Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready Once Paused Mid-Concert to Give Richard Christy Hygiene Advice

“[He] stops playing guitar, looks at me, and makes a motion like brushing his teeth,” Stern Show staffer tells Howard of concert experience

April 3, 2024
Photo: Getty Images

One out of two Pearl Jam guitarists recommend that Richard Christy should brush his teeth.

In anticipation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers making their Stern Show debut later this month, Richard — who recently celebrated his 50th birthday — recalled the time he saw them early in their career. “It was amazing, but it was so dusty and hot and dirty, and I was in the mosh pit,” the Stern Show staffer told Howard Wednesday of the Kansas show with around 20,000 other people. “I started crowd surfing and Mike McCready — from the stage — stops playing guitar, looks at me, and makes a motion like brushing his teeth.”

The gesture got Richard’s attention. “I scrape my teeth and there’s like a pile of dirt under my fingernails from all the dust in the mosh pit, and then Mike McCready looks at me and gives me a thumbs up and starts laughing his ass off,” he remembered. “It’s one of my greatest concert moments of all time.”

Even for Richard’s questionable history with cleanliness, Howard was amazed. “That mosh pit’s like a sea of gross people and you were the grossest one,” he marveled. “Mike McCready has the pressure of performing and he can spot your teeth.”