Pearl Jam were almost kicked off Red Hot Chili Peppers tour, Billy Corgan claims
In a recent episode of his podcast, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan claimed Pearl Jam nearly lost their support slot with Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1991.
The tour, which was an extensive run across North America, was shortly after the release of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ fourth album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which sent them into the stratosphere. Therefore, both Smashing Pumpkins and Peal Jam, who were both still establishing their respective names, were overjoyed to participate in the tour.
Pearl Jam were placed at the bottom of the bill and only had one single to their name at this stage. However, the opportunity to play in huge rooms alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers had the potential to open their band up to a whole new audience.
Speaking to Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello on a recent episode of his podcast, The Magnificent Others, Corgan recalled: “We were on the Chili Peppers tour. It was Pearl Jam, Pumpkins, Chili Peppers, was the bill. We played about 40 shows on that tour. And during the tour that’s when ‘Under the Bridge’ took off, and that record just blew up like crazy. And Pearl Jam had I think one song out, it would have been ‘Alive’ or something.”
Corgan continued: “And I remember coming to one of the gigs, it was about halfway through the (tour), and we were hanging out with them every day, like you do on tour. And they all looked like somebody had died. And I said, ‘What’s wrong with you guys?’ Because they’re usually kind of an upbeat bunch.”
Pearl Jam had been delivered an ultimatum, according to Corgan, and their future involvement on the tour was wholly reliant on the success of their next single. He claimed: “And they go, ‘They’re gonna withdraw our tour support.’ I was like, ‘You’re on this massive tour.’ (They said) ‘If this single doesn’t catch, they’re gonna pull our support.’ That’s what people don’t understand about the way that business worked back then. If that song hadn’t caught on…”
Thankfully for the Seattle band, Pearl Jam’s first single, ‘Alive’, became a hit, and they maintained their place on the tour. Within the next 12 months, following their run of dates with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they released their debut album, Ten, and became one of the biggest bands in the world.
While Pearl Jam were an unknown quantity before the tour, it made them widely popular and put them on the trajectory to the top.
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