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"We Had to Answer to Mudhoney..."
Life is not easy for Pearl Jam's EDDIE VEDDER. Luckily, he can always fall back on these rules of rock'n'roll.
1. Only Cautiously embrace your iconic status.
I'm an icon of rock? Well, I'd choose to turn down a piece of cake. And as far as "reluctant superstar goes, I feel more reluctant than I do a superstar, that's for sure. But I do like the respect from younger bands, especially if it's younger bands I actually like. For a long time, there were bands that were highly derivative of us, and I wouldn't accept that as a compliment. Lately, the Strokes have acknowledged us, and that's nice because I'm a fan of their music. I met the Strokes recently, and they were really, genuinely, politely fawning. I found that charming and quite humbling.
2. Never ape your idols.
My goal was never to be like a particular rock star; it was just to be a good musician. For me, being [a rock star] is to get out of the spotlight. That way, you don't have to actually think about it, and the thinking is what makes it so bizarre in the first place. I'd rather be influenced by reading books and having conversations with guys who are older and wiser than me, than by the singer of a band.
3. Sell millions of records but don't gloat about it.
Ten [Pearl Jam's 1991 debut] was a big album, sure. I remember, before that, the magic figure for album sales was 40,000. [Sell that many and] the record company would allow you to make another. I don't know how many millions Ten went on to sell-- but I do know that a lot of people know the songs. It's weird even talking about it, to be honest. It's like talking about high school: You survive it but don't necessarily want to see your yearbook picture all the time.
4. Being from Seattle helps.
For a while it seemed like we would be crushed under the weight of it or burned in the heat of the spotlight, but I don't actually think we did suffer from being part of that scene. We were a community, all going through the same things at the same time: Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and sure, even the guys from Nirvana-- we'd banter back and forth with them, there were... there were phone calls. If any of us were on the cover of a magazine with our shirts off, then we'd have to come home and answer to Mudhoney. I always did see [Mudhoney singer] Mark Arm as a headmaster figure, and that kept us all grounded. I'm sure we'd have had much more to be embarrassed by otherwise.
5. If you leave, don't expect all your fans to stick around.
When we stepped out of the spotlight [in 1993 Pearl Jam refused to do promotion or videos], we had the confidence that our audience would still seek us out. In the end we actually lost fans. By the millions! Record sales were split in half, but then, we still have a pretty healthy number out there, and I'm sure they're the cream of the crop, anyway.
6. Keep it real.
I remember as a kid listening to Pink Floyd records and having no idea what any of the musicians looked like, and that's good. [Anonymity] gives you a neutral zone from which to create. It's a basic law of the arts: If you get separated from your community and lifted up onto some kind of pedestal, then you are writing from that vantage point and not from the point of view of those who are listening to you. Fan worship? The very question makes me uncomfortable.
7. Tour-- but don't necessarily drink-- in moderation.
We have a desire to make something happen every night. If you tour longer than a month at a time without a break, then you go on auto-pilot, and that would drive me crazy. I want to play shows we are proud of. Am I disciplined? Extremely so, yes: I have to have at least two bottles of wine a night. I don't ever purposefully play drunk, no, but I want it to be fun as much as the next guy. I do have a favorite wine, yes. It's red, it's homemade, and it's not available in the shops. There are certain things in life you cannot buy: love, the laughter of your child, and this certain red wine I get.
8. After you've been AWOL for a while, hit 'em with a rawk song.
I'm surprised our single ["World Wide Suicide," from the self-titled new album] is even being played on the radio because it mentions the word 'soldier', and we've all become so sensitive after 9/11. It's an important song for me because [the war in Iraq] is now following the path of Vietnam, which is not good. Do our fans want a polemic from us? Well, I think at this point it's unhealthy to be living in denial. There is a time and place for all this, sure, but those times are when your country is at war, and we are at war. I'm sure the powers that be would love for music to be just entertainment so that they could do their dirty work while everybody else is distracted, but we should get some communication going. I think everybody in America has to make their political feelings known at this time. It's absolutely imperative.
9. Never let music get in the way of the bigger picture.
My biggest regret right now is this: I did an interview the other day, and it started off with a question about the first record I ever bought. I got upset with myself for even bothering to answer that. How can I have been talking about that when our country is at war? Who gives a shit whether I bought a Michael Jackson record when I was six? These kinds of questions mean nothing to me right now compared with getting our soldiers home.
10. Realize that band democracy is not always a good thing.
The writing process on this new album was ultrademocratic, extremely arduous, and in some ways, traumatic for me. I felt the songs were 12 guard dogs that each had a part of my anatomy, and they wouldn't let go until each song was done, at which point I couldn't run the fuck out of the studio quick enough! I hope we won't have a situation like that again.
11. Never give yourself fully to the music.
If this band were a place, then, right now at least, it's a place we'd all like to be. I can't see us wanting to burn that place down anytime soon. Right now it's healthy, but it's important to keep a balance. The way I see it is this: The band is 49 percent, but each individual is 51 percent. This band must not control our lives. Sure, we surrender to it during a work year, but there are things outside of music-- like life, like family-- that will always be more important.
12. And finally, avoid addiction!
[Pearl Jam guitarist] Mike McCready has been through all kinds of stuff, and we have supported him through it. At one point, we refused to enable him, though. We requested that he address these issues, and he did. He pulled it off incredibly. But we've lost a number of friends who we just couldn't help. [Alice in Chains singer] Layne Staley... I wish we could have helped him or provided him with some options, but what he was involved with was bigger than him [he died of a drug overdose in 2002]. And me? No drugs, no, but I can't seem to stop the cigarette smoking. Another couple of attempts, though, and I might just get my life back. *
"WE SOMETIMES WANT TO KILL EACH OTHER"
Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard on life with "brother" Eddie Vedder
You've been in the band together for 16 years. What's your relationship with Eddie like?
I still feel like we are getting to know each other. We're like brothers, and with all that implies. Brothers sometimes want to kill each other. They can't always see clearly and can't even appreciate, at times, just how good they have it. But there is that bond. [Eddie] has always had two hands on the steering wheel, while the rest of us have just had one, and I have nothing but respect for him for that.
Do you argue much?
Well, we are continuing to try to understand each other and to communicate, but any person who has family knows how communication can get complicated. Sometimes we stick our heads in the sand and hope it goes away; other times we write a little note about how the situation is affecting us.
Pearl Jam always seems so serious. Do you sometimes look at Reed Hot Chili Peppers, and think, "They have way more fun than us."
Ha! They probably do, but we are learning to have more fun. It's just that when the camera is turned on us, we have a tendency to get serious, which is probably not the greatest tendency. I'm sure it's better to be a goofball in general, but that's not Eddie's style.
You don't sound particularly close, you two--
We're friends, sure, but we don't hang out much outside of the band. We live in different parts of the city, we have our own sets of friendes, we do our own thing. So we are not particularly palsy-walsy, no. NICK DUERDEN
