Words matter. These are the best Eddie Vedder Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
That’s part of the curse: If you’re gonna play the song, you better play it. I’ve tried to phone in ‘Jeremy’ a few times, and it’s tough. It doesn’t work.
Do you force your kids to pay attention to what’s going on, or do you let them live their lives outside of it? My hope is that my child is a strong activist. That would make me most proud.
The way we’re attached to our phones these days, they buzz and twitch in our pockets, and we have to look and see if it was a text, a voicemail, or an e-mail. We’re almost like lab rats. I tried to eschew the whole cell phone theory until I had kids; then, I had to be reachable at all times.
I think celebrities suck.
When attempting to make a plea for more peace in the world at a rock concert, we are reflecting the feelings of all those we have come in contact with so we may all have a better understanding of each other.
I think that if your approach is one where you don’t want to alienate anybody, you’re going to have to soften the viewpoint or the information that you’re offering to such an extent that it doesn’t have the power to make any difference. You have to take that risk.
There’s been times when I’ve been standing in a line at a movie and someone’s hit me with something really heavy about someone really close and how our music has helped them get through it. Even in our darkest moments we try and find something beautiful.
I’m trying to break any chain of negative parenting that I might have survived.
When it comes to grunge or even just Seattle, I think there was one band that made the definitive music of the time. It wasn’t us or Nirvana, but Mudhoney. Nirvana delivered it to the world, but Mudhoney were the band of that time and sound.
The Who on record were dynamic. Roger Daltrey’s delivery allowed vulnerability without weakness; doubt and confusion, but no plea for sympathy.
When I was 13, I got my first guitar, and I could sort of play Ted Nugent songs, but I couldn’t play the solos. But I could play along with entire Ramones songs.
The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.
The Who quite possibly remain the greatest live band ever. Even the list-driven punk legend and music historian Johnny Ramone agreed with me on this.
I was living on the wrong side of the tracks in Evanston, Illinois, in a home for boys. We had these Jackson 5 records. I really related to their voices – they were about my age, but they were doing it.
It’s a character-builder to be a fan of the Chicago Cubs.
I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time. There’s an insanity that goes with writing – a mad scientist thing that you have to go through – and sacrificing a kid’s upbringing to do that is not an option.
Any conversations we hear about ‘So who are Pearl Jam marketing to?’ are despicable.
I had actually been going to Hawaii for quite a while before I ever picked up the uke. I think with anything new you’re going to get more enjoyment out of it if it comes to you quickly, and the uke facilitates that.
There’s a finite amount of time on this planet for each of us. Sometimes, the only way we figure out how to deal with that reality – knowing that there will be an end to every story, and you don’t know how many chapters are left in your book – is by living in denial.
Caffeine. The gateway drug.
So my one kid’s 4, my other kid’s 4 months, I’m 44, Barack Obama is the 44th president – it’s all lining up nicely here.
People are just trying to work their jobs, raise their families, discipline their kids, and have a good life… Politics has just become like bad weather. And they deserve clear skies.
Playing music for as long as I had been playing music and then getting a shot at making a record and at having an audience and stuff, it’s just like an untamed force… a different kind of energy.
People say, ‘How does having kids change your writing? Do you see the world through their eyes?’ No – you just become a faster songwriter… In the old days, you’d be like, ‘Oh I’m gonna work on this song for a few days.’
We went from an era when rock ‘n’ roll meant wearing a bustier as a woman and these spandex things and guys trying to portray someone that wasn’t realistic. We are trying to make it seem real… relate to our lives.
No matter how good you are, at some point your kids are gonna have to create their own independence and think that Mom and Dad aren’t cool, just to establish themselves. That’s what adolescence is about. They’re gonna go through that no matter what.
I feel like we have to keep our eyes on the road. Being nostalgic is like taking an offramp and getting a sandwich – and then you get back on the highway. I don’t want to be spending the rest of my life at the gas station.
I am not a good enough writer to have an agenda or come up with a message and try to put it into a song. It’s more like you write what comes to you… You try to reflect the mood of the songs.
The interesting thing is that it seems like George W. Bush would have been happy being the president of anything. He could have been president of Major League Baseball.
I’m an example of someone who never made it to university. I did have this dream to be a musician. I felt that this dream had an expiration date.
I just think that all of us in this room should have a voice in how the USA is represented. And he don’t allow us our voice, that’s all I’m saying.
It’s not a bad time to be me.
Life moves fast. As much as you can learn from your history, you have to move forward.
