Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese addressed his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snub two years later after the Rock Hall reconsidered their snub of two Motorhead members, which Slash recently detailed. Abbruzzese was very vocal two years ago about his exclusion, and many Pearl Jam fans were disappointed that he wasn’t included in the ceremony, despite playing on Vs. and Vitalogy, and drumming on the Ten tour.
Joe Alfano wrote in a post to Abbruzzese, “Trying to understand how members of bands not initially included for nomination for the RnR HoF get added back after fan outcry (Motörhead, Bon Jovi, Moody Blues). Was PJs fan outcry not loud enough for you to get put on the ballot? Jeez, you only played on two of their three most successful albums, arguably the best performance ever on MTV Unplugged, and the two PJ songs from an iconic movie soundtrack. What else do they want?”
Abbruzzese responded, “I think it was the powers that be made sure to insult me one more time for not kissing the right ass. You know…hahahaha…that old bologna.” Abbruzzese also later shared Alfano’s post.
Pearl Jam never put up a public fight for Abbruzzese to be inducted, despite having fought Ticketmaster in the past. Eddie Vedder did mention Abbruzzese during his acceptance speech, and original drummer Dave Krusen was inducted and performed with the band for the first time since 1991. Dave Abbruzzese called Pearl Jam’s Hall of Fame speech a ‘slap in the face’ in April 2017.
Gav Ranz commented on Abbruzzese’s post, “Funny that I was watching the HOF speeches and performance just two days ago.
What’s weird is the way Eddie talks about David Abbruzzese as being a great drummer and then corrects himself and fondly says ‘A great f***ing drummer’ as If the penny dropped. But nothing happened afterwards..
The Pearl Jam of the 90’s would not have accepted this award in my opinion… vorporate suits, charging 20K a head so band members can be inducted into a ‘hall of fame’…
It’s a con. A MASSIVE con.”
