Mike soon took lessons from a local instructor named Mike Wilson. He began to learn the tricks of Joe Perry, and Ritchie Blackmore. But his attention was more focused on Paul Stanley. "I worship Kiss. They're the whole reason I started playing guitar." Soon Mike found that by playing out of his 10-watt Fender Champ, he could produce feedback. Mike recalls "I used to play 'smoke on the water', and I remember my dad coming up and yelling at me because I was getting feed back out of my amp; I just thought it was really cool."

In the 8th grade, Mike formed his very first group called Warrior but shortly renamed themselves to Shadow. They began by performing for schoolmates during free periods, back in high school. They covered bands like Kiss, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden and Thin Lizzy. The group started to write their own songs with Mike as rhythm guitarist. It took Mike a while to feel confident enought to play lead because their lead guitarist was so good he claimed. Mike got into lead guitar from Eddie Van Halen, "I must have seen him about five times, but at 15, that stuff was too hard to figure out." When Mike discovered Jimmy Hendrix and Randy Rhoads, he said, "I was already into Sabbath and Ozzy, so when Randy Rhoads came out, it was like 'Wow, that's what lead is all about."

After high school, the band moved to L.A. to try and get a record deal. Mike McCready obtained a job at Aron's Records while the band played a few unsuccessful gigs. Shadown went back to Seattle shortly after a year. After Shadows returned to Seattle, they split up. "We played to a couple bartenders down there, but even though it was a bad scene, it was a good experience. Basically, we weren't that good of a band, and we didn't realize it until we got down there. I guess we lost our focus, got really bummed out and came back to Seattle."

During high school, Mike and Stone had befriended each other. Mike had known Stone before Stone was on the guitar. However, they had lost contact over the years. But once Stone saw Mike in Love Chile, he knew he wanted Mike in his new group. "Stone had tons of songs - the beginnings of 'Alive' and 'Black'- and I was like, 'Shit, Yeah!' Our guitars really complemented each other; his sense of melody and rhythm, my lead style." Jeff and Eddie eventually joined afterwards.

Mike went into Temple of The Dog claiming that, "It was one of the greatest times in my life. It was my first experience doing an album, and yet it was really laid back and easy." After Temple Of The Dogs' success, the group which renamed itself from Mookie Blaylock to Pearl Jam, focused hard on the recording of their first album.

The album was quickly since most of the music had been written by Stone over the past years and only needed Eddie to add some lyrics and Mike to put in some solos. Soon after, Mike wrote the music to Yellow Ledbetter, his tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The song still, to this day, closes many of Pearl Jam's shows.

However, Mike began having problems of his own, which drugs and alcohol. "When everything blew up everybody kind of lost their minds...I'd clean up for a while then I'd fall off the wagon, like addicts do." When Kurt Cobain killed himself, Mike took a hard fall after being clean for a month. Soon everyone became concerned when Mike began to miss rehearsals. "We had a lot of meetings where they would say, 'Hey Mike, you're getting way too fucked up.' But we're all really good friends and we love each other and I think they actually thought I was going to die, but they never took steps to kick me out of the band, which I can't believe because I fucked up so many times. I was drunk and making an ass out of myself and they were concerned about it." In the summer of 1994, Mike entered a rehab center.

While in rehab, "They (Pearl Jam) were very supportive. Stone even came out and visited me. They called me all the time, and it was cool because I really needed their support. They're my greatest friends. I couldn't believe it; when you clean up, you start realizing that people actually care about you. You just don't think about it when you're using all the time because you're only into the people you're using with. It clouds everything." During this time was when Pearl Jam held a meeting, which Mike attended by phone, that resulted in the firing of drummer Dave Abbruzzese who was replaced by Jack Irons.

Mike also met John Baker Saunders, a Seattle bass player, in rehab. After completing rehab, Mike joined Saunders, Layne Statley and Barrett Martin in a group. The group later recorded an album over a 10 day period, in March of 1995. The album was a success and showed Mike's strength as a songwriter. But Mike McCready was eager to enter the studio of their next album No Code....