please confirm: did you own a record store or did you simply mean to say that you had a favourite record you frequented?

I owned a record store in Denver for a few years then sold it

so cool

Doug is a cool guy

Insofar as it concerns favorites, the Grateful Dead probably takes this category. I spent a lot of time wanting to get into them, and I liked them okay, but then it really sort of finally clicked for me during the onset of the pandemic.

Springsteen also wasn’t immediate. I was into maybe his greatest hits at best until I saw him live in 2008 or 2009, and then I was really hooked.

Pearl Jam is still probably my favorite band but they pretty much have been at the top or near that mark for me for 30 years.

War on Drugs
Idles
Bruce Springsteen
The Men

All rotating for favorites depending on mood and song

PJ is in its own category never to be judged against anything else.

Like Star Wars.

And Pizza

I'm a little shocked I didn't see The Replacements on your list.

edit: or perhaps you meant solely later in life.

I've loved them for 23 years. Is that later in life?

Damnit, beat by the buzzer.

There are many bands I've come to love later in life but none that I've thought about in terms of "favorite band" the same way I thought about Pearl Jam growing up. I think that "favorite band" concept is just tied up in a lot of intangibles that aren't part of how I listen to music as an adult.

Overall the biggest change to my listening as an adult has been the shift from listening primarily to rock to listening primarily to jazz. I'd be hesitant to call any jazz artist my favorite artist, but I'd say pretty much without hesitation that jazz is my favorite type of music, and that's probably only something I've come to in the past 5-7 years.

Kevin knows what's up...

I agree with this to an extent except a lot of that adulation was tied up in my teenage adoration of Eddie Vedder. You take that teenage angst-centered relationship out of the equation and I can think of several bands that have meant as much, if not more, to me than Pearl Jam.

Tom Waits, Kendrick Lamar, and St. Vincent are all bands/artists I came to "later" (in my mid to late 30's -- I'm 43) that I consider among my favorites. For a long time I thought no musical art would hit me and mean as much to me as Pearl Jam did in my teens. But all three of those artists listed above have had a similar impact on me "later in life."

Goddamnit what is later in life?!

Tom Waits is going on 20 years for me now.

Please clarify, ruddo.

I think Pearl Jam’s liberalism/idealism has alienated a lot of fans as they become older and more conservative.

I can certainly agree that Pearl Jam, Star Wars and Pizza are all on the same level in my life.

Pizza is so great I almost take it for granted.

For me it's Jerry, Bob, Phil and the boys.

A shocking turn of events…

For me, everything related to PJ20 was what turned me off them altogether, even more than their rapidly declining music output.