Rose from the ashes

Cool. I will devour this.

Welcome to The Celebration Rock Podcast, a weekly talk show hosted by Steven Hyden about the past, present, and future of rock music.

Next month, Pearl Jam will be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. To mark this momentous occasion, we’re excited to launch Vitalogy-alogy, our seven-part series on the history of one of America’s biggest and most fascinating bands.

Our purpose is to answer one question: How did Pearl Jam survive? In the early ’90s, Eddie Vedder was the biggest young rock star in the world — in the wake of Ten‘s success, he was even more popular than his erstwhile rival, Kurt Cobain. And it practically happened overnight — when the video for “Jeremy” debuted on MTV in the fall of 1992, sending Ten into the stratosphere, it was barely two years after Pearl Jam’s first rehearsal. The way that Pearl Jam reacted to that sudden fame informs the narrative of the band’s entire career. Decades before they were feted by the Rock Hall, Pearl Jam had to figure out what kind of band they wanted to be as millions of people watched their every move.

For our episode on Ten, we spoke with journalist Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone, who got to know the band while profiling them for a 2006 cover story and over many subsequent interviews. We also spoke with Mark Pellington, one of the greatest music-video directors ever, about his experience making the iconic video for “Jeremy.”

Unless the band ever opens up about unheard recordings, Ed's divorce (and impact on music), or new info on the drummer history, I don't expect there's anything new to be found in revisiting their history. The PJ20/Pearl Jam Twenty combo pretty much covered everything else.

How did Pearl Jam survive? A guy took over, the other guys said "Well, we've tried for years to get to this point. We're set for life. If we leave now we'll probably get another flake singer. They're all flakes." So they stayed and enjoyed the fruits(and made some good music).

No disrespect, but I think this is a gross oversimplification. Eddie back in the day was a special dude, and a rare breed in the music world: Incredible pipes, a real passion for the music, a vision for where the band could go, and no major drug or alcohol dependencies. My sense is they had already seen enough of the rock world to know how lucky they were to have him.

Yes oversimplifying but I basically said your last sentence in a different way. They knew lightning probably wouldn't strike twice.

I agree with everything's that been said, but they still owe a lot to serendipity. They still get a lot of mileage out of being a part of and helping ushering in a new "sound." They definitely came in at the right time smack dab during a huge inflection point for music.