A great deal of fate and inspiration are part of the Pearl Jam story. Ament and Gossard were in the band Mother Love Bone when the lead singer died of a heroin overdose in March, 1990. They formed a new band with McCready and went looking for a drummer and lead singer. Vedder found them because they asked Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons to join them, and while he couldn't do it, he knew Eddie and gave him an instrumental demo tape the band made. Vedder spent one day writing lyrics and adding vocals to the three songs, which got him the job as lead singer. In October, 1990, he flew from his home in San Diego to Seattle, where they hunkered down and recorded most of the Ten album before Eddie flew back to work at the gas station where he was employed.
The first name for the band was Mookie Blaylock, after the basketball player who was with the New Jersey Nets at the time. One of Blaylock's trading cards somehow appeared in the tape case of one of their demos, so they chose the name when they needed to come up with something for their first show in October, 1990. Their first album is named after Blaylock's number: Ten.
Believing that Ticketmaster had a monopoly and overcharged their fans, they refused to use them and filed a complaint against them with the US Justice Department in 1994. They avoid using Ticketmaster whenever possible, but are forced to when they are the only option.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.