Eddie Vedder

A cassette tape arrived via Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons in 1990, and Vedder did what any aspiring San Diego musician would do: he went surfing first. Then he wrote three songs in one afternoon, recorded them on a 4-track, and mailed the tape to Seattle. The band flew him up within days. Ten took nearly a year to catch on, then went 13x platinum in the US. The fact that he'd been pumping gas and working hotel security a few months earlier made the whole thing feel genuinely accidental.

Pearl Jam's Dark Matter landed in 2024 as their 12th studio album with the band showing no signs of winding down. The Netflix documentary Matter of Time (2025) documents two sold-out charity concerts for epidermolysis bullosa, the rare skin disorder he and wife Jill have championed since co-founding the EB Research Partnership in 2010. Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres now play for the official 'Vedder Cup' trophy he designed, with both teams supporting the EB partnership. The activism doesn't feel performative because it's been running for fifteen years.

The song 'Alive' is technically about his mother's confession. She told him during his teenage years that the man he'd grown up calling his father was actually his stepfather, and his biological father had already died of multiple sclerosis. Vedder had briefly met his real father as a child without knowing who he was. He wrote 'Alive' about the whole thing on the same day he got Pearl Jam's demo tape. The goggles he wore during early Pearl Jam shows were painted over to block out the audience. Stage fright, reportedly.