Pearl Jam's drum chair | Still open

Does Pearl Jam have a drummer? Six weeks after Ohana, the honest answer is still no.

Jeff Ament has given the clearest update yet, in an interview with Under the Radar, and it points one way. The band are still looking. Abe Laboriel Jr. got a glowing review, but no job offer anyone has announced.

So let’s go through what Ament actually said, and what it does and doesn’t tell us.

What did Jeff Ament say?

The interview was meant to be about Since Forever, Ament’s new photo book. The drum question came up anyway, as it was always going to.

“We’re not in any massive rush,” he said, “but we want to play some shows next year.”

That puts the target in 2027. There are no Pearl Jam dates on the calendar at all right now.

Ament also explained why he does not want to wait too long. “I’m 63, but I’m pretty fit,” he said, adding that he feels “a little bit more urgency in terms of getting out there to play shows when we are physically young-ish.”

That’s a refreshingly frank way of putting it.

Consequence and Ultimate Classic Rock both report the band as still auditioning. One caveat on that: in the quotes published so far, the word “auditioning” belongs to the reporters, not to Ament. The substance is the same, though. Nobody has the job yet.

So where does that leave Abe Laboriel Jr.?

Exactly where Eddie Vedder left him in September: thanked, admired and not announced.

Laboriel, Paul McCartney’s drummer since 2001, played both of Pearl Jam’s sets at Vedder’s Ohana Festival in Dana Point. That was a five-song surprise slot on Friday 25 September and the full headline show on Sunday 27 September. Sunday was the band’s first full gig without Matt Cameron.

Afterwards Vedder thanked him on Instagram for “sitting in on drums for PJ”, and thanked McCartney for the loan. We went through all of that in what the band actually said about Laboriel.

Ament’s verdict now is that Laboriel is “such an incredible drummer”. That is high praise. It isn’t an appointment, and nothing Ament said rules him in or out.

There is one loose end worth flagging. Back in the summer, Stone Gossard said a replacement had been chosen. Ament’s comments now describe a search that is still going. We can’t square those two statements, and we won’t guess at who might be in the frame.

Why Cameron’s exit still hangs over this

Cameron announced in July 2025 that he had “taken my final steps down the drum riser”. That ended 27 years in the band, the longest any drummer has lasted in Pearl Jam’s famously crowded drum chair.

Ament tied the decision partly to the death of Chris Cornell in 2017. Cornell was Cameron’s bandmate in Soundgarden for more than a decade before Pearl Jam, and again after Soundgarden reunited. “I think when Chris passed that was a massive hit for all of us,” Ament said, “but in particular for Matt.”

He added that Cameron had been “talking about winding it down” and has “some other itches to scratch”. In his words it was “a pretty f—ing sad moment”, but not a surprising one.

That fits what Cameron said himself at the time: he is still an active musician, just not Pearl Jam’s.

What happens next?

For the band as a whole, nothing scheduled.

Vedder is the only one with dates in the diary, two solo shows at the Best of Blues and Rock festival in Brazil on 20 and 22 November. Those are solo gigs, so don’t expect them to answer the drum question.

Ament said earlier this year that he wants the band to play “10, 15 shows” with whoever the new drummer is before they make another record. Put that together with “shows next year” and the order looks clear: a drummer first, then live dates, then an album.

Final thoughts

The chair is open, and the band are in no hurry to fill it. Fair enough, after 27 years with one drummer.

Laboriel is the only name the band have publicly put behind the kit since Cameron left, and he left a big impression. That makes him part of the story. It doesn’t make him the answer, and the band haven’t said otherwise. For what the next drummer is stepping into, read our full Matt Cameron feature, or see our Drummergeddon round-up for the rest of rock’s 2026 drum-stool reshuffle.