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A Story From the Vaults by Brad Balfour<\/p>\n
[Pearl Jam<\/strong> hit the road 30\u00a0years ago and established a durable legacy. With the release of Ten<\/strong><\/em>, their debut album, a legendary live band stepped onto the first rung of the ladder this incredible band has climbed to reach the Olympus of Rock n’ Roll. Vedder and the rest perfected their vision of the live experience.<\/p>\n Pearl Jam was formed in 1990 by bassist Jeff Ament<\/strong>, guitarist Stone Gossard<\/strong>, and guitarist Mike McCready<\/strong>, who then recruited vocalist Eddie Vedder<\/strong> and drummer Dave Krusen<\/strong>. He soon left; drummer Matt Cameron<\/strong> now provides the bottom line. Ten<\/strong><\/em> broke Pearl Jam into the mainstream, and became one of the best-selling alternative albums of the ’90s.<\/p>\n After 11 studio albums (including Gigaton<\/strong><\/em>, their latest), 15 live albums, three compilation albums, 36 singles, and numerous official bootlegs, the band continue to be critically acclaimed and commercially successful — with close to 100 million albums sold worldwide.<\/p>\n This ensemble was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 7, 2017.<\/p>\n In order to celebrate their touring anniversary, I decided to dust off this iconic interview which I did with the band while they toured to promote that debut in 1992. And since Vedder has severely limited his interviews over the years, this story includes a unique moment in time spent with such an enigmatic figure.]<\/p>\n Food items not found on the “GOD” aisle must be returned to the Jesus rack immediately. All violators of the Lord’s biblical\u00a0shopping commandment will be forever cast into eternal damnation.” Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie<\/span> Vedder<\/span> perches under the shading maple in front of the University of Colorado’s Glenn Miller Ballroom<\/strong> where his band will be playing tonight. “I’m just a midwife for the music,” he says with a slightly puzzled look. The quintet\u2019s scruffy-maned singer glazes over when something reflective strikes him.<\/p>\n But it’s not the possessed look he has when he explodes on\u00a0stage.\u00a0Adds the en-shagged singer, “I can’t really take credit for a lot of this because it’s this in-between thing where I’m just focusing on this space; where it’s just the music coming through and I’m feeling these words, not thinking about how my voice sounds or the technique that goes behind it. So I’m letting myself go to push this stuff out.”<\/p>\n Letting go is what Vedder<\/span> is all about. Cresting on waves of energy, he leaps into the audience, riding on shoulders until\u00a0he gets handed back to the scrim like the surfer he’s been. Back in San Diego<\/strong>, where he was hanging out before the call came from\u00a0Seattle<\/strong>, he would hit the beach after working all night and cruise on the cold 8:30 AM water, riding the waves like his life\u00a0depended on it.<\/p>\n But now Pearl Jam’s lead singer slips into a pensive state as he talks about his life. Later that night, whipping up the\u00a0tougher-than-nails, Grateful Dead<\/strong>-bred Boulder<\/strong> crowd into a typical Pearl-Jammed frenzy, Vedder<\/span> proves his worth. Live is\u00a0where Pearl Jam honed itself; experience, skill and vision sharpened them into being like a stiletto pointed to the throat \u2013 Eddie<\/span>‘s throat. When\u00a0Vedder<\/span> rages, his eyes glaze over and his head shakes with an almost pained passion. So involved with the music, this compact\u00a0vocalist isn’t conscious of what he’s doing. As he mused, “The best shows are the ones I don’t remember at all.”<\/p>\n Nonetheless, joining forces with founders guitarist Stone Gossard<\/strong> and bassist Jeff Ament<\/strong>, and bolstered by the blazing\u00a0guitar of Mike McCready<\/strong> \u2013 with the recently added drumming of Dave Abbruzzese<\/strong> \u2013 has made this team’s first outing more than a\u00a0testing ground. While the album\u00a0Ten<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0kicks off with all the glistening power of joyous holy noise, their live performance ratifies this\u00a0compressed celebration of grunge and melody.<\/p>\n A history of public trauma behind them, and a maturity rare for a band with such a debut charging out from the starting gate, make this LP all the more appreciated. From the atmospheric instrumental snippet which opens the 11-track CD, through the hits — “Alive” and “Even Flow” —\u00a0 to the closer, “Release,” the album possesses an oxygenated mix of the kind of changes that Led Zeppelin was famous for, and a mysticism in line with the Blue Oyster Cult<\/strong>‘s spiritually infused metal rants (witness their signature song, \u201cCities On Flame With Rock and Roll\u201d).<\/p>\n Now, with the Lollapalooza<\/strong> tour kicking off in this June, both the pressure and the glory rides on Pearl Jam. Scrutiny falls on\u00a0them as one of the key teams on the roster while the Perry Farrell<\/strong>-borne extravaganza wends its way through large venues on a\u00a0make-it-or-break-it summer. Like last summer, the tour hails a political rightness \u2013 booths trumpet causes while the entire event\u00a0espouses the notion that the generation these bands belong to still retains values that weren’t destroyed by the Reagan\/Bush<\/strong>\u00a0years.<\/p>\n The vets of Pearl Jam really define a youth subculture \u2013 where it’s at now \u2013 rejecting mainstream values originating during that era.<\/p>\n Like their peers, this crew veers towards 30 (Jeff, the oldest, is 29; Dave is the youngest at 23) and are looking for things to\u00a0believe in. Flannel-shirt imagery and teen rebellion alternate without cynicism, adopting a lot of the idealism of the ’60s,\u00a0shared with an authenticity and organic sense of proper behavior for today.<\/p>\n “The only way to make it work is to make yourself more open-minded,” says Ament. “We push things a bit in this band. At the same time, we don’t lock ourselves into doing things\u00a0 a certain way or always doing it from certain angles. Hopefully everyone’s recreating their way to make music and deal with each other \u2013 that’s what’s gonna keep it fresh.”<\/p>\n Eddie<\/span> has been preparing for this opportunity for a long time as well. His strength as a persona and artist lies in his skill at\u00a0catharsis and his ability to control the moments in which he acts upon it. “Right now my environment is changing daily,” he\u00a0proclaims assuredly. “Ultimately, you have to take control, and what I fought for since I left home at an early age was control of\u00a0myself. Probably, as soon as I realize I have it, I’ll just lose my mind completely.”<\/p>\n As he speaks, his hands go to his face like a meditating monk. While in his reverie, he’s approached by a University of Colorado blonde, an attractive young woman, fresh faced, with unshaven legs.<\/p>\n “Are you Eddie<\/span> from Pearl Jam, really?”<\/p>\n “Yeah,” he says in his lighter-than-mahogany husk (not unlike actor Matt Dillon<\/strong>‘s voice, without quite the same mumble).<\/p>\n Before she can respond, Vedder<\/span> adds, “We’re in the middle of an interview. Why don’t you go join your friends and I’ll\u00a0come by if I’ve got the time.”<\/p>\n Talk continues past the start of sound check. A roadie stands before him.\u00a0“It’s time.”<\/p>\n “Wait just a minute,” the flannel-clad Vedder<\/span> says. The girl and her friends stand by the stair rail. He’s promised to stop by and he does.<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Eddie<\/span> rang road manager Eric Johnson’s room. Vedder<\/span>‘s not going to join the group interview. It’s not\u00a0his style to talk within the standard rock interview situation. He’ll meet later. Just as Pearl Jam itself sets its own agenda\u00a0professionally, so does he. What makes him the conversant individual also removes him. Similarly, while the whole interview\u00a0scenario was set, the band had to be tracked down, not in one of Denver’s elite downtown hotels but a cheesy Holiday Inn off the\u00a0highway to Boulder.<\/p>\n Johnson himself represents the band’s homespun ethos. A well-read former writing major, he chose the road instead of\u00a0school, but spends time off browsing bookstores. There’s talk of rough-hewn poet\/novelist Charles Bukowski<\/strong> and other writers; everybody in the Pearl Jam\u00a0gang is into Buk.<\/p>\n Lunch commences at the Harvest, Boulder’s premier natural foods restaurant. Orders go around for all the requisite\u00a0veggie stuff. The group decides on Mexican cuisine \u2013 vegetarian enchiladas and taco salads. Given the rock star mythology of\u00a0gastronomical indulgences for junk food and fatty red meat, it’s a pleasant change of pace.<\/p>\n But then Seattle is known for its fusion of rock and idealism; the mystic reigns while the edge remains. Previously, an ensemble formed by Gossard\u00a0and Ament, Green River, <\/strong>was a progenitor of the grunge sound their label Sub Pop is so famous for and was infamously established world round by the\u00a0surprise success of past label mate Nirvana<\/strong>. After River released an LP and EP, the quartet dissolved. Then came Mother Love\u00a0Bone<\/strong>, widely perceived as Seattle’s logical extension of grunge-core as it melded into the metal underground. To some, it was a\u00a0betrayal of the Seattle scene, but when lead singer Andrew Wood<\/strong> O.D. on heroin, they weren’t left with much else than\u00a0mourning and anger.<\/p>\n The next project, Temple of the Dog<\/strong> \u2013 a semi tribute\/purge in collaboration with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell<\/strong> and Matt\u00a0Cameron<\/strong> \u2013 brought them together with guitarist McCready, who rages supreme with\u00a0influences from such a great string-meister as Buck Dharma<\/strong> (Blue Oyster Cult’s\u00a0legendary lead guitarist); he was tapped to set in motion the beginnings of Pearl Jam. Now, thanks to such hard-won experience was fused into this band so that they can realize their history now.<\/p>\n “After Andrew’s death it was definitely an intense time, at least on my end,” Ament states with a surging emphasis. “When you’ve spent over two years of your life just overcoming different things and getting to the point [where] we’re gonna go out and just play shows \u2013 that’s all we wanted to do \u2013 then suddenly Andrew dies and it ends. I had a lot of anger initially.”<\/p>\n “That was a learning experience,” Stone agrees. “There wasn’t a lot of touring, or opportunity to really enjoy being in a\u00a0band. Dealing with being on a major label for the first time and new people who had their two-bits worth to say; not able to go\u00a0out on tour, waiting for nearly two years and thinking you’re on a major \u2013 that kind of pressure kind of fucked us up.”<\/p>\n Here’s a band which kicks with fury, but not self destruction; they’ve seen the death pallor and lived through loss and\u00a0tragedy. Poised for ultimate success, Wood is a consistent symbol of rock demise. Unlike peers such as GN’R’<\/strong>s Axl Rose<\/strong>,\u00a0Pearl Jam doesn’t glorify or present rock as a decadent exercise, but as a transformation of the contemplative into electric\u00a0overdrive. Not a group for death worshippers \u2013 though certainly caught in a murk and ambivalence of its own invention \u2013 Vedder<\/span>‘s\u00a0ambitious lyrics and the Gossard \/ Ament \/ McCready moody melodies forge a bond.<\/p>\n It’s no secret that the Seattle scene \u2013 caught up in its own rock mythos \u2013 has had its share of drug casualties. Various\u00a0members of its rock establishment have toyed with their share of hard drugs; this crew now clearly veers away from them.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the scene has bred a major rock development on its own terms. Says Stone later in the tour bus, “The Seattle\u00a0scene was ignored for so long we developed our own rock culture and nobody thought about or expected such success.”<\/p>\n They’re all riffing on the same chords that Vedder<\/span> strums on \u2013 with tones of introspection and insight. Gossard’s got the\u00a0leader’s air; Ament’s the insightful gadfly; McCready is the real chord freak, and Abruzzese adds a humor while being a sincere\u00a0newcomer.<\/p>\n Adds Stone, “Just being thrown in that atmosphere every night, I think that we developed on the road in a way without being\u00a0consciously aware of it. It is not based on doing it the way you were when you normally put A and B together; we\u00a0weren’t thinking about being famous or thinking about being anything. It’s like…you liked the way the guy plays; you feel you\u00a0 can get along with him, and you go along with it. We all kind of went along with it [and] made a decision to make a record after only being a band for three months; to go out on the road right after that, and we made a decision to do a live version of the video just to keep things fresh and moving forward.”<\/p>\n Eddie<\/span> is, in a sense, their discovery, their creation. They’ve bonded with him in order to form something different,\u00a0something durable.<\/p>\n Recalls Vedder<\/span>, “So the next thing I knew, I flew up to Seattle, and I just remember the coolest thing\u00a0playing ‘Alive.’ That was the first thing we played together. We were in this little basement of this art gallery \u2013 so the vibe was really cool \u2013 and here were these guys, and I finally had this music I felt I like, there was something about the music, to write the way that I do.”<\/p>\n Eddie<\/span> is probably most hard-nosed about his aversions; he doesn’t subscribe to that self-destructive punk ethic. “To some\u00a0people, a punk ethic would be just getting sloshed before, during, and after the show, staying up all night and shooting heroin.\u00a0But to me, it’s more punk to be in control, strong enough and able to do things with your body that you wouldn’t be able to do if\u00a0you were weak, or weak of spirit as well.”<\/p>\n And no matter how much they should play the moronic rockers stumbling along the ramparts like Axl Rose after a binge,\u00a0bassist Ament can’t help but speak in articulate\u00a0 revelatory tones about heroes rich in both bile and intellectual revolt as Robert\u00a0Anton Wilson<\/strong> and Aleister Crowley<\/strong> (in the line with other Crowley fans like Jimmy Page<\/strong> and Daryl Hall<\/strong>). Such intellectual\u00a0ferment is rife among this band. But so is their love of pure pop rock from Matthew Sweet<\/strong> to the more edgy Neil Young<\/strong> (they cover “Rocking in the Free World”) and on to various icons of the classic rock generation, such as Aerosmith<\/strong> and David Bowie<\/strong>.<\/p>\n “So much has happened so quickly it doesn’t seem real, so I don’t put much in it. I don’t,” Vedder<\/span> says adamantly. “We\u00a0just found out we sold a million records… It doesn’t matter; it doesn’t change how you look at music, or how I’m going to play\u00a0tonight. Getting a gold record was cool for about two-and-a-half minutes, [but] tonight we’re playing for people I care about.<\/p>\n “My mind is in these songs, it doesn’t change\u00a0ME\u00a0towards these songs at all. What changes is how other people look at you. It\u00a0changes how everyone else thinks. The media and critics are going to come down on the second record and dissect it. The fact\u00a0that I’ve been open about emotions and real life this whole time, maybe that’s why it has sold a few records. I can’t care about\u00a0any of that stuff though, so I hope people have a field day \u2013 I really don’t give a fuck.”<\/p>\n We’ll see where success takes them, but at the moment, money hasn’t changed them. Of course, as Eddie says, “We haven’t\u00a0seen the money yet.”<\/p>\n So far, so good.<\/p>\n (This story originally ran as the cover story of CREEM<\/strong><\/em> Vol.1 Num. 9 in August, 1992.)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-08-at-5.41.04-PM-copy-300x174.png\")
“WELCOME TO OMAHA!<\/p>\n
\n– Eric Johnson<\/strong>,\u00a0Tour Manager,\u00a0Pearl Jam,\u00a0on a napkin, 1992 tour<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/9597538-225x300.jpeg\")
The meditative mode isn’t unusual for Vedder<\/span>. In fact, he appears more comfortable with the repose of introspection than\u00a0the bust-out rave of the mislabeled metallic vision that Pearl Jam is.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>