Cross - Pearl jam: the secret history

No band in the 90s was adored, analyzed, written about, followed around and bootlegged more than Pearl Jam. They took on big business, embraced a host of political and social causes, worked to preserve the environment, championed the underdog, encouraged fans to tape their shows, commandeered satellites for private radio broadcasts, eschewed making videos, survived the hype (and death) of grunge anduntil 1999, anywaysteadfastly refused to make themselves available for interviews. Yet despite all this (or more likely, because of it), Pearl Jam has amassed a worldwide fan base that extends to virtually every corner of the planet.

Principled and humble almost to a fault, Pearl Jam became the anti-stars of the 1990s. Led by the still-enigmatic Eddie Vedder, the group has made a second career of trying to prove to everyone that theyre just regular people who just happen to have been extraordinarily lucky. On one hand, this approach has served them well, endearing the group to a legion of fans who hate rock-star hype and the phony posturing in which too many other groups indulge. On the other, these same fans are sometimes frustrated by the fact that their heroes refused to be behave like, well, heroes. Underlying this odd duality is the fact that the quality of Pearl Jams musical output has been remarkably consistent, balancing growth and maturity with the primal need to turn all the amplifiers up to 11.

Andrew Wood was prone to extreme behavior, especially when it came to pumping his body full of chemicals. He first got into cocaine and smack in high school, simply because it was the rock-star thing to do. He then developed a serious heroin habit while fronting a Seattle glam-punk group called Malfunkshun. He also loved to wear big fur coasts, spandex pants and flashy red scarves. His idol was Freddie Mercury of Queen; anything Freddie was into was okay by Andrew.

Shortly after MLB began circulating demos, they were discovered by KISS bassist Gene Simmons, whose support was instrumental in getting them a major record deal. As exciting as that was, the group had other things to think about, namely the health of their singer. Woods penchant for excess had begun to consume him, especially after Polydor came through with a big advance. By November 1990, Wood was so out of control that he was sent to dry out for a month at a rehab center in California. He managed to stay clean during the time it took MLB to record their debut album.

Two weeks before Apple was to be released, however, Wood was found in a deep heroin coma at his girlfriends apartment. He never woke up. With the drug damage too severe to offer any hope of recovery, his family ordered doctors to shut down the life-support machines on March 19, 1990. On March 24, more than 1,000 music fans turned out to his memorial at Seattles Paramount Theater, the site of Mother Love Bones last gig.

The surviving members split into two camps. Fairweather and Gilmore formed Blind Horse, while Stone and Jeff, tired and disillusioned, opted to drop out of the music scene altogether. That retirement lasted until the end of the year when, bored with their day jobs, they both decided to give music another try. Their reentry into the Seattle music scene came via Luv Co., a group that featured guitarist Mike McCready (born April 5, 1964), ex of a parade of local bands with names like Shadow and Love Chile. Finding a drummer proved to be a bit of a problem. Soundgardens Matt Cameron filled in part-time in the beginning, and the position eventually went to Dave Krusen, from a group called the Boibs. He had been recommended by another early part-timer, Matt Chamberlain.

Within a few weeks, Luv Co. had recorded a quick demo tape featuring muscular guitar instrumentals. A copy of the tape was given to Jack Irons, the former drummer with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Knowing that Stone and Jeff were looking for someone who was the exact opposite of Andrew Wood, he promised to pass the tape along to a kid he sometimes played basketball with down in San Diego.

From the moment Edward Louis Severson III was born on December 23, 1964, things had been complicated. The short, difficult marriage between Eddies mom, Karen, and his biological father, Edward II, ended in divorce shortly after he was born. There were stories of physical abuse, and to this day, Karen suspects that Ed was bisexual or perhaps even gay. On November 5, 1966, about two months shy of Eddies second birthday, Karen married Peter Mueller, a lawyer with a boy and a girl from a previous marriage, creating a Brady Bunchlike brood of Eddie and his two siblings, Jason and Chris. When the adoptions came through, Eddie Severson became Eddie Mueller. All this happened so early in Eddies life that as far as he knew, Peter Mueller was his biological father.

Young Eddie had a thriving show business career by the time he was five. He worked as a clothing model for a couple of department store catalogs, amassing a bulging portfolio of photos entitled Edward Mueller, professional model. This work led to TV commercials, including appearances for Hallmark Christmas cards, Chuckles candy and a national spot for Big Wheels in the early 1970s. He even managed to wrangle a spot on Bozo the Clown, one of the most popular childrens shows of all time.

However, the disease eventually got the best of Ed and he died in January 1981. The whole time, Eddie had no clue that this man was his real father.

After Peter and Karen split up, Karens intention was to move the kids back to the Chicago area. Eddie would have none of this. Angry about the charade regarding his fathers true identity, he made it clear that he was staying in San Diego. At first, he tried to stay with Peter, but when the feuding became too much, he found an apartment of his own on Lake Murray Boulevard in the suburb of La Mesa. Now on his own, he was determined to make a clean break by changing his last name to something that had no link to either of his fathers. Adopting his mothers maiden name, Eddie Mueller became Eddie Vedder.

Eddie established a routine in San Diego. Hed go surfing in the morning and play pickup basketball in the afternoon. At night, he worked as a pumper at a Chevron storage depot, filling tanker trucks with gas for delivery to local service stations. On the weekend, he got involved in the local music scene, thanks to his live-in girlfriend, Beth Liebling. She was the talent booker for a couple of clubs including Bachanal, where Eddie occasionally worked as a house roadie, helping bands load in and out. When he wasnt carrying someone elses gear, he played in a couple of groups, including Surf and Destroy, the Butts and, most notably, Bad Radio.

Arriving in Seattle, Eddie was drafted to sing backup for a temporary band known as Temple of the Dog. Soundgardens Chris Cornell, Andrew Woods old roommate, had written two songs in memory of his friend. Neither song was suitable for Soundgarden, so it was decided that these tracks would become part of a special memorial album dedicated to Andrew. Various members of the Seattle music community (including Jeff, Stone and Mike) were recruited for Temple of the Dog and spent several weekends in the fall of 1990 recording tracks from the album. As the new kid in town, Eddies participation in the project was his introduction to what was going on in the Pacific Northwest.

The first suggestion was Reenik Roink, which was dismissed almost immediately as too silly. Then Eddie came up with Pearl Jam, a name he said came from an old family recipe for preserves. According to Eddie, his great-grandmother Pearl had been married to a very spiritual Native American who liked getting high on peyote. The resourceful Grandma Pearl found a way to include peyote in her favorite jam, creating a powerful hallucinogen that also tasted good on toast. This story made for good press (Epic seized it for the official bio release) but it was completely untrue. Although Eddies great grandmother was, in fact, named Pearl Hazel Howarda nice Scottish-Irish womanshe had been married to a circus contortionist from Denmark. This little-known genealogical fact seems to throw water on any claims Eddie may have made about having Native American blood. Regardless of the origins of the new name, Mookie Blaylock became Pearl Jam by the end of May 1991.