Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder discussed losing his friend Chris Cornell on The Howard Stern Show on Monday. Eddie Vedder just broke his silence on Scott Weiland’s death. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
Vedder first said he grew up with three brothers, and that he got a call in the middle of the night that he had lost his brother, also named Chris, in a climbing accident in Africa.
“That one took me down so hard, and my brother, and my Mom, I seriously didn’t know if I was going to get out of that one. It really hurt me to think of what my daughters were witnessing, but there was no hiding it, and it was a dark place. I just couldn’t deal with the reality.
When it happened with Chris, I’ve got say I’ve had to be somewhat in denial. One way I was even able to do it, I don’t even feel like I had a choice. I was just terrified with where I would go, if I allowed myself to feel what I needed to feel, or what I was instinctively wanting to feel, or how dark I felt like I was going to go.
Because I didn’t see him that often in the last 10 years, probably only 4 or 5 times, usually at a gig. I still haven’t quite dealt with it. I’ll get stronger as time goes. We were close, and it wasn’t just because we were playing music. We were neighbors, I would hang out with him outside of the band even more than the other band guys, and I didn’t know many people in Seattle.
We’d go on hiking adventures, or we’d go mountain biking, or we’d chase the dog in the rain chasing shitty beer. It was cool, because it had nothing to do with being around other music people, or some kind of LA life, it was just cool.”
