I first saw dUg Pinnick sing and play in 1989 with his band Kings X at the Central Tavern. Three years later, I asked them to open some shows for Pearl Jam and we quickly became friends. I always joked, "when are we gonna make that heavy R&B record, you and me?" In 2001, dUg joined Richard Stuverud and me in one of our yearly writing sessions in Montana and again in 2004 with McCready. After a few years of crossed up schedules, in 2010, we finally mixed the baker's dozen songs that make up Tres Mts. These guys are all monsters and this batch of tunes is gonna be fun to play live. -Jeff Ament