Something deeply hilarious about Ed and Bono annoying each other with tortured metaphors about horses and albums

He already said that...i think it was 2006? He was really amused with it, seems Bono wanted PJ and Radiohead to be on the rankings with them, and to try to make more pop music or whatever.

This also indirectly answers the age-old question, "Does Eddie read RM?"

I really liked that interview. Its nice to get a grip on Ed´s actual thoughts on this stuff. The part were they discuss suicide...damn, interesting.

Definitely glad someone finally asked him about Kurt Cobain and the impact of Gen X -- inquiring minds!

In all seriousness, it was a good read. I believe what he says about the kinds of connections that lead to collaboration (i.e. Watt, Wonder, etc.) being circumstantial things that just sort of happen.

Interesting interview; while some of the topics are pretty well-trodden, I do appreciate how the interviewer tries to break through Eddie's tendency to speak in vague metaphors and allusions, which sometimes is all you get out of his interviews.

Yeah, that's what I liked, too. The guy was almost harsh in how he called Eddie out on the vague answers

Great interview. Glad to see someone take Ed to task with some hard questions. Typically not something you see with Ed interviews. Like Argo said, I’m glad he didn’t let him off the hook when he gave typically vague answers or told stories he’s told a million times.

yeah, they had a good conversation back and forth. Even with the super tiresome Kurt Cobain apparition, it was a good interview.

That was an intentionally hostile interview. One of many examples is the interviewer all but stating that pj's new material isn't as good as their old stuff - point me to a non-hostile interview where a musician has to answer something like that. Respect to Ed for appearing unfazed throughout the whole thing and keeping it civil.

Yeah i found myself cringing and getting frustrated with the interviewer early on, but the ending and the back and forth about suicide i thought was interesting and redeemed the piece.

One of the main throughlines in the questioning, until Ed derailed the interview at the end, is EV's supposed hypocrasy. Since this happens to be a major point that conservatives make against liberal entertainers, I understood the dynamic between the two against that framework. But to be fair, I didn't even read the interviewer's name so have no idea about their politics.

well, he is also giving us remarks of what he thinks in those weird annotations on the right.

Still, even in those weird and frustrating moments, the back and forth with the suicide part was cool.

It was a fascinating and informative read. It just struck me as highly unusual for any musician to be interviewed like that.

It seems like Eddie knew going in that more than just his rote answers were going to be demanded of him in this interview. The first thing the interviewer says is that he wants honesty not humility (which does come across as a bit hostile), and Eddie says "That’s what could be scary about this interview, and I like that." I think they had agreed beforehand about something, maybe even that the interviewer could be a little rude and not beat around the bush. It's an unusual interview, but that's what made it actually worth reading. And I don't see anywhere where the interviewer is saying that the new music is bad

This sounds like a really interesting article. Anyone willing to post the content so I can get around the NYT firewall?

And risk going to prison!? I think not!

You can read it logging on for free (using facebook/google/apple).

A solo effort from a member of a long-running rock band can be an iffy proposition, the music in danger of being scuttled by either self-indulgence or transparent bids for greater individual stardom (or both). Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, sidestepped those problems on his 2011 solo album, the quaintly charming and musically humble “Ukulele Songs.” His new one, “Earthling,” out Feb. 11, is an altogether different, more ambitious effort. The album features guest appearances by Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Ringo Starr and was produced by Andrew Watt, a hitmaker known for his work with such contemporary pop musicians as Justin Bieber, Post Malone and Miley Cyrus. As such, it’s likely that the album will contain some surprises for those listeners who mainly know the singer as an avatar of ’90s-era rock-star angst, as well as for the army of die-hards who have continued to ride Pearl Jam’s various waves. “When the songs are coming out,” says Vedder, who is 57, “it’s usually because they’re songs that I would like to hear myself. It’s like I need a paint color that I’ve never seen, so I mix it myself. Hopefully people trust us to come up with new paint colors that they care about too.”

You made your new album with a young producer who has had pop success. You’ve also got these older legends on it. The fact that you reached both forward and backward generationally for your collaborators made me wonder: Have you been thinking about how to attract listeners beyond Pearl Jam fans? And I know the humble answer would be, “I’m happy if anybody listens,” but I’d rather hear the honest answer than the humble one. I wouldn’t want anything to be not honest. That’s what could be scary about this interview, and I like that. The honest answer is that I should think about that stuff, but I don’t. It’s funny because all the people that you mentioned, working with them just kind of happened. Andrew was working with Elton to finish his record,1
1
“The Lockdown Sessions,” released last October.
and I’d been called in to scribble out some lyrics. Stevie was also working with Andrew on that record, so then we had a relationship. Stevie, it was incredible to watch him work. At one point it was almost like he disappeared as a person and became a musical entity, a vessel. I get chills thinking about it.

But to stick closer to the initial question: Who do you think your audience is now? And what might those people be getting out of your new music? I don’t know. People tell me powerful stories about what the music means to them, so, in that way, I know what they get out of it. When people tell me that stuff, I don’t feel like I should get credit. They’ll say that a song helped them, but, ultimately, I’m like: “You did it.” Really all I can do is hope that other people appreciate the music that I like. I’ve had conversations with Bono back in the day. He was suggesting that we needed to work harder and that you didn’t want rock ’n’ roll to become a niche. He said that when U2 makes a record, it’s like they’ve got a racehorse and they don’t just want the horse in the race, they want to win the race. I said we race the horse and then we let the horse run free. I wasn’t trying to be clever. That was the truth. He was frustrated with me. But the dream was to be in a group that toured and recorded, and we were OK with things being scaled down if that allowed the dream to survive.