Eddie Vedder recent discussed Pearl Jam and Kurt Cobain’s media drama during Nirvana’s peak in the 90’s on The Howard Stern Show. Alternative Nation transcribed their comments. Vedder also discussed Scott Weiland’s death.
Stern asked, “Did you take it personally at the time when the band started out and a guy like Kurt Cobain would publicly dismiss your band, and say you guys were too commercial, or too pop or whatever the fuck he said.
You guys ended up being friends and everything, and he ended up appreciating you of course. Did that shit get to you at the time? Were you like, why is everybody got to be so god damn competitive?”
Vedder answered, “I probably could have agreed with some of the things he said. There was also a history with some of the local bands, and one of my favorite Seattle bands is Mudhoney. There was a little bit of a faction of this one side of Seattle music here, and ours didn’t fit as well into that, which was fine.
But also, Mudhoney, I was so grateful to have those guys as friends. So I think the only thing that bothered me about that was it was more public, and people reacting to it. It wasn’t between us, that stuff wasn’t going back and forth with us. I think there was a certain writer who pulled a little quote of Jeff Ament’s out, and pulled a quote of Kurt’s out. That made for interesting press.
But really, it was kind of us against the world, our town against the world, not our band against another band. I still think back, and have always been grateful that there was a real scene. There was music everywhere, and people were hanging out every night.”
Eddie Vedder is staying active despite the pandemic, debuting new material soon at a show with Adam Sandler.
