Matt Cameron Names Rock Legend He Dreams of Collaborating With

Matt Cameron has worked with an incredible roster of musicians throughout his career, even outside of his work with Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. However, there is one rock legend in particular that he hasn't had the chance to collaborate with, but would like to.

The drummer was interviewed by The Vinyl Guide Interview podcast in commemoration of the release of his Record Store Day project with Melvins titled Gory Scorch Cretins. During the episode, he discussed his body of work, which consists of collaborations with a plethora of artists including Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi. He was recruited for the guitarist's debut solo album Iommi that came out in 2000, and features appearances from a star-studded lineup of rockers.

For the tracks that Cameron played on — "Time Is Mine," "Flame On," "Just Say No to Love" and "Into the Night" — everything had already been recorded except for the drums, so he recalled the experience as being unique.

"I just played to a click track, and it was so cool to hear Tony's guitars in my headphones. It reminded me of [Soundgarden's] Kim Thayil, in the sense that all of his riffs — like where he would start the riff — was a little bit behind the beat. Because everything was played to a click track, but it still, it lagged a little bit," Cameron explained.

"And that's kind of how Kim... when I play with Kim, I have to be aware that he lags it a little bit. I don't try to change it or anything, but I just have to be aware of that, that's his style. So Tony's style kind of reminded me of that."

Late Type O Negative frontman Peter Steele, Pantera's Philip Anselmo, Billy Idol and The Cult's Ian Astbury were all of the vocalists that sang on the tracks Cameron played drums on on that particular record. But despite getting to play on songs with Iommi, there is one other guitarist that the drummer still hopes to get to work with someday.

"Jimmy Page," he declared. "He's my North Star. But I've been really fortunate to be able to play with my childhood heroes. I got to play on Geddy Lee's solo album... It's just nice to make these connections with these heroes of mine, they're really just kind of nice, normal people to a degree. They're legendary magicians, but it's cool when they just text you out of the blue."

The rocker also touched a bit upon Soundgarden's lawsuit with Chris Cornell's estate, which you can read about here, as well as Pearl Jam's next musical venture. The Andrew Watt-produced follow-up to the band's 2020 album Gigaton is "in the can — mastered, mixed and ready to go," according to Cameron.

Listen to the full podcast episode below.