pearl jam speaks
i came across this article that came out back in 2001. it’s one of my all-time favorites because it’s the band members themselves doing the talking (with additional comments by notable personalities involved with the band) about significant moments in the band’s history.
Have you ever wondered what PJ thought about playing in Manila? Jeff Ament has the answer!
AMENT:
Manila was such a wild experience. The place held 8,000 people, and there were
10,000 other people outside. It was a covered open air venue so people were
creating these human ladders, trying to climb up and see. The police showed
up with water cannons, sprayed everybody off the wall. And inside, too, to be
in a completely different part of the world, have indigenous people all singing
along, so cranked, those are the shows where I have to play with my head up
the whole time. There’s a whole different force motivating you to play.
Do you have any idea who PJ’s weirdest fan is (aside from me :P):
SILVER:
In Texas, a very, very drunk Dennis Rodman refused to leave the stage no matter
what they did or how firmly they asked. He would go behind Stone and start strumming
on the guitar while Stone was playing or just walk in front of Stone and talk
about how incredible each guy was. They finally got him a stool and sat him
in front of the drum kit, and he sat there for a song looking like the kid in
the corner pouting; then he looked back and realized he didn’t know the drummer.
He spent what looked like eternity to me leering at Matt like, "Who are
you? Show me what you got."
And more interesting reads…
Dave Grohl talks about seeing PJ for the first time:
GROHL:
I didn’t sit and watch them play until the show in San Diego, where Eddie climbed
the fuckin’ lighting rig. I swear to God he was like 250 feet up in the air.
It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen live in my entire life. I’ve
seen people cut themselves, I’ve seen people shit, I’ve seen people get beat
up onstage, and I’ve seen people break bones, break their backs, and get concussions.
Honestly, I was horrified. I was really scared that he was gonna die.
Ed and Mike talk about the Nirvana rivalry:
VEDDER:
In San Diego we were playing with Nirvana and the Chili Peppers. I had climbed
an I-beam that you could kind of wrap your hand around. So I got to the top,
and I thought, "Well, how do I get down?" I either just give it up
and look like an idiot, or I go for it. So I decided to try it, and it was really
ridiculously high, like 100 feet, something mortal. I was thinking that my mother
was there, and I didn’t want her to see me die. So somehow I finally got back
onstage, finished the song, and went to the side and threw up. I knew that was
really stupid, beyond ridiculous. But to be honest, we were playing before Nirvana.
You had to do something. Our first record was good, but their first record was
better.
McCREADY:
I remember after the New Year’s Eve 1991 show, somebody running onto the bus
and saying Nirvana had just hit No. 1. I remember thinking, "Wow; it’s
on now." It changed something. We had something to prove—that our band
was as good as I thought it was.
Ed talks about Cobain’s death:
VEDDER:
I remember tearing up my hotel room in a complete rage when I found out [that
Cobain had died]. We played that night [near Washington, D.C.], and I still
question that. [Fugazi's] Ian MacKaye was there, and he offered to take me in
that night. So I went to get my suitcase from the hotel, but I didn’t have a
key, so I had to go up with the maintenance guy to let me in the room. When
he opened the door, I just looked at him and said, "You have to understand
what happened today."
On Ed seeking Bono’s advice:
WILSON:
Eddie was seeking the advice of Bono a lot. After the shows you’d see Bono and
Eddie over in a corner in deep discussion. And they would go off together and
stay at Bono’s place, and they would have stayed up and had some wine and really
talked about the business and sort of argued about it.
Bono on Pearl Jam:
BONO: I’m a fan of the Pearl Jam organization, of what you might call
the culture around the group. It’s like the Grateful Dead. We’ve been thinking
a lot about that West Coast way of doing business. I must say, I’m not sure
how long U2’s going to have the energy to take on the mainstream. And the
Pearl Jam/Grateful Dead model is something to be really proud of. They exist
entirely unto themselves. They don’t depend on the media, don’t depend on
the radio.
Chris Cornell on Pearl Jam:
CORNELL:
Better than any other band almost in history to have had that kind of enormous
success, they dealt with it really eloquently. I think that set a great example
to other musicians that, you know what, you can actually control the media spotlight.
I think they stayed vital. The records they made didn’t necessarily appeal to
the same number of fans who were into Ten, but they appealed to a lot
of people. They sold millions of records without having to make videos and without
having to do an overhyped press campaign for each record.
Ed’s little secret:
CROWE:
Eddie used to have a secret DAT tape recorder. Elvis Costello came backstage
to kind of hail Pearl Jam and meet Eddie and he had the DAT running the whole
time, secretly under his jacket, because he wanted to save these experiences.
That’s how much of a fan he was.
For the full article, see:
http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/spin801.shtml
