(Credits: Far Out / Spotify / Alamy)
Thu 27 November 2025 20:30, UK
Music has always meant something a little bit more than a catchy tune to Eddie Vedder.
There was a sense of power in nearly every one of his favourite records, and while he prided himself on being the wall-crawling maniac in Pearl Jam during their first shows, getting that kind of drive could only come from him being hopped up on adrenaline the minute that one of their shows started playing. But for all of the joy that music could bring, Vedder knew that it could hold a lot of raw wounds in between the grooves as well.
It’s not like Vedder was ever afraid of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, though. Some of the greatest Pearl Jam songs are about him airing out his grief to make sense of himself, and when looking at everything from ‘Alive’ to ‘Nothingman’, it was clear that a lot of people could relate to that sense of loneliness and isolation that comes from some of the most people walking out of your life.
But if you were living in Seattle and talking about depressing topics, you were far from the only one. Alice in Chains had made a living out of their scar collection when they released Dirt, and ‘Outshined’ by Soundgarden is one of the most gripping songs ever written about having crippling depression, but no one made their struggles sound as tuneful as Kurt Cobain was able to with Nirvana.
When anyone bothered to parse through what Cobain was saying half the time, a lot of what was on his mind was a lot more alarming than most people realised. Dave Grohl had said that he didn’t realise how powerful a song like ‘Scentless Apprentice’ could sound until after he recorded it, and despite ‘All Apologies’ acting as a sad farewell to the band as a whole, only someone like Cobain could manage to take one of the most gloomy tracks in their discography and make it sound like a long-lost Beatles song.
It’s not like Cobain didn’t have his problems with Pearl Jam as a whole, but when he passed away, it hit Vedder a lot harder than anyone else. He knew that Pearl Jam wouldn’t have been half the band they were without Cobain breaking the door down for the Seattle scene, and while he managed to carry on, he made a conscious choice to stay away from all of those classic songs for years.
They were a brilliant testament to what Cobain gave the planet, but for Vedder, it was still a sad reminder of what happened almost half a decade later, remarking in 2002, “I’ve gotten to spend time with Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, and I’ve listened to their bands since, but as far as the Nirvana records, I’ve had a hard time even listening to them, because it still reminds me of a very traumatic episode. I’m still not comfortable with the reality of how that all went down. I hate to even comment on it, because Krist and Dave and his other close friends probably have more to say about it.”
If Pearl Jam had to carry on, though, it would be by honouring the legacy of those that had fallen before. The band was already known for paying tribute to former Mother Love Bone frontman Andy Wood, but since Cobain was famously cynical about his fame, seeing Vedder scale back a lot of the band’s commercial material was actually a nice nod to what Cobain envisioned doing later down the road.
But what Cobain happened to be more than writing a bunch of catchy tunes. Any other artist could have made a half-decent melody and sang about feeling alienated, but Vedder only saw someone that was trying to figure themselves out through their music, so it was bound to be difficult to revisit knowing that the story didn’t have a happy ending.
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