Famous Last Words

Kerrang! October 23, 1993

Reluctant stars PEARL JAM have achieved heights of success and undergone extremes of pressure which would break most bands! But they've survived to release 'Vs', which looks set to increase their popularity further! In possibly one of their last ever interviews, EDDIE VEDDER lets loose to LIZ EVANS!

"I'll probably not do interviews one day, because I don't want to end up convoluting the subject. Music is the one thing. It won't be because of any attitude or anything. It's just 15 years ago, I found a beautiful way to express myself; I found a very powerful medium."

"Music is a way for people to come together and turn it on. It's there, and that's what I do, so when you think of it in terms of these magazines... The other reason I won't do interviews is that people just won't want to know - lack of interest or whatever. I don't want to be a star - it's not worth it, to have my picture taken and have my face everywhere. It's scary; it scares me, I could scare a lot of people with my face! People won't want to see it any more. It's not about faces. I personally think that the less you know about a musician, the better. All that you need is the music, and then you won't have any preconceptions."

EDDIE VEDDER sees it like this: we live in a society where the media has so much power that it no longer even bothers with honesty, let alone sensitivity. All it does is detract from the essence of art and the reality of human situations, and instead of providing n entertaining but balanced information service, it distorts everything horribly out of proportion. Eddie Vedder is American; hjis world is even more media-dominated than that of Europe. More significantly, though, he's a singer with arguably the most popular Rock Band in anyone's world right now. That makes him a prime media target, and not being the kind to bask in ego-encouraging limelight, he's truely beginning to detest it.

So, gentle Metalheads, this might be the last Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder interview - fanzines aside, perhaps - that you'll ever read. You can't blame the man. Since Pearl Jam erupted out of Seattle a couple of years ago, all they've done is attract attention - of the very best and worse kinds. Lablled by certain fractions of the mainstream music press, who too often approach Rock music with ignorant snobbery, as 'Cock Rockers', Vedder, together with guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Dave Abbruzzese, have met with the most crininal of misinterpretations. Regaled by others as utter geniuses who've single-handedly changhed the face of Rock music as we know it, Pearl Jam have never inspired indifference or 'okays'. Out of such volatile, personally taxing situation, controversy has inevitably been born.

Last year at Denmark's Roskilde Festival, Vedder snapped. The previous day, at a gig in Stockholm, he'd had a lyric book and a personal journal stolen from the backstage area, so he was rattled like a fuming bee anyway. At Roskilde, his shredded nerves slammed into his fists, and he ended up belting a security guard when a stagediver got attacked by the bouncers. Pressure had been cooking for too long - Pearl Jam had spent too much time on the road. They cancelled their London shows in order to stay sane and in possession of the reins. Even if you bought a ticket then, you should be grateful now. You will be when you hear 'Vs'.

"Everyone asks about the extreme pressure," says Vedder, at his manager's office in Seattle, "but I feel I have to protect the music from all that. I guess it does affect me personally, sure. But you know, I could drop a couple of names of people that I talk to about all this hype, and how to deflect it. I could talk all night about it with them. But it all comes down to keeping that stuff away from the music. It's like a child; it's like keeping that baby locked in a room where no one can get to it, because it's a fragile thing. It really is like a baby. So the pressure affects me, but it doesn't hurt the music."

It doesn't hurt the music, but it certainly inflames it. 'Vs' (which was nearly called a myriad of other things, including 'Five Against One' after a line from the album track 'Animal', although Eddie tells me that was "just a rumour") is deliciously unstable, chaotically coherent and beautifully insane. It teeters, explodes, flips over while staying absolutely on the level.

"Well, that's the real things all rolled up," says Vedder. "That's just how I am. I've always been that way and I always will be. I just think you have to try and change things - just a bit. I don't really have the power to do much. There's so much more i'd love to do, which has more to do with the real me or whatever. But there's so much you could do, it's insane. I do things, but not publicly - I won't talk about them."

Those things include supporting People for the Ethical treatment of Animals, helping out with Rock for Choice (founded by L7 to organise Rock benefits for Pro Choice), Rock the Vote during the election run up (needless to say, Vedder was for Clinton), opposing pornography and helping to protect the environment. Last year, Vedder told me about Earth First, a radical organisation which employs illegal methods to try and save the planet.

"Their whole theory is monkey-wrenching - infiltration from within. When froests are cut down, they spike the trees, sso when loggers go through them they'll break they're blades!" he said witht a glint in his eye.

"There was a time when they thought that ckildren with learning difficulites were stubborn and selfish. It's only recently been recognised for what it is," says Vedder of 'Daughter'.

"'WMA' stands for white male american. We're all just souls; everyone wants a chance, and everyone should have one, no matter what colour they are"

Considering Vedder's involvment witht he Pro Choice movement (which is trying to prevent abortion being made illegal anywhere in the states), it's probably only a matter of time before he writes a song about that too.

"The thing is, these people don't understand that in these modern times there are too many people here on the boat, and they're trying to tell us to put more people on that boat. The boat is already capsizing, and these people tell me they're concerned with life? Well, so am I!. It should be a woman's choice what she does with her body and how she plans her future. If she goes with a guy, why should she be stuck with the problem, and be forced legally to have this baby for the rest of her life, with the responiblity of this child, just because of one fucking dick?!"

Unusal words to find in the pages of a Rock magazine, but there is nothing usual about Eddie Vedder. Besides, if you have sex with the opposite sex, theres nothing irrelevant about it.

"Everyone asks about the extreme pressure," says Vedder, at his manager's office in Seattle, "but I feel I have to protect the music from all that. I guess it does affect me personally, sure. But you know, I could drop a couple of names of people that I talk to about all this hype, and how It doesn't hurt the music, but it certainly inflames it. 'Vs' (which was nearly called a myriad of other things, including 'Five Against One' after a line from the album track 'Animal', although Eddie tells me that was "just a rumour") is deliciously unstable, chaotically coherent and beautifully insane. It teeters, explodes, flips over while staying absolutely on the level.

Music as pure as this comes straight from the bot tom of the heart, and that's an unusual thing these days. Lyrically 'Vs' is, like 'Ten', socially concerned without being preachy. It's a delicately invincible blend of the personal, the political and the spiritual. "Well, that's the real things all rolled up," says Vedder. "That's just how I am. I've always been that way and I always will be. I just think you have to try and change things - just a bit. I don't really have the power to do much. There's so much more i'd love to do, which has more to do with the real me or whatever. But there's so much you could do, it's insane. I do things, but not publicly - I won't talk about them."

On 'Vs', Vedder is concerned with children who have learing difficulites - such as dyslexia, continuing his promotion of minors' rights pioneered with 'Jeremy' ('Daughter') - radical tensi0on and the intolerable supremacy of the white man in America ('WMA'), and the horrific stup idity ofConsidering Vedder's involvment witht he Pro Choice movement (which is trying to prevent abortion being made illegal anywhere in the states), it's probably only a matter of time before he writes a song about that too.

Unusal words to find in the pages of a Rock magazine, but there is nothing usual about Eddie Vedder. Besides, if you have sex with the opposite sex, theres nothing irrelevant about it.

VEDDER'S WILLINGNESS to tackle issues which affect everyone's lives and not just the lives SO WHY Eddie Vedder? Why is he so bothered with racism, sexism, animal rights and abused children? Well, he didn't know who his real father was until he was a teenager, and his family ran an orphanage in Illinois, so his personal life has certainly not been smooth. When it comes to talking about his background, Vedder is understandably evasive, although he did once tell me that his appreciation of life helps him to make sense of all that "shit" that happened to him before. Beyond that he doesn't want to let anybody in, and you can't blame him. Ironically, the things Vedder does choose to talk about seem to be the ones pe

IN A somtimes seemingly no win situation, Eddie Vedder is tightening up his focus on his reason for being here in the first place - his music. A natural giver with a generous soul, he's now learning the necessary art of self-preservation, which is laready making him more discerning in his choiceIreally be bad. So after this one we'll alternate. We'll release our albums six months apart! People can't afford to buy records all the time these days, anyway."

GOSSIP, SPECULATION misinterpretation, personal violation, distortion; all of it addes up to a huge, unnecessery boil on the back of what Eddie Vedder thought was going to be a relativly simple live of making music. It might be a shame for his fans if he closes down altogether, but for the meantime at least, we may just have to bear with him on this one.

"You kind of have to strike a deal," he says.

"You have to be able to trust in order to be brutally honest. It's real give and take, and its very hard to do. The thing is, i'm just going to play those people that can make that deal with me. I won't betray them, nut i will be betrayed. We dont think about any of that hype thing; its really straight forward, its just weird. If you hear we're not doing interviews, its just because we're trying to keep a little bit of control on this, a little bit of self preservation - music preservation."

Time to drop the leash.