{"id":423948,"date":"2026-05-03T23:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T23:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/423948\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T23:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T23:50:19","slug":"the-best-revenge-is-to-live-on-and-prove-yourself-be-stronger-than-those-people-and-then-you-can-come-back-how-pearl-jam-created-a-powerful-signature-song-inspired-by-a-real-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/423948\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. Be stronger than those people. And then you can come back\u201d: How Pearl Jam created a powerful signature song inspired by a real-life tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeremy is one of Pearl Jam<\/a>\u2019s signature tracks as well as one of their most controversial thanks to its provocative combination of soaring vocals, heavy guitars and dark lyrics.<\/p>\n

The song was released as the third single from the Seattle band\u2019s 1991 debut Ten debut, and its main source of inspiration came from a newspaper article about a 15 year-old Texan boy named Jeremy Wade Delle, who shot himself in front of his teacher and classmates on 8 January 1991.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Remembered by his fellow students as one of the quieter and more solemn pupils at Richardson High School, Delle arrived into class late that morning and was told to report to the principal\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

He returned with a .357 Magnum revolver and announced \u201cMiss, I got what I really went for\u201d before putting the barrel of the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.<\/p>\n

The lyrics for Pearl Jam\u2019s song were conceived by singer Eddie Vedder while the music had been composed by bassist Jeff Ament before the band went on tour with Alice In Chains early in 1991.<\/p>\n

Vedder revealed to Seattle Sound magazine that he felt \u201cthe need to take that small article and make something of it \u2013 to give that action, to give it reaction, to give it more importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song begins with the sound of Ament\u2019s Hamer 12-string bass, which can also be heard during the song\u2019s outro. In a 1992 interview with Hamer Tone magazine, Ament explained how early songs like Jeremy and Why Go had been written on a 12-string guitar while his 12-string bass was on order from Hamer.<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had been thinking the whole time that these songs were going to be 12-string bass songs,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt was definitely something that was thought out when I was sitting around jamming on a 12-string acoustic guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the structure of the song had been largely completed, Ament carried on tinkering with producer Rick Parashar at Seattle\u2019s London Bridge Studios, looking for new ways to elevate the music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an idea for the outro when we were recording it the second time,\u201d Ament told Blender magazine in 2002. \u201cI overdubbed a 12-string bass, and we added a cello. That was big-time production for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

For guitar players Mike McCready and Stone Gossard it was a case of mixing the sound of single-coils and humbuckers to create a wider sonic dimension, a trick they\u2019d picked up from bands like Aerosmith.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of our advance, Stone and Jeff bought me a black 1962 Japanese reissue Stratocaster,\u201d McCready told Guitar World in 2021. \u201cIt was just so cool. I was like, \u2018Oh my god\u2026\u2019 Because I had always wanted one. I had a Telecaster prior to that, and before that I had an Ibanez<\/a> Iceman and a Kramer. But that was my first Strat.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cSo I used that, thinking, you know, Stone plays mostly Les Paul, and I love Les Pauls too, but I always loved how in Aerosmith Joe Perry might be playing a Strat and then Brad Whitford would have a Les Paul. And then they\u2019d switch or whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I grew up with, and Stone did too. So I felt I wanted a Strat to complement what Stone was doing. If we both played Les Pauls, the record might\u2019ve sounded different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main guitar amps for the recording were a Marshall JCM800 half stack as well as a Fender Bassman for clean tones.<\/p>\n

A high-budget music video was made with Vedder singing in a room by himself alongside clips of a student being bullied in class, eventually more and more frustrated until he puts the barrel of a gun in his mouth, closes his eyes and pulls the trigger.<\/p>\n

The closing shot depicts his classmates covered in blood and frozen in horror. Given the sensitivity around the subject of violent imagery, the gun was taken out of the final scenes, which led to confusion over what actually happened.<\/p>\n

Director Mark Pellington admitted: \u201cProbably the greatest frustration I\u2019ve ever had is that the ending is sometimes misinterpreted as that he shot his classmates.\u201d He clarified: \u201cThat\u2019s his blood on them, and they\u2019re frozen at the moment of looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearl Jam – Jeremy (Uncut) (Dirty Video) – YouTube
\n\"Pearl<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

To mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day in 2020, the uncensored version was remastered in high definition and posted on the band\u2019s official YouTube<\/a> channel.<\/p>\n

In a 1993 live interview with radio station Rockline, a caller phoned in to ask Vedder how he felt about parents blaming art for tragic events like the one that inspired Jeremy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess they can\u2019t sue us for this one because I\u2019m writing about it after it happened, you know?\u201d he answered. \u201cSome kid did this. I didn\u2019t make that up and that\u2019s a fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came from a small paragraph in a paper which means you kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you\u2019re gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cNothing changes. The world goes on and you\u2019re gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. Be stronger than those people. And then you can come back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeremy is one of Pearl Jam\u2019s signature tracks as well as one of their most controversial thanks to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-423948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}