Eddie Vedder (b. 1964)

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Biography

Eddie Jerome Vedder is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a guest vocalist for supergroup Temple of the Dog, a tribute band dedicated to singer Andrew Wood.

In Their Own Words (5)

Vedder has a variety of comments about God and/or belief, at one point he was saying, "When you're out in the desert, you can't believe the amount of stars. We've sent mechanisms out there, and they haven't found anything. They've found different colours of sand, and rings, and gasses, but nobody's shown me anything that makes me feel secure in what happens afterwards. All I really believe in is this moment, like right now."

Rolling Stone, Oct 31 1991, "Right Here, Right Now". , 1991

Let me be as weird as I fuckin' like. It's my fuckin' life.

May 21, 1994, Melody Maker. , 1994

You kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you're gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper. In the end, it does nothing. Nothing changes. The world goes on and you're gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.

This quote was taken from the Synergy's Echoes page (December, 1991 Houston, Texas, KLOL FM Echoes of Exposure with David Sadoff). , 1991

"Later he tried to keep a straight face as he mockingly confessed: 'While we were away, I found God.' He rambled on about the Bible before concluding, 'We found God. He was right in our stomachs...'"(The rambling had to do with finding a Bible in every hotel room, "Every hotel has Holy Bibles.")

July 23, 1998 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, page C3. , 1998

JG: Can I ask what your feelings are about God?

March 23, 1998, Janeane Garofalo interviewing Eddie Vedder for CMJ New Music Report at Brendan's, on the Lower East Side. , 1998

Timeline

The story of Eddie Vedder, told in moments.

1964 Birth

Born Edward Louis Severson III in Evanston, Illinois. Didn't learn until his teens that the man he thought was his father was actually his stepfather. His biological father had already died.

How did finding out about your real father change you? Is that discovery in your music?

1990 Event

Received a demo tape from Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard in Seattle. Recorded vocals over the instrumentals while surfing in San Diego. Mailed it back. They invited him to audition. Pearl Jam was born.

What made you record vocals over strangers' instrumentals and mail them back? Was that desperation or instinct?

1991 Event

Pearl Jam's debut album Ten went 13x platinum. "Alive," "Even Flow," and "Jeremy" defined early 1990s rock. Vedder's baritone became one of the most imitated voices in music.

Did the explosion of Ten scare you? What did fame cost you personally?

1994 Event

Waged war against Ticketmaster over service fees, testifying before Congress. Pearl Jam boycotted Ticketmaster venues for three years. They lost. Ticketmaster only got bigger.

Was the Ticketmaster fight worth losing? Would you do it again?

2007 Event

Released the solo soundtrack for Into the Wild. Stripped-down ukulele and acoustic guitar. A different register entirely from the arena rock that made him famous.

What made you strip everything down for Into the Wild? Is the ukulele your real instrument?