Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament and Eddie Vedder on the road

On the road with Pearl Jam, the dressing room of lead singer Eddie Vedder contains all the comforts of home: a dartboard (“Give me a little focus before we run out,” he said); Chicago Bears football jersey (No. 34, Walter Payton); and a picture of the great Hawaiian surfer Adipati Kahanamoku, who always travels with him.

Vedder, who likes to paddle out, compares the song to surfing: “You put these building blocks together, so you can kind of, let’s say a perfect wave shape, you know, that has a couple of turns, then a barrel, and then lyrics come – lyrics come from surfing those waves.”

Pearl Jam’s latest wave, “Dark Matter,” is the 12th studio album from a band that has been playing together for nearly 35 years. Vedder said, “Pretty much everything I’ve ever written, it always started as a paper napkin. Now it’s a cloth napkin, ’cause we stay at the hotel more!” he laughed.

Vedder was 12 when his mother gave him his first guitar. “My birthday is December 23rd,” he said. “So I asked that the two gifts be combined to get something fancy like an electric guitar, which I think is $115.

“I was walking on Christmas morning. And I could see the silhouette. (!!!) Then the lights came on and it was a vacuum! And then everyone finished opening their presents. ) And they said, ‘Oh, one more … ‘ And they pulled out the guitar case Vedder laughed.

That sounds kind of cruel! “Well, I don’t think they meant it,” said Vedder. “What if my mother got lucky and got a vacuum for Christmas?”

Vedder’s record collection includes The Jackson 5, James Brown, and The Who. “We had the babysitter bring over ‘Who’s Next,’ and leave it there. I didn’t see the sun for about two weeks!” he laughed.

He called The Who’s music a lifeline: “Records like ‘Quadrophenia’ give me knowledge and hope and an antidote to despair, knowing that other people are going through what I’m going through.”

Vedder was living in San Diego in 1990, when he heard that a group of Seattle musicians were looking for a singer. He sent me a tape of an instrumental song. He wrote lyrics for them, while surfing: “I was doing midnight shift security. So, when I was surfing in the morning, I remember it was super foggy and one of those days you think, ‘Maybe I won’ didn’t come out. ‘ But I had the music in my head, the instrumental, and just writing it, I was still wet when I hit ‘record.’

Bassist Jeff Ament listens to a Vedder tape, goes out for coffee, then comes back to listen again. “Then, I remember calling Stone and I said, ‘You have to come here now,'” he said.

Ament, along with guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, flew Vedder to Seattle for the audition.

“You feel it,” Vedder said. “You’re like, ‘Oh, what is this. This is heaven.'”

Pearl Jam’s debut album, “Ten,” would become one of rock’s best-selling records, remaining on the Billboard charts for nearly five years.

The success was so sudden: “It was an avalanche that put us behind everything,” says Ament. “So we’re just digging in, trying to survive, and you’re in control again, as if we’re in control of our destiny.”

He fought with the label, refused to make a video, and sued Ticketmaster. Ament said, “I remember the tickets coming out, and the tickets would say, $28 Pearl Jam. But then we’d be like, ‘Wait a minute, we’re charging $16.'”

“You just feel this company, you know, your fingerprints,” Vedder said. “And you want to break free, and rebel, and claim your own music and your crowd.”

Pearl Jam and “the crowd” have been loyal to each other for a long time.

In Missoula, Montana, where Ament has lived since he entered the University of Montana, he hosted a fan fair with a local non-profit before the gig: “You just want to help people, you just want to do more for the community.” He considered stopping. this tour is a hometown show. “Yes. Like a lot of history, family, and old friends,” he said.

In the demo, Vedder works through each set list, choosing from a voluminous list, which also contains “a lot of content, we played it once.”

How long does the process take? “Sometimes the time is ridiculously long!” he laughed.

He wrote the set list in calligraphy, which he learned to spend time on the road. “It keeps me focused and entertained,” he said.

Are they still happy on the road? “Wrong question!” Vedder laughed.

When several band members became seriously ill this summer, Pearl Jam had to cancel three dates. “It’s like a Euro bronchial with pneumonia on top,” Vedder said. He describes on stage almost like a near-death experience. “Near-death experience. I don’t mind dying!” he laughed.

Vedder turns 60 this December. Ament is 61. Mason asked, “You obviously have to have a lot of faith that if you all get together, something will happen?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vedder replied.

Asked why he thinks the band still works after all this time, Ament replied, “It’s miraculous in some ways that we’ve been through it. And then it’s just a testament to our friendship.”

“I’m going to say, good, clean life!” Vedder laughed.

You can stream Pearl Jam’s latest album, “Dark Matter,” by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to listen to the full track):

For more information:

Story produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Mike Levine.