Pearl Jam spent the summer promising that the identity of their new drummer would be settled at Ohana Festival. By the end of the weekend, fans had seen the answer twice and still did not have it confirmed. Abe Laboriel Jr., Paul McCartney’s longtime drummer, played both of Pearl Jam’s sets at Ohana on 25 and 27 September, and Eddie Vedder then thanked him in public for “sitting in” and thanked McCartney for the loan.
As Rolling Stone put it after the festival, huge questions remain even though the band played with Laboriel on both nights. Jeff Ament had already said the new drummer was the first name the band considered, but Pearl Jam have not named Matt Cameron’s permanent replacement, and the wording of Vedder’s thank-you note has made the picture less clear rather than more.
How the Ohana Reveal Unfolded
The weekend had been built up as the end of a long wait. Matt Cameron left Pearl Jam in July 2025 after 27 years, and the band had kept the name of his successor to themselves ever since. In May, Stone Gossard told SiriusXM’s Jonathan Cohen that he loved “the mystery of it all”, and fans filled the gap with guesses that ranged from Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction to Josh Freese of Nine Inch Nails, with Laboriel’s name on most lists.
Ohana was the obvious stage for the answer. Vedder co-founded the Dana Point festival a decade ago, and this year was its tenth edition, which gave the weekend the feel of a homecoming before any drummer had been introduced.
The first clue arrived on the festival’s opening night, in a set billed only as Eddie Vedder and Friends. Vedder started alone with acoustic versions of “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” and his solo song “Far Behind”, then brought out Simon Good for Glen Hansard’s “Song of Good Hope” and Billy Idol for the Who’s “I’m One”. Jeff Ament joined him for the 1993 deep cut “Bee Girl”, and Vedder then picked up an electric guitar for the opening of “Corduroy”.
Asking aloud whether he had any more friends backstage, Vedder let a curtain drop behind him to reveal the rest of Pearl Jam, with Laboriel at the kit and a large question mark painted on his bass drum. The opening line of the song, “The waiting drove me mad”, was read by many in the crowd as a signal that the wait was over. Vedder’s own introduction was more careful: he described Laboriel as “helping us on drums tonight”.
The Closing Night and the Better Man Dedication
Two nights later Pearl Jam closed the festival with their first proper billed concert since Cameron’s departure, and Laboriel was on drums again. Rolling Stone reported that the crowd at Dana Point was chanting “Abe! Abe! Abe!” before he had even sat down.
From the stage, Vedder made the loan explicit. “We’re very honored that a Beatle no less, Paul McCartney, would allow us to borrow him to help us,” he said. He then dedicated “Better Man” to Laboriel with a line about the band’s history: “There’s an old musical adage that I do believe, and that is that you cannot be (and we’ve had the best) but you cannot be a great band without a great drummer. So, we thank Abe for keeping us in the running.”
Vedder also spent the weekend moving between other people’s sets, as he often does at his own festival. Stereogum reported that he joined Bad Religion for “American Jesus”, the 1993 song on which he originally sang backing vocals, sang “Wave of Mutilation” with Pixies and joined Stephen Wilson Jr. for Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike”. Billy Idol and Simon Good had already appeared during the Friday set before it turned into the Pearl Jam reveal.
On the closing night itself, Billy Strings joined Vedder for a solo acoustic “Elderly Woman” and then the full band for two Neil Young covers. For anyone watching, it looked like a band settling into a new line-up. That impression lasted less than a day.
One Word in Vedder’s Note Changed the Story
On the Monday after the festival, Vedder posted a note on Instagram thanking everyone who came to Ohana’s tenth year. Its key passage was about the drummer: “Also wanted to extend our further appreciation to Abe Laboriel Jr. sitting in on drums for PJ. It was a joy to play with him, and he’s obviously extraordinary at his craft.” He closed with “Thank you so much for this weekend Abe. And thank YOU Paul. We owe you big time.”
As Stereogum pointed out, that wording sits awkwardly beside headlines that had already described Laboriel as the band’s new drummer. Rolling Stone’s own analysis focused on the phrase “sitting in”, which usually describes a guest rather than a new full-time member, and on the fact that the thanks were for “this weekend” rather than for joining the band. A Wikipedia edit listing Laboriel as a member had gone through after the closing show; the note left that looking premature.
None of this means Laboriel will not stay. It means Pearl Jam have chosen not to say so yet, and the most likely complication is obvious: he has been part of McCartney’s touring band for decades, and Vedder’s note was as much a thank-you to McCartney as to the drummer.
What Jeff Ament Said Before the Shows
The clearest statement of the band’s thinking came from Ament, in an interview with Rolling Stone recorded before Ohana to mark Since Forever, his new book of more than 250 black-and-white photographs of the band, made with his brother Barry Ament. The book came out on 25 September, the same night as the first Ohana set.
Ament is also the band’s in-house photographer. He shot several of Pearl Jam’s album covers, including the sheep on the front of 1993’s Vs., as well as the covers of Yield, Riot Act and the rarities collection Lost Dogs, and the book collects pictures he has taken of his bandmates since the early 1990s.
Ament did not name the drummer, but he described how the choice was made. “He’s the first name that came up,” he said. “We’ve always thought, let’s start at the top of the list. We all have dear friends who are drummers, and the hardest part was telling them that we’d already found our guy.” He was also careful not to promise more than he could. “I hope he’s our full-time drummer, but I don’t know if he will be. We haven’t played a show together yet, so it’s too early.”
Read alongside the Ohana shows, those quotes support the idea that Laboriel was the band’s first choice. They also explain the caution: at the time of the interview, nobody in Pearl Jam knew whether a working arrangement with a member of McCartney’s band could become permanent.
Why Matt Cameron Left
The opening only exists because Cameron decided to stop. He left amicably in July 2025 after 27 years in the band, and Ament has described the decision with some humour. In the same interview, he said the two of them used to joke about how much longer they had, settling on three more years so that they would both stop at 60. “It made the other guys a little nervous, but I was joking. He wasn’t, as it turns out.”
Ament said he understood the choice, suggesting that at 60 a musician may simply have other things they want to do, including spending more time at home. He also made clear that he does not feel the same way. He still loves playing with Pearl Jam, and said that on a good night the band can sound as good as any much younger group.
What Is Still Unknown
Several things remain open after Ohana. Pearl Jam have not announced a permanent drummer, and Vedder’s note points away from an announcement in the near term. Laboriel’s commitments to McCartney are not going away, and nobody has said whether a split schedule between the two bands is possible or wanted.
Rolling Stone’s own analysis raised the obvious compromise: both Pearl Jam and McCartney’s band spend long stretches off the road between tours, so a drummer working for both is not impossible. Nothing either camp has said so far rules it in or out.
There is also the question of what Pearl Jam do next. Ament said the band has started writing and that he would love a new album and tour next year, but nothing has been announced and no Pearl Jam concerts are currently scheduled. Until there is a date on the calendar, the drummer question is unlikely to be answered in a press release; the next clue will probably be the name behind the kit at the next show.
For now, the facts are straightforward. Laboriel played both Ohana sets, the band thanked him for sitting in, and the bassist who helped choose him has said only that he hopes the arrangement becomes permanent. Rock’s autumn calendar is busy elsewhere, too: RockCharts.News is also following how Life Burns Faster gives Metallica 24 nights at Sphere, another long-running band changing the way it plays live.
This article was AI-assisted and edited for accuracy.
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