Jason Everman Went from Being in Nirvana and Soundgarden to Being an Army Ranger

How the fuck does one go from playing in Nirvana and Soundgarden to being a soldier? It's a longer story. I don't know how long an answer you want. We got plenty of time. Okay. So, I guess being a professional rock musician was something I kind of fell into. It wasn't something that I had a dream of. It's like, I'm going to be... I love playing in bands. I love playing music, but it was like at this punk rock level where you were never going to make a living at it. It's just something fun to do. And then, I started playing with Nirvana. And even at that level, I was still not making money from it, but touring. Was it the early days of Nirvana? Yeah, yeah. So, Nirvana wasn't worldwide at that point? No. No. There were... Even on the Seattle level, one of the smaller bands. There was bands like Mud Honey and Soundgarden that were better known than Nirvana was at the time. And that was for Soundgarden too, which is also hilarious. Yeah. And when did you... So, in the beginning, did you have friction with the band? Why did you wind up leaving? So, with Nirvana is just... I guess initially, when I came on board, Kurt wanted a second guitar player for the live show basically, like have a heavier sound live, take some of the guitar playing responsibility off him so he could concentrate on vocals, like that kind of thing. And initially, I thought I was going to be able to contribute to the band creatively. And then it got to the point where I realized that wasn't going to happen. And the same thing happened with Chad, the drummer, I think. And it was... Everyone in the band, including myself, was very poor communicators, like a lot of passive aggression and... I mean, we were kids, you know? How old were we at the time? 20, I think. And yeah, I wasn't equipped for it and became more and more unhappy with the situation and then ended up leaving. So was it that when you tried to put creative input in, it would get shut down or they weren't interested or Kurt wasn't interested? Yeah, so on the rare time where we actually rehearsed as a band, which was not a lot, Kurt would kind of halfheartedly, like, hey, who has ideas? And I'd throw a couple ideas out and then Chad, like a very accomplished musician in his own right, would throw some ideas out. And then it just kind of be glossed over and like, okay, here's the new song I wrote, you know, and start learning that. So it was very... Ego-centric. Cursory, you know? Yeah. It's like, he kind of like threw it out there, but then it wasn't going to go anywhere. And so you went for Nirvana first and then the Soundgarden? Yeah, like I left, we did a US tour, like the first full US tour that Nirvana did in 1988 or 1989, I can't remember what year it was, but I think it was still the 80s. And like I left at the end of that tour, like, okay, I'm done, like nice little foray into rock and roll, but I'm going to do something else. And when I got home, I was planning on going trekking in the Himalayas. Like, really? Yeah, that was the next thing. It's like, okay, this was a nice diversion, but I'm going to kind of fulfill this dream I've had since I was a kid of like trekking in the Himalayas. So like I went to Messker's Maps in Seattle and was buying maps of the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet and all this stuff and like getting gear sorted and that's what I was going to do. And then at some point that summer or fall, I can't remember what time of year it was, into summer, Kim from Soundgarden called me and was like, hey, he wrote their bass player then like, quit, do you want to audition for the band? I was like, you know, at that point, like Soundgarden was my favorite Seattle band, like hands down. And it was like, okay, you know, fully not believing I'd ever get chosen. And then you did? Yeah. And how did that end? I got fired. What happened? It's complicated, but I think at the end of the day, I wasn't going along with Chris that well, the singer. And you know, obviously, you know, who's going to go? Right. It was me. Yeah. So how does that translate into becoming a soldier? I mean, there's more to the story than that because there was still like, I basically like getting fired from Soundgarden like put me in a pretty bad tailspin. I mean, it was a rough patch in my life for sure. And so in order to kind of cut this tailspin off, like I had to do something radical. And what I did was ended up moving to New York. And so I mean, there's more to the story than that. But moved to New York, like basically, you know, I grew up in rural Western Washington, so it's kind of polar opposite to what my experience was. Got a job in a warehouse, got an apartment, and kind of started my New York life and did that for a couple of years. What was your plan when you moved to New York? You just wanted to try it, experience life in the city? I think the main plan was like, like, get out of this funk that I was in. You know? How old were you at the time? 21, 22, maybe. So just young guy trying to figure out life. Yeah. I mean, like the Soundgarden thing, I mean, getting fired from Soundgarden, like, it broke my heart. It was a bad spot for me. And because I love that band. And it wasn't about, you know, I never thought they would get as big as they did. Honestly, it kind of surprised me when they did, because yeah, they're a great band, but I always thought they were a little too quirky to be huge despite, you know, the Chris factor, like this genetically engineered rock star. But I always thought they were a little too weird to have like mainstream success, which was fine with me. I thought they'd be like a big indie band, like Sonic Youth or Butthole Surfers, like that level. But it was more like I just love that band and I love playing with them. And like having that taken away, yeah, it really fucked me up for a bit. So what happened? So during this period, 1993, I started, I guess, crafting the next chapter, right, for me. And I'd always been really intrigued by the military. My grandfather, both my grandfathers were World War II vets. So my maternal grandfather was a tank commander in World War II. And he was kind of my introduction to like military stuff, you know, and I'm a little kid, so I'm intrigued by it. Like you know, a tank commander, that's cool. On D-Day, he was an E4 corporal, like gunner on a Sherman tank. On VE Day, his unit had made it all the way to Vienna and he was a company commander. And it was just survival, like attrition. You know, I'm sure he was a fine soldier, but it was just attrition that he went from corporal to captain in, you know, a year or whatever. My grandmother's second husband was a corpsman in the Navy, so his story is super funny. Like he grew up in this small town on the Columbia River in Washington State. So his, I think there was like 20 dudes in his graduating class in high school. And so they graduated June 1942. So right after graduation, like 201, like every male in his class went to the recruiter and enlisted. And so he went in the Navy, his Navy MOS was like a pharmacist maid or something like that. So he's like, oh, I'll be on the ship, like working in the dispensary or whatever. Like wrong, like he graduates, like they give him a helmet and attach him to a Marine platoon, infantry platoon, and like you're the medic. And so he did like seven amphibious assaults in the Pacific. The crazy stuff, right? Yeah, like it was super hard and he had amazing stories, you know. And then my father's father was in the Coast Guard and he did a lot of coastal patrolling Oregon Coast, Washington Coast, Columbia River during the war, just, you know, looking for Japanese subs or whatever. And so you, because you had this sort of wanderlust that made you want to go trek in the Himalayas and you had this family that had this background in the military, you were thinking that this would be something that would be adventurous or intriguing to you. Yeah, like I've always had a taste for like high adventure, like as a child, like before, probably even before I was school. So like Saturday morning cartoons, like how old are you? 55. Yeah, we're same age. So I imagine probably grew up with similar cultural influences. So I remember in the mornings watching TV shows, like cartoons, like Johnny Quest was the big one, right? Speed Racer, Marine Boy, like all this, you know, Speed Racer and Marine Boy were anime, but they were like great, you know, Marine Boy was basically Speed Racer but underwater, you know, super cool, fantastical stuff, great to feed the imagination. The writing for Johnny Quest was so good, you know, and like the show in retrospect was like kind of progressive, it was like Johnny had two dads and like they had this like multiracial composite family. But the writing was so solid, like super creative. I think it was only 26 episodes, but each episode is distinct and well-written and just cool, you know. So I would watch this as a kid and be like, I'm not sure what that is, but I want to do that, you know. So that was kind of the initial impetus for like, and then growing up in the woods in Western Washington, like I was expected, you know, I was kicked outside after breakfast and not expected to be seen again till dinner time. And what I did between then was like on me. And so I'd go out and do stupid stuff like climb high tension power lines, you know, to the top, like five, six years old, like so stupid, right? But it was like, oh, this is cool, you know. Like in my mother, she definitely facilitated this stuff, like much to her credit, like we'd go camping in the Olympic rainforest on the peninsula and there's like a couple rivers there, but one of the main ones is the Hoe River. And I had this as a child, I had like this $20, you know, Kmart inflatable raft with the oars. And my mom would drive me up river, like 10 miles or 15 miles or whatever in our Volkswagen bus and like drop me off, me and my $20 Kmart boat in a life vest. And she'd be like, all right, see you at the campground. And so I would be doing this like, you know, white water rafting by myself in my cheesy little boat for several, several miles in, you know, Dennett Drown obviously. But it kind of instilled again this and reinforced this sense of adventure, you know. And I'm sure my mom would go to jail for that today, you know. Probably not jail, but definitely be discouraged. So that's background for the high adventure thing, the military thing. So 1993, I'm like, okay, I need to do something. I need that punctuated equilibrium, right? I need a dramatic event in order to promulgate like the next period of growth or evolution or whatever. So you really actively thought that way. Yeah. You were trying to achieve growth. Yeah, I didn't want to stagnate. I didn't want to fall behind, you know, as like, I guess as soon as I figured out what life authorship was or the concept, even though I may have not have known the term. Yeah, I kind of endeavored to actively author my own life, you know, pursuing the ends of making a life that kept me engaged, kept me interested, and was meaningful to me, you know. So the military seemed like more and more like a viable option.