The Truth About Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder

Ragged, real, and countercultural: That was grunge, and grunge was the nineties. From Kurt Cobain's furious passion to Chris Cornell's unforgettable, haunting lyrics, grunge was the musical genre that defined a generation. Sadly, many of the genre's biggest figures have now passed away, leaving heartbroken fans and tragic stories.

The Truth About Eddie Vedder's Brush With Death Jim Bennett/Getty Images By /Nov. 27, 2020 12:43 pm UTC There is a handful of super-famous grunge bands …

As one of the key bands of Seattle's grunge explosion, you'd expect the history of Pearl Jam to be a lot more dramatic than it is. Apart from going through a cavalcade of different drummers and having the occasional spat with Ticketmaster, their existence has been comparatively cozy. To be fair, the points of comparison here are their grunge compatriots Alice in Chains, Nirvana and Soundgarden, all of whom have gone through several tragic troubles, including the deaths of their frontmen.

Pearl Jam — with its distinctive primal growl of vocalist Eddie Vedder and relentless guitar shredding from Mike McCready, among other delights — first emerged as part of the Seattle grunge scene that upended and reshaped mainstream music in the early 1990s. And after 30 years together, Pearl Jam is still one of the world's biggest rock bands, with nearly a dozen studio albums and countless legendary concerts to its credit.

As the singer of Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder is one of the most iconic frontmen in grunge, if not all of rock. Inimitable as it may be, his signature ragged baritone inspired a generation of flannel-wearing 1990s kids, and while many of his colleagues have tragically fallen along the way, he's still out there, doing his thing.