The album that changed Eddie Vedder’s life forever: “They were doing it”
Music hits the soul in a different way for everybody. For some, the first crash of a guitar can spark a lifelong love affair with rock and roll, but for others, a different path awaits. Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is a figurehead in the grunge scene, but his introduction to music couldn’t have been further away from the genre he’s called home for the last 30 years.
For the early part of Vedder’s life, he grew up in the bustling city of San Diego, and during these formative years, his household was bursting at the seams with his parents fostering several children. However, they later divorced, and Vedder had no option but to spend a lot of time in his own head with nobody else around for company.
Music was a saving grace for the future Pearl Jam frontman and provided the singer with a source of connection when he needed it most. In his later teenage years, it became increasingly important, and in his early life, it was merely background noise. “When I was around 15 or 16… I was all alone—except for music,” he once quipped.
Around that same time, Vedder fell in love with rock bands such as The Who, a moment that would change his life forever. From this moment on, he began to form a deep relationship with records. The albums would provide the basis for Vedder to not only connect with others around him but also with himself. Through these records, he found a voice, and with that voice, he spoke to millions of kids who were just like him.
Before the English group stormed into his life, Vedder was passionate about The Jackson 5, and their music remains precious to him today. “The stuff that got put in my blender, it started maybe, like, Jackson 5 when I was a kid and then [The] Beatles… growing up, and then The Who took over big time,” Vedder explained to Bruce Springsteen.
He then began gaining an interest in acts such as Split Ends, Fugazi, Talking Heads and Sonic Youth. “And I guess after you put all that in [the blender], then you just hit, hit pulse,” Vedder explained.
Despite everything else that has marauded its way into his life over the years, Vedder still holds extremely fond feelings towards The Jackson 5, particularly their appropriately titled Third Album. “This is the first real memory I have of any music that stayed with me,” he once told Discogs. The record isn’t necessarily considered the finest of the band’s discography, but it certainly spoke to Vedder on a more personal level.
For a young Vedder, the record wasn’t just something to listen to but a blueprint to achieve happiness. “I was living on the wrong side of the tracks in Evanston, Illinois, in a home for boys,” he explained. “Homes for boys” are often tough places to grow up and feel appreciated, or even seen at all, for Vedder, the band showed him a way out of that, a way to truly be free.” We had these Jackson 5 records,” he continued, “I really related to their voices – they were about my age, but they were doing it. It was like, ‘Get up girl, sit down. I’ll show you what I can do!’ And you would do it. Whatever you say, Michael.”
The record would provide Vedder with the impetus to be seen, be heard and be felt by generations of music lovers. It might not be easy to draw a straight line between Pearl Jam and The Jackson 5, but there can be no doubt that without Michael Jackson and his brothers, grunge would be short at least one iconic group.
