Eddie Vedder
(born Edward Louis Severson III
on December 23, 1964 in Evanston, Illinois) is an American musician who serves as the lead singer and one of three guitarists for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Vedder left the Southern California music scene and moved to Seattle, Washington in 1990 to join Pearl Jam where he rose to fame amid the grunge movement of the early 1990s. He is notable for his "golden baritone" vocal style, [1] and is considered a cultural icon of alternative rock. [2] He has also been involved in other music outside of Pearl Jam, including soundtrack work and contributions to albums by other artists. In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album in the form of the soundtrack for the film Into the Wild
(2007).
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EDDIE VEDDER TICKETS
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Biography
Early life
Eddie Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III in the
Chicago suburb of
Evanston,
Illinois, the son of Karen Lee Vedder and Edward Louis Severson, Jr.
[3] His father was a lounge musician.
[4] His parents divorced in 1965, when Vedder was one-year-old. His mother soon remarried a man named Peter Mueller, an attorney, and Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father. His adopted name became Edward Mueller.
[5] While living in Evanston, Vedder's family fostered seven younger children in a group home.
[6]
In the mid-1970s, the family, including Vedder's three younger half-brothers, moved to
San Diego County,
California. It was at this point that Vedder, who had received a
guitar from his mother on his twelfth birthday, began turning to music as a source of comfort. He particularly found solace in
The Who's 1973 album,
Quadrophenia
.
[7] He said, "When I was around 15 or 16...I felt all alone...I was all alone—except for music."
[8] His mother and Mueller divorced when Vedder was in his late teens. His mother and brothers moved back to the Chicago area, but Vedder remained with his stepfather in California so he would not have to change high schools.
It was not until after the divorce that Vedder learned the truth about his parentage, that Mueller was really his stepfather. Vedder had met his biological father briefly as a child, but had believed that Severson was merely an old friend of his parents. By the time Vedder learned the truth, Severson had died of
multiple sclerosis. Vedder's already bad relationship with his stepfather became increasingly strained. By his senior year at
San Dieguito High School, Vedder was on his own, living in an apartment and supporting himself with a nightly job at a drug store in
Encinitas.
He eventually dropped out of high school in his senior year due to the pressures of balancing school with working.
He joined the rest of his family in Chicago, and it was at this time that he changed his name to Eddie Vedder, Vedder being his mother's maiden name.
In the early 1980s, Vedder worked as a waiter, earned his high school
GED, and briefly attended a community college near Chicago.
[9] In 1984, Vedder returned to
San Diego,
California with his girlfriend,
Beth Liebling. He kept busy recording
demo tapes at his home and working various jobs, including a position as a contracted security guard at the La Valencia Hotel in
La Jolla.
[10] Vedder had several stints in San Diego area bands, including Surf and Destroy and The Butts.
One of those bands, called Indian Style,
[11] included future
Rage Against the Machine and
Audioslave drummer
Brad Wilk.
[12] In 1988, Vedder became the vocalist for the San Diego progressive
funk rock band
Bad Radio. The music of the original incarnation of the band was influenced by
Duran Duran; however, after Vedder joined Bad Radio, the band moved on to a more
alternative rock sound influenced by the
Red Hot Chili Peppers.
[13]
Temple of the Dog
After leaving Bad Radio, Vedder was without a band, and throughout the rest of 1990 he worked part-time as a night attendant at a local
gas station.
[14] Through the Southern California music scene, Vedder met former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer
Jack Irons, who became a friend of Vedder and who would play basketball with him.
[15] Later in 1990, Irons gave him a demo tape from a band in
Seattle,
Washington that was looking for a singer. He listened to the tape shortly before going
surfing, where lyrics came to him.
[16] Vedder wrote lyrics for three of the songs in what he later described as a "mini-opera" entitled
Mamasan
. The songs tell the story of a young man who, like Vedder, learns that he had been lied to about his paternity and that his real father is dead ("Alive"). He grows up to become a serial killer ("Once"), and is eventually imprisoned and sentenced to death ("Footsteps").
Vedder recorded vocals for the three songs, and mailed the demo tape back to Seattle. The three songs would later become Pearl Jam's "
Alive", "
Once", and "Footsteps".
After hearing Vedder's tape, former
Mother Love Bone members
Stone Gossard and
Jeff Ament invited Vedder to come to Seattle to audition for their new band. They were instantly impressed with his unique sound. At the time, Gossard and Ament were working on the
Temple of the Dog project founded by
Soundgarden's
Chris Cornell as a musical tribute to Mother Love Bone's frontman
Andrew Wood, who died of a heroin overdose at age 24. Soundgarden drummer
Matt Cameron and newcomer
Mike McCready were also a part of the project. The song "
Hunger Strike" became a duet between Cornell and Vedder. Cornell was having trouble with the vocals at practice, when Vedder stepped in. Cornell later said "he sang half of that song not even knowing that I'd wanted the part to be there and he sang it exactly the way I was thinking about doing it, just instinctively."
[17] Vedder would provide background vocals on several other songs as well. In April 1991,
Temple of the Dog
was released through
A&M Records.
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam was formed in 1990 by Ament, Gossard, and McCready,
who then recruited Vedder and drummer
Dave Krusen. The band signed to
Epic Records in 1991. After the recording sessions for
Ten
were completed, Krusen left Pearl Jam in May 1991.
Krusen was replaced by
Matt Chamberlain, who had previously played with
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. After playing only a handful of shows, one of which was filmed for the "Alive" video, Chamberlain left to join the
Saturday Night Live
band.
[18] As his replacement, Chamberlain suggested
Dave Abbruzzese, who joined the group and played the rest of Pearl Jam's live shows supporting the
Ten
album.
Ten
broke the band into the mainstream, and became one of the best selling alternative albums of the 1990s. The band found itself amidst the sudden popularity and attention given to the Seattle music scene and the genre known as
grunge. The single "
Jeremy" received
Grammy Award nominations for
Best Rock Song and
Best Hard Rock Performance in 1993.
[19] Pearl Jam received four awards at the 1993
MTV Video Music Awards for its music video for "Jeremy", including
Video of the Year and
Best Group Video.
[20] Ten
was ranked number 207 on
Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the
500 greatest albums of all time,
[21] and "Jeremy" was ranked number 11 on
VH1's list of the 100 greatest songs of the '90s.
[22]
Following an intense touring schedule, the band went into the studio to record what would become its second studio album,
Vs.
, released in 1993. Upon its release,
Vs.
set at the time the record for most copies of an album sold in a week,
[24] and spent five weeks at number one on the
Billboard
200.
Vs.
was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in 1995.
[25] From
Vs.
, the song "
Daughter" received a Grammy nomination for
Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and the song "
Go" received a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.
[26]
Feeling the pressures of success, with much of the burden of Pearl Jam's popularity falling on Vedder,
the band decided to decrease the level of promotion for its albums, including refusing to release music videos.
[27] Vedder's issue with fame came from what he stated as "what happens when a lot of these people start thinking you can change their lives or save their lives or whatever and create these impossible fuckin' expectations that in the end just start tearing you apart."
[28] In 1994, the band began a much-publicized boycott of
Ticketmaster, which lasted for three years and limited the band's ability to tour in the United States.
[29] During the mid-1990s, Vedder faced what he called a "pretty intense stalker problem."
[30] Vedder would refer to the issue in the song "Lukin" from
No Code
.
Later that same year the band released its third studio album,
Vitalogy
, which became the band's third straight album to reach multi-platinum status. It was at this time that Vedder began to be featured more on rhythm guitar. Many of the songs on
Vitalogy
appear to be based by Vedder around the pressures of fame.
[31] The album received Grammy nominations for
Album of the Year and Best Rock Album in 1996.
[32] Vitalogy
was ranked number 492 on
Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
The lead single "
Spin the Black Circle" won a Grammy Award in 1996 for Best Hard Rock Performance.
Although Abbruzzese performed on the album
Vitalogy
, he was fired in August 1994, four months before the album was released.
The band cited political differences between Abbruzzese and the other members; for example, he disagreed with the Ticketmaster boycott.
He was replaced by Jack Irons, a close friend of Vedder and the former and original drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Regarding the approach Pearl Jam took after its initial success, Vedder stated, "We've had the luxury of writing our own job description...and that description has basically been cut down to just one line: make music."
[33] The band subsequently released
No Code
in 1996 and
Yield
in 1998. In 1998, prior to Pearl Jam's U.S.
Yield Tour, Irons left the band due to dissatisfaction with touring.
[34] Pearl Jam enlisted former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron as Irons' replacement on an initially temporary basis,
but he soon became a permanent replacement for Irons. "
Do the Evolution" (from
Yield
) received a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.
[35] In 1998, Pearl Jam recorded "
Last Kiss", a cover of a 1960s ballad made famous by
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. It was released on the band's 1998 fan club Christmas single; however, by popular demand, the cover was released to the public as a single in 1999. "Last Kiss" peaked at number two on the
Billboard
charts and became the band's highest-charting single.
In 2000, the band released its sixth studio album,
Binaural
, and initiated a successful and ongoing series of
official bootlegs. The band released seventy-two such live albums in 2000 and 2001, and set a record for most albums to debut in the
Billboard
200 at the same time.
[36] "
Grievance" (from
Binaural
) received a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance.
[37] The band released its seventh studio album,
Riot Act
, in 2002. Pearl Jam's contribution to the 2003 film,
Big Fish
, "
Man of the Hour", was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award in 2004.
[38] The band's eighth studio album, the eponymous
Pearl Jam
, was released in 2006. The band will be releasing its ninth studio album,
Backspacer
, in 2009.
On Pearl Jam records, Vedder uses the
pseudonym "Jerome Turner" for his non-musical (usually design and artwork) contributions. He has also at times used the pseudonym of "Wes C. Addle" ("West Seattle").
Other musical projects
Soundtrack contributions
Vedder has contributed solo material to several soundtracks and compilations, including the soundtracks for the films
Dead Man Walking
(1995),
I Am Sam
(2001),
A Brokedown Melody
(2004), and
Body of War
(2007). Vedder collaborated with
Pakistani musician
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for his contributions to the
Dead Man Walking
soundtrack. He covered The Beatles' "
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" for the
I Am Sam
soundtrack. Vedder wrote two songs for the 2007 feature documentary,
Body of War
, produced by
Ellen Spiro and
Phil Donahue: "No More" (a song referring to the
Iraq War) and "Long Nights". Vedder and the
supergroup The Million Dollar Bashers, which includes members from
Sonic Youth,
Wilco, and
Bob Dylan's band, covered Dylan's "
All Along the Watchtower" for the biopic film,
I'm Not There
(2007).
Into the Wild
Vedder contributed an album's worth of songs to the
soundtrack for the 2007 film,
Into the Wild
. The soundtrack was released on September 18, 2007 through
J Records. It includes covers of the
Indio song "Hard Sun" and the
Jerry Hannan song "Society".
[39] Vedder said that having to write songs based on a narrative "simplified things." He said, "There were fewer choices. The story was there and the scenes were there."
[40] Vedder's songs written for the film feature a
folk sound. Thom Jurek of
Allmusic called the soundtrack a "collection of folksy, rootsy tunes where
rock & roll makes fleeting appearances."
[41] Vedder won a
2008 Golden Globe Award for the song "
Guaranteed" from
Into the Wild
.
[42] He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his contributions to the film's original score.
[43] At the
2008 Grammy Awards, "Guaranteed" received a nomination for
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
[44] "Guaranteed" was also nominated a 2008
World Soundtrack Award in the category of
Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film.
[45] At the
2009 Grammy Awards, "Rise" received a nomination for
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.
[46]
Vedder promoted the
Into the Wild
soundtrack with his first solo tour, which began in April 2008. The April leg of the tour, dubbed the "April Fools Tour", began in
Vancouver, ,
Canada at The Centre on April 2, 2008 and was composed of ten dates focusing on the
West Coast of the United States.
[47] [48] Vedder continued the tour with a second leg in August 2008 composed of fourteen dates focusing on the
East Coast and
Canada.
[49] The second leg of the tour began in
Boston, at the
Boston Opera House and ended in Chicago, Illinois at the
Auditorium Theatre.
[50] In June 2009, Vedder followed his 2008 solo tour with another solo tour composed of fourteen dates focusing on the
Eastern United States and
Hawaii, which began in
Albany,
New York at the
Palace Theatre and continued through to
Honolulu at the
Hawaii Theatre.
[51]
Collaborations
In addition to playing with Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog, Vedder has performed or recorded with numerous well-known artists. He has appeared on albums by The Who,
Ramones,
Neil Young,
Neil Finn,
Bad Religion,
Cat Power,
Mike Watt,
Fastbacks,
Wellwater Conspiracy, Jack Irons, and
John Doe, and has also recorded with
The Strokes, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,
The Supersuckers,
Susan Sarandon, and
Zeke. Vedder performed three songs with the remaining members of
The Doors at the 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He also performed with
R.E.M. at the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Vedder made a guest appearance at the Ramones' last show on August 6, 1996 at the Palace in Hollywood.
[52]
Other work
Vedder had a brief acting cameo in the 1992 movie,
Singles
, along with Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam. He appeared as himself, playing drums in lead actor
Matt Dillon's backing band, Citizen Dick.
[53] He was also interviewed for the 1996 grunge documentary,
Hype!
. He appears in the 2003 Ramones documentary,
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
. In 2007, he made a cameo as himself in the comedy film,
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
. He appears in the 2007
Tom Petty documentary,
Runnin' Down a Dream
, the 2008 political documentary,
Slacker Uprising
, and the 2009
Howard Zinn documentary,
The People Speak
.
Vedder is known for his outspoken
left-wing social and political views. Discussing his views on current issues in the United States, Vedder said, "People on death row, the treatment of animals, women's right to choose. So much in America is based on religious fundamentalist Christianity. Grow up! This is the modern world!"
[54]
In 1992,
Spin
printed an article by Vedder, entitled "Reclamation", which detailed his views on abortion.
[55] Vedder was outspoken in support of
Green Party presidential candidate
Ralph Nader in 2000,
[56] and Pearl Jam played a series of concerts on the 2004
Vote for Change tour, supporting the candidacy of
John Kerry for
U.S. President. Vedder told
Rolling Stone
magazine, "I supported Ralph Nader in 2000, but it's a time of crisis. We have to get a new administration in."
[57] Vedder supported the candidacy of
Barack Obama in 2008.
[58]
In his spare time, Vedder is a surfer and active in surf-related conservation efforts, most notably
The Surfrider Foundation.
[59] Vedder shows his support for environmental activism by sporting an
Earth First! tattoo on his right calf. The logo is of a monkey wrench crossed with a stone hammer. Vedder is also a
vegetarian.
[60]
Vedder is a longtime and outspoken supporter for the Free the
West Memphis 3 movement, a cause that advocates the release of three teenagers (now in their 30's) who were convicted in 1994 of the gruesome murders of three little boys in
West Memphis,
Arkansas. In an interview with
Larry King on December 19, 2007,
Damien Echols, who is on death row for the murders, said that Vedder has been the "greatest friend a person could have" and that the two of them have collaborated on songs while he is in prison.
[61] The song "Army Reserve" on Pearl Jam's 2006 self-titled album features a lyrical collaboration between Vedder and Echols.
Musical style and influences
Critic Jim DeRogatis describes Vedder's vocals as a "
Jim Morrison-like vocal growl."
[62] Greg Prato of
Allmusic said, "With his hard-hitting and often confessional lyrical style and Jim Morrison-esque baritone, Vedder also became one of the most copied lead singers in all of rock."
[63] Vedder has inducted The Doors, Neil Young, the Ramones, and R.E.M. into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in his induction speeches he has cited them all as influences. Other influences that Vedder has cited include The Who,
The Jackson 5,
The Beatles,
Talking Heads, Sonic Youth,
Fugazi,
Tom Waits, and the
Pixies.
[64]
Vedder's lyrical topics range from personal ("Alive", "Better Man" (from
Vitalogy
)) to social and political concerns ("
Even Flow" (from
Ten
), "
World Wide Suicide" (from
Pearl Jam
)). His lyrics have often invoked the use of
storytelling and have included themes of
freedom,
individualism, and sympathy for troubled individuals.
[65] Other recurring themes include the use of water metaphors,
[66] as well as the idea of leaving everything behind to start again (featured in such songs as "
Rearviewmirror" (from
Vs.
), "MFC" (from
Yield
), "Evacuation" (from
Binaural
), and "
Gone" (from
Pearl Jam
)).
Although best known as a vocalist, Vedder also plays guitar on many Pearl Jam songs, beginning with the
Vs.
songs "Rearviewmirror" and "
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town". When the band started, Gossard and McCready were clearly designated as rhythm and lead guitarists, respectively. The dynamic began to change when Vedder started to play more rhythm guitar during the
Vitalogy
era. McCready said in 2006, "Even though there are three guitars, I think there's maybe more room now. Stone will pull back and play a two-note line and Ed will do a
power chord thing, and I fit into all that."
[67] Vedder's guitar playing helped the band's sound progress toward a more stripped-down style; the songs "Rearviewmirror" and "
Corduroy" (from
Vitalogy
) feature Vedder's raw, punk-influenced guitar playing. As he had more influence on the band's sound, Vedder sought to make the band's musical output less
catchy. He said, "I felt that with more popularity, we were going to be crushed, our heads were going to pop like grapes."
He has also contributed performances on the
ukulele,
harmonica,
accordion, and
electric sitar to various Pearl Jam recordings.
Live performances
Throughout Pearl Jam's career, Vedder has engaged in interactivity with the crowd during the band's concerts. Early in Pearl Jam's existence, Vedder and the band became known for their intense live performances. Vedder participated in
stage diving as well as
crowd surfing. Looking back at this time, Vedder said, "It's hard for us to watch early performances, even though that's when people think we were on fire and young. Playing music for as long as I had been playing music and then getting a shot at making a record and at having an audience and stuff, it's just like an untamed force...a different kind of energy. And I find it kind of hard to watch those early performances because it's so just fucking, semi-testosterone-fueled or whatever. But it didn't come from jock mentality. It came from just being let out of the gates."
[68]
Vedder's perspective on performing changed during the
Vs.
era, explaining that "a year later the meaning of a concert to me became, like, 'Wow, what if there was silence between the songs?' Then if I did say anything, then maybe the crowd could
hear
it."
He also commented in regard to getting a crowd reaction that "you should be able to do it just with chord changes and the way you deliver a song."
[69] Even though he has ceased participating in more extreme concert activities, Vedder's connection with the audience has continued to play an important part in the band's concerts. He stated, "I look around the audience, and there's so many faces, and I've looked into the eyes of at least the ones I could see—there's at least 1,000 faces—and I've communicated directly to them and seen where they're coming from...One thing I don't feel is separation from the crowd. I don't feel like we're speaking from a platform, I feel like we are communicating on the same level."
Vedder began incorporating
social commentary and
political criticism into his lyrics and performances early in his career with Pearl Jam. He usually comments on politics between songs, often to criticize U.S. foreign policy. During Pearl Jam's 1992 appearance on
MTV Unplugged
, Vedder stood atop his stool, took out a marker pen, and wrote
PRO-CHOICE down his arm in large letters when the band performed the song "Porch". During Pearl Jam's 2007
Lollapalooza headlining show, Vedder and the band played a song telling the crowd in Chicago to boycott the oil company
B.P. Amoco because they had been polluting Lake Michigan.
[70]
Personal life
Vedder married longtime girlfriend
Beth Liebling in
Rome,
Italy in June 1994.
He briefly served as the drummer for Liebling's instrumental
experimental rock band
Hovercraft in the mid-1990s, going by the stage name Jerome230.
[71] Describing his relationship with Liebling, Vedder said, "Relationships can be tough. There are times—I end up putting a lot of time into this music thing. I don't sleep at night."
[72] Vedder and Liebling divorced in September 2000 after a 16-year relationship.
[73] He is currently in a relationship with model
Jill McCormick.
Vedder and McCormick have two daughters, Olivia, born June 11, 2004, and Harper Moon, born September 23, 2008.
[74] [75]
Vedder attended San Dieguito High School, now called
San Dieguito Academy. Vedder donated proceeds from a 2006 Pearl Jam concert in San Diego toward the construction of a theater for the school in the name of his former drama teacher, Clayton E. Liggett. Liggett was Vedder's mentor in high school. Vedder wrote the song "Long Road" (from
Merkin Ball
) upon hearing of Liggett's death in 1995.
[76]
Vedder is a friend of The Who guitarist
Pete Townshend and former Soundgarden and
Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell. Townshend talked Vedder out of retiring in 1993.
[77] In late 2007, Vedder wrote the foreword to a new Pete Townshend biography,
Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend
. The book was published in the UK in March 2008 and in the U.S. in October 2008. Vedder was a close friend of the late Ramones guitarist
Johnny Ramone, with Vedder being at his side when he died. Since Ramone's death, Vedder and Pearl Jam have played the Ramones' "I Believe in Miracles" regularly at live shows. While driving home from Ramone's funeral, Vedder wrote the lyrics for the Pearl Jam song "
Life Wasted" (from
Pearl Jam
).
He is also a friend of famed surfers
Kelly Slater,
Laird Hamilton, and fellow musicians
Jack Johnson and
Ben Harper. He was featured with Laird Hamilton in an episode of the documentary series
Iconoclasts
in 2006. While surfing with
Tim Finn in New Zealand in 1995, Vedder was carried off the coast and had to be rescued by lifeguards.
[78] He also has paddled
outrigger canoes on occasion and in 2005 was nearly lost at sea trying to paddle from
Moloka'i to
Oahu.
[79]
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