM channel Howard 100, is broadcast live Mondays through Wednesdays starting at 7:00 a.m. EDT. The full show is also available on the SiriusXM app.

Cameron and the rest of PEARL JAM were on "The Howard Stern Show" to promote their 12th studio album, "Dark Matter", which came out last Friday. It marked the band's first LP in over four years, since "Gigaton" in 2020.

PEARL JAM will further promote "Dark Matter" with a new world tour that will kick off on May 4 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and conclude on November 21 in Sydney.