Why Eddie Vedder despises Mötley Crüe: “It felt so vacuous”
Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has achieved a lot in his career. He is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary rock, thanks to the force of his gravelly vocals and the string of classic hits that his band has produced. As all greats do, Pearl Jam has remained relevant for over 30 years since they first burst onto the scene.
Whether it be early staples such as ‘Even Flow’ and ‘Jeremy’ or his recent album Earthling, Vedder has resoundingly shown that he is an intelligent songwriter. In his time, he’s covered topics ranging from the darkness surrounding a real-life high school suicide to secret tributes to his late friend and hero, Tom Petty.
Like all of his peers from the Seattle scene, Eddie Vedder has a fixed sense of himself and the world. This means that the Pearl Jam frontman knows exactly what he likes and doesn’t like when it comes to music. An affable everyman he might be, but Vedder isn’t afraid to provide stinging critiques of those he deems artistically vapid.
For Vedder and the rest of his distinctly Generation X peers from the grunge movement, one aspect of culture they hated and deemed the antithesis was 1980s glam metal. The Los Angeles band Mötley Crüe have drawn the most ire, with criticisms of being sexist and vacuous sent their way. Famously, Vedder’s peer, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, was an open critic of the ‘Kickstart My Heart’ group, calling their era the “grossest” in music history.
Things haven’t changed for Eddie Vedder. When speaking to The New York Times in 2022, the Pearl Jam vocalist outlined why he hates glam metal and particularly Mötley Crüe. He said: “You know, I used to work in San Diego loading gear at a club. I’d end up being at shows that I wouldn’t have chosen to go to (from) bands that monopolised late-1980s MTV. The metal bands that, I’m trying to be nice, I despised.”
The grunge legend continued: “‘Girls, Girls, Girls’, and Mötley Crüe, I hated it. I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous. Guns N’ Roses came out and, thank God, at least had some teeth.”
In response, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx took to Twitter and provided a stinging critique of Pearl Jam. He wrote: “Made me laugh today reading how much the singer in Pearl Jam hated Mötley Crüe. Now, considering that they’re one of the most boring bands in history, it’s kind of a compliment, isn’t it?”
Listen to ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ by Mötley Crüe below.
