Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready faces new challenge: Seattle Symphony

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has played for millions, thrown out the first pitch at a Mariners game and raised the 12th Man flag atop the Space Needle. But an upcoming gig has him as nervous as anything he’s ever done.

“I don’t know how it’s going to be, I’m nervous but excited,” McCready says of his debut with the Seattle Symphony.

McCready will appear with the symphony Friday Jan. 30 as part of conductor Ludovic Morlot’s Sonic Evolution series – an ongoing experiment merging genres like rock and hip hop with classical music.

Enter to win a raffle to see the sold-out Sonic Evolution show

Morlot asked the guitarist to compose an original piece and perform it with the symphony, and McCready agreed.

“It was kind of a scary thing. I had not done anything like that before. it’s far different than writing a rock song,” he says.

He came up with a piece called “Walking the Horizon,” that’ll make its world premier at the show.

“I don’t know how it’s going to be. I’m nervous but excited,” he says.

At least he’ll have some familiar faces on stage with him. McCready will be joined by Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin in a reunion of his short-lived but iconic Seattle band Mad Season, along with Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and former Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagen.

Along with the original symphonic pieces, they’ll also perform a number of Mad Season songs in the sold-out show at Benaroya Hall.

“I’ve just been rehearsing as hard as I can. It’s more rehearsal than I’ve probably ever done for anything. I think that’s what classical musicians do, right?” he laughs. “This is like jumping off the edge into unknown waters playing with a symphony.”

While the show sold-out in minutes, McCready is giving away a pair of tickets to one lucky fan in a raffle to benefit Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation, the non-profit foundation that supports other non-profits doing work in community health, the environment, arts and education, and social change.

For every $10 donated via the website Crowdrise, you get one entry into the contest. The winner will also receive $1,000 in travel expenses to the show, and a chance to meet McCready and other members of Mad Season. The deadline to enter is 10 p.m. ET Sunday night.

It’s just the latest example of McCready and Pearl Jam giving back to the community, something they’ve done almost since the beginning of their over two decades making music.

“It might be cliche but it just makes you feel better as a human to do that stuff and I think it’s just morally the thing to do. I like doing it. It is what I want to do and it’s just part of life that makes life better to not always think about myself,” McCready says of the band’s commitment to philanthropy.

Mike McCready performs with Symphonic Conductor Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony at the sold-out ‘Sonic Evolution’ concert on January 30, 2015 at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall at 8pm. Inspired this year by musical icons Pearl Jam, Nirvana and more.