(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sun 23 November 2025 19:30, UK
The journey to becoming a rock and roll god wasn’t all that comfortable for Eddie Vedder.
The goal behind Pearl Jam was more about making a fun art project than playing to stadiums of people, but when the rest of the world jumped on the Seattle bandwagon, he didn’t really have a choice other than to become the Jim Morrison-esque figure of the 1990s. But even if he had to begrudgingly turn himself into an all-star frontman, he did still have a reverence for all the greats who came before him.
After all, there wasn’t a single hour of the day that he didn’t thank God for The Who. The biggest names in music were still as important to him during the Ten era as they were when he first heard Live At Leeds as a kid, and while they could pay tribute to the greats all they wanted to, no one could deny that what they were doing were as real as anything that the 1970s ever spit out.
I mean, half of what Vedder was doing already seemed like a glowing tribute to the glory days of rock and roll, but the frontman wanted the chance to have a slower ascent if he could. He knew that the bands he respected were the ones that made music on their own terms, and while R.E.M. took their sweet time reaching the top of the charts, Vedder’s massive shot up to number one was what made him deliberately peel back a little bit.
But no matter how many times he tried to distract people from his own celebrity, it’s not like people couldn’t still enjoy the music whenever it came out. There were bound to be a few more awkward moments listening to records like Vitalogy and No Code, but the real fans cared more about the craft that the band put into their melodies and lyrics than worrying about the pageantry of everything.
Scaling back at the height of one’s fame may have been one of the most boneheaded moves if not done right, but Vedder’s plan actually turned them into a far more interesting band as a result. They could experiment when they scaled back, and while albums like Binaural might not be the best records in their catalogue or anything, they do manage to take a lot more risks than whatever post-grunge band was running up the charts.
That kind of determination was more than enough to earn them a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but even when showing up to the ceremony, Vedder said that the band might not have been ready for this kind of distinction, saying, “I love these people so much and we love hanging out and we love touring. We love playing, we love writing, and we love recording. And I feel like we’re about halfway there to deserving an accolade of this stature, maybe halfway there, but this is very encouraging.”
Vedder can be modest all he wants, but when looking at the other elder statesmen of rock and roll, he fits that slot perfectly. Other bands may have been weirder and pushed more boundaries in his mind, but the pure heart that’s in songs like ‘Better Man’ and ‘Alive’ hit as hard as nearly anything that their biggest heroes had made in their prime.
There was something about the Seattle spirit that made every band feel so unassuming about their skills, but it’s not like they were off the mark when they made their classics. There was no hope for them to reach their idols in their eyes, but when someone recognises genuine heart in someone, it’s not that hard for it to resonate with millions of people.
Related Topics