“Eddie Vedder”

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Speaker 2 All right. Hey, Chuck, Chuck.
Hello.

Speaker 3 This is Eddie Vetter. The guys do not know that I'm doing this.
They don't know I'm here early.

Speaker 4 I'm usually late.

Speaker 2 But,

Speaker 3 you know, they want to start this thing early and then where the fuck are they?

Speaker 2 Come on, fellas. Let's do this.
Welcome to Smartless. Smart.

Speaker 2 Smart

Speaker 2 List

Speaker 2 Smart

Speaker 2 Less

Speaker 2 This is what I want to bring up. When we had dinner on Sunday, we started talking about words that we get mixed up.
Like,

Speaker 2 I never knew the difference between rife or ripe. Like, if something is rife or rife with information or ripe,

Speaker 2 you know, what is the right? And then, Jason, didn't you have one?

Speaker 4 Yeah, my big question up until a couple of weeks ago, a couple of years ago, rather,

Speaker 4 was making ends meet.

Speaker 4 Now, I always thought

Speaker 4 people would say that as a, well, we're just trying to make ends meet, meaning we're just trying to buy the cheapest kind of meat. You know, we're not because we're poor.

Speaker 4 We're trying to make ends meet. The meat at the end of the cow.

Speaker 2 I need a new crew. I need a new phone.
I thought that till a couple of years ago, but it's really about completing the circle.

Speaker 4 Make ends meet M-E-E-T. Now, if I had been a reader, I would have seen this in print and known that it wasn't M-E-A-T.

Speaker 4 Now, the more egregious one, Sean, before we move on here, Will.

Speaker 2 I can't wait. This is all of this is so, I'm so close.

Speaker 4 This is

Speaker 4 Mystery Guess, we're getting right to you. Stay awake.

Speaker 4 But this is music related, so you'll enjoy this.

Speaker 2 Mystery Guess is from the music. You know what he's going to say, Sean.

Speaker 4 So, Sean, Sean P. Hayes,

Speaker 2 who's a music fan and also a music student, Arnley Hall. Student, studied music.
This is this is when we were watching the Beatles documentary together. Oh, that's right.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we all watched the Beatles documentary.

Speaker 4 This ding-dong

Speaker 4 didn't understand that the Beatles spelt B-E-A-T. Right.
Like, like the beat, like the one makes a beat.

Speaker 2 Wait, and you knew this, Jason, you knew that?

Speaker 4 Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I did not know that. Isn't that so stupid?

Speaker 4 The bug, the Beatle, is B-E-E-T.

Speaker 2 Right, but I never knew it was a pun on beat, like a rock beat, like a drum beat.

Speaker 4 So you did know that Beatles, the bug, is spelt with two E's?

Speaker 2 I do. I just didn't put two and two together.
You didn't put it together. But listen, I can't be the only person out there.

Speaker 4 Well, no, most of those people are locked up.

Speaker 2 You know what? You know what we're going to get? We're going to get online.

Speaker 2 We're going to get people responding to this, like on our social saying, like, I was today years old, which, by the way, that expression, fuck off. But wait, don't you think, don't you think,

Speaker 2 if you want to to write a comment on any one of our feeds or whatever, and admit that you didn't understand that the Beatles was a pun on the word beat and not the bug,

Speaker 2 please join me. It'll really help Sean out.

Speaker 2 It will help Sean out.

Speaker 2 It'll really help me out. It's good.
We've got Bennett and Rob. I want everybody to, we've got Bennett and Rob and Michael here.
Can they contribute as well just to say, what did you guys know?

Speaker 2 We've never done this before, but you guys knew about the pun. I knew that.
That's for sure. I knew about it.
Bennett knew that. I knew about the pun.
You did for real?

Speaker 2 Michael Grantary knew about the pun. And Rob.
Are you serious? You guys, you're not.

Speaker 2 Well, I admit it. I'm going to look dumb.
Hang on. We haven't heard from Robert Omier.
Ormier. Rob.
Yeah, it's like Beatless with one S.

Speaker 2 Beatless. Beatless.
Beatless. Beatless.
It's like Smartless.

Speaker 4 Beatless did not clear.

Speaker 4 It went with Beatles.

Speaker 2 Beatless. So they, oh my God, they.
Anyway.

Speaker 2 Wait, I was about to accuse them of ripping us off, but I guess that was 60, 70 years ago. So it's an homage.

Speaker 2 Oh, it's an homage. That's what I'm saying.
It's an homage. Thank you.
Thank you very much. So, yeah.
So we cleared that up. So that's so the Beatles, super inspiring, though.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Watching the TikTok. Right?

Speaker 2 Watching their. But wait a minute.
Let me just say, I wasn't the only person in the room when we were all watching that together that didn't know that Beatles was a pun on the word super.

Speaker 2 Somebody else who's a big listener of the show, she also didn't know.

Speaker 4 She was our kind host, too.

Speaker 2 She was our kind host.

Speaker 2 And let's just say

Speaker 2 we're not going to. No, you know why we're not going to out her? Because she's a friend.
She's a friend, friend, okay?

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 4 we give you initials, at least, right?

Speaker 2 No, no, no. We don't need to.
We just say that she's a friend.

Speaker 4 She's a friend.

Speaker 2 She's with a capital F. She's a friend with a capital F.
That's right. 8 p.m.
Musty TV.

Speaker 2 Now we know. Oh, shoot.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 Oh, Sean, we've said too much. On Tubi.

Speaker 2 Do I have Tubi?

Speaker 4 Listener, sorry for that.

Speaker 4 Mystery guest, sorry for that. Here comes, here comes.

Speaker 2 All right. After this,

Speaker 2 after going on like this, they're going to be more like a misery guest, am I right?

Speaker 4 Do you like the rock and roll?

Speaker 2 I love the rock and roll.

Speaker 4 Do you like the sound of actual instruments being played, plugged in, played loud? This isn't dance music, listener. This is heart pounding, head-banging, mosh pitting, stage diving, rock and roll.

Speaker 4 But his music is also melodic at times.

Speaker 3 It's rhythmic, it's complex, it's emotional.

Speaker 4 The lyrics are often poetic and complex. In February, he will release his first solo album in more than a decade called Earthling.
We know mostly from the group

Speaker 2 Pearl Jam.

Speaker 4 He's one of our most enduring rock stars, a voice for a couple of generations now, and one of my all-time favorites, folks, Mr.

Speaker 2 Eddie Vetter. No way.
What? Hello there. It's so crazy to meet you.
This is so cool.

Speaker 2 Vetter. I mean, hey, Will.
And now, Eddie, I have it. By the way, how are you? So nice to meet you.
You too, Sean. Eddie, we met once

Speaker 2 years ago at SNL. Do you remember that?

Speaker 4 I do remember.

Speaker 2 Waiwa, tell us about that.

Speaker 4 Why would you remember that? What happened?

Speaker 2 He took a photo of us together, right, Ed?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it was the after, at the after thing.

Speaker 4 Yeah. And it was that memorable.
Just of just one photo with Will Arnett will do it.

Speaker 2 It'll burn it into your brain.

Speaker 3 It was, no, I wish it would have went longer, but those things are sometimes crowded, but that was the highlight of the night. We had a little

Speaker 2 minutes with this guy.

Speaker 2 Can I do a little thing about you, Eddie? So when I was in college, I was on the entertainment committee, and we were in charge of getting bands to come.

Speaker 2 And at Illinois State University, greatest university in the country,

Speaker 2 you played. And I don't know if it was the same ticket as the Red Hot Chili Peppers or not.
I think it was, right? Yeah. And maybe you opened for them or was it just a double?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it was us and the pumpkins and the peppers, I believe, yeah.

Speaker 2 And the pumpkins, right? It's a magic pumpkin.

Speaker 2 And you all, and I remember seeing you. I was like, everybody in the audience was just blown away and you hadn't really become you yet.
And the band was just kind of on the rise, right?

Speaker 2 do you remember when you weren't you yeah what was that like Eddie

Speaker 2 wait Sean you you Sean you organized a night that had red hot chili peppers pearl jam and smashing pumpkins well we we we as a committee discussed of the bands touring who would we we would go after who we thought the student body would like to this was at your college god what a what a school and and uh yeah it was wild to see you then and how have you been do you remember that night Eddie what was the venue like was it was it kind of a hall?

Speaker 2 It was called the Bone Center. We used to call it the boner.
How'd you guys come up with that?

Speaker 4 Was there a lot of lovemaking happening at the center?

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 4 Boy, if Will Arnett was there, I bet Eddie would remember.

Speaker 2 No, no. No.

Speaker 4 Eddie, so Eddie, before you were Eddie,

Speaker 4 were you always doing music and

Speaker 4 wanting to, planning on, dreaming of being a rock star? Or were there like some regular jobs that

Speaker 4 kind of put some food in your mouth before you started successfully rocking and rolling oh for sure yeah i ended up doing a lot of midnight shift work which uh

Speaker 3 it's came in handy because because that's kind of the job now is that you kind of night work you know you're not supposed to peak till like nine or ten at night and and that kind of uh

Speaker 3 that lifestyle ended up working for for the current occupation. But

Speaker 3 yeah, no, a lot of waiting tables, a lot of I I I really had like a passion or an instinct and a drive and all these things to

Speaker 3 if if I was going to try to write songs or I was at least gonna just give it my best shot and,

Speaker 3 you know, worked hard in little bands and then would do midnight shifts and do all the, you know, making of flyers.

Speaker 3 And I heard when you talked to Dave Grohl the other day and he was talking about recording with cassette tube cassette players and going back and forth. I mean, it's the same thing that I did.

Speaker 3 And I think that comes from a desire.

Speaker 3 You know, that's not that was before the advent of home multi-track recording, which was in the early, mid-80s, which we finally got around to, I'm sure Dave did too. But

Speaker 3 before that, it was but it was really just wanting to be able to

Speaker 3 write a song yourself or have it sound like a drum machine or have it sound like a real

Speaker 3 a real piece of music even though you're doing it by yourself. And I think that came from listening to early Pete Townsend demos, which back then were on bootleg vinyl that I would acquire, and

Speaker 3 hearing that one guy could kind of play everything and go.

Speaker 4 What about how Dave played every single instrument on that first album for Foo Fighters? That was pretty impressive, wasn't it?

Speaker 3 Yeah, he gave me that tape long before it was out. I think it just said this side.

Speaker 4 Play here. Did you give him any notes on it, or was it pretty much done?

Speaker 3 Oh, it was done. Yeah.
It was done. And then their first tour,

Speaker 3 it was actually Dave and I

Speaker 3 and Mike Watt. We were supporting Mike Watt, who had just put out a great record with a lot of collaborations.

Speaker 3 And so when we took it on the road, it would be me, Dave, and Watt at the end of the night as a three-piece, and then Pat Smear would join us, et cetera.

Speaker 2 Oh, cool.

Speaker 3 And then I would start the night playing drums with a little three-piece, and then Foo Fighters would play. And that was like their very first tour.

Speaker 3 And I want to say it was something a little insane, like 28 shows in 30 days.

Speaker 2 You know, I wanted to ask you, Eddie, about like you were saying,

Speaker 2 Jason touched on, then you touched on when Dave was talking about

Speaker 2 recording and trying to do like a

Speaker 2 real patchwork sort of multi-track with cassette tapes and stuff and like using the home stereo, his folks' home stereo and stuff, which is so cool.

Speaker 2 And just that desire to like get it out because he knew obviously he had like a song or an idea of something that he had to do it.

Speaker 2 So he had to, and And you probably heard us rambling on before you came on here about watching the Beatles dock together. And

Speaker 2 I was, Sean will attest to this. Jason was minding his own business, but I was obsessed with watching this documentary, watching that process, that creative process.

Speaker 2 It's one of the, I said to them the other night, it's one of the most inspiring things I've seen in years and years, watching that process and watching Paul work out songs

Speaker 2 and watching him go through Let It Be and trying to figure it out and then Ringo sitting next to him, blah, blah, blah what i'm getting to is promise promise and i don't want

Speaker 2 yeah i don't want this to turn into one of those like eddie veter says on the podcast that he puts him you know he's like the beatles or like one you know because that's what people like to do they want no one's listening but what is

Speaker 2 was did you have that experience as a kid as well where you were just like had all these ideas for songs that you just knew had to come out or like you had a vision for it like was that kind of coming out of you in that way in the way that i imagine it would You know, one thing I have to say about the documentary which was enlightening and exciting for me to finally realize that I had something in common with John Lennon, and that is

Speaker 3 that I'm always the last guy to show up at practice.

Speaker 2 How about that? He was so late all the time.

Speaker 3 In common. However, I was early today.
I'll be late for practice, but see, I...

Speaker 3 you know, maybe I'm a little too comfortable with the fellas in the band, but you guys I deeply respect, you know.

Speaker 2 you were very on time for sure.

Speaker 3 No, I'm usually late. The guys would know this.
I'm usually late because I'm working on a last-minute lyric or something. So we have some,

Speaker 3 I can make some progress from my side of the fence. But

Speaker 3 I think early on, I think it was just,

Speaker 3 you know, how to cross that bridge or how to build the bridge from playing somebody else's song. to writing one yourself.
And,

Speaker 3 you know, like our lead guitar player, Mike McCready, is just, you know, unbelievable.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 I was never going to be able to do that.

Speaker 3 Or my interest lied into kind of communicating and getting

Speaker 3 lyrics and

Speaker 3 chords and momentum and

Speaker 3 rhythms

Speaker 3 to communicate. And that started early on, you know, and

Speaker 3 it still continues. It's still the

Speaker 3 ever-moving gold line, you know, that you try to get across on a daily basis.

Speaker 4 Was it more of an excitement to get lyrics out or get music out, rhythm, melody,

Speaker 4 you know, sound? Or was the initial draw

Speaker 2 more writing poetry?

Speaker 3 You know? Well, I think it's to get them to match, you know, so that the song is, you know, the song is the lyrics.

Speaker 3 And the lyrics are just fit with the music, that the music means what the lyrics lyrics mean and the lyrics sound.

Speaker 4 So are you saying that rarely will there be a stack of lyrics on one side and a stack of cool sounding melodies and it's just arbitrary what set of lyrics go with what kind of song?

Speaker 4 In other words, are they written separately sometimes

Speaker 4 in your process? And then you go, oh, these lyrics would go good with this sound or does it happen simultaneously?

Speaker 3 You know, every once in a while, because I will just sit and just write to write, just write to write, and typewriters or calligraphy, whatever, I'll just write to write.

Speaker 3 And then I'll bring those notebooks and pads of paper, and then something comes up, and then I might

Speaker 3 think that this song sounds like

Speaker 3 that one thing I might have been writing about. So you might take the one line.
That's interesting. You might take two, and then you flesh it out.

Speaker 3 Rarely would you take a whole page and just have it match up.

Speaker 2 So many of your lyrics are like just stuck with me and they always will be. Like I just know so many of them off by heart.
They're kind of part of my experience,

Speaker 2 you know, especially in my sort of 20s and 30s. They were really just, they're so ingrained in my head.
Like I, at any point, I can't, this is not a joke.

Speaker 2 I can't tell you how many times out of the blue I will go, alone, list, list,

Speaker 2 breakfast, like out of the blue. Eddie, it's crazy.
And

Speaker 2 what's nuts is, and Jason Jason kind of said, like,

Speaker 2 you know, your lyrics are, you are like a, I don't want to embarrass you, you're like a poet, though. And your lyrics do have, and I know that your songs have so much meaning.

Speaker 2 What was funny to us was a couple weeks ago, we had David Byrne on the podcast, and I was asking him about like,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 you know, the song, all that lyrics are like, this is not your beautiful house, this is not your beautiful wife. I was like, whoa, what was that moment like?

Speaker 2 Like, those lyrics are so important to so many people, and they read into them. And he's like, oh, it didn't mean anything.

Speaker 2 he said he said i was trying to sound like a preacher from am radio and i just kind of made it up and it has no meaning and we were like what is being a little modest because so many people have like you know really read into that

Speaker 3 i have i have david byrne lyrics that you know it's it's they're one step short of being tattooed on my forearm i mean i lived i've lived by them you know be a little more selfish it might do you some good yeah

Speaker 2 you know yeah but to will's point eddie

Speaker 2 do you ever like actually let it in the fact that you, because music is such a psychological thing for people that when you grow up or what you listen to becomes a part of who you are.

Speaker 2 And do you ever just really soak that in and realize you're one of those people that have created music and lyrics that now live inside so many people? It's kind of an unbelievable feat.

Speaker 2 He's shaking his head. No, no, he's shaking his head.
I never think about that at all.

Speaker 3 It's more thinking that

Speaker 3 if that opportunity still exists to

Speaker 3 still

Speaker 3 do something better or, you know,

Speaker 3 current or,

Speaker 3 you know, I feel like these days, or especially the last couple of years, you know, I've leaned on music.

Speaker 3 Our whole family's leaned on music, whether it's been having dance parties or recording together or whatever. It's always been a positive thing.

Speaker 2 And,

Speaker 3 you you know,

Speaker 3 I'm still looking. I need music to get me through.
And I'd like to have music that

Speaker 3 may,

Speaker 3 you know, do the same for others. Maybe.
I'll try.

Speaker 4 Do you ever find that, I know that you have a love-hate relationship with fame and success, like most people with

Speaker 4 an admirable level of humility. But

Speaker 4 do you ever treat yourself to reaching into that bag of accomplishment

Speaker 4 to help you through some of the extraordinary levels of pressure or anxiety. Like, you know, standing in front of 100,000 people, you're about to walk out and play it.

Speaker 4 Like, I would imagine a normal person would need to reach into some sort of bag of something, of some sort of

Speaker 4 pride so that you don't have an anxiety attack. So do you, do you at least use it for that? If you won't pat yourself on the back when you don't need it, no, but you bring up a good point.

Speaker 3 I should do that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, like that's that's okay to tap into it there.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Jason, what's the bag you reach into? Can you talk about it on there?

Speaker 4 It says got a Ziploc.

Speaker 4 And no.

Speaker 2 I want to say this. I want to say, sorry, just wrap up the lyrics thing because it's just killing me.
And I've always,

Speaker 2 to me, one of the most sort of heartbreaking lyrics of all time is from your song Black, which I know is many years ago, Eddie.

Speaker 2 So forgive me for, again, embarrassing you, but there's that lyric that says,

Speaker 2 I know you'll have a beautiful life someday. I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky, but why can't it be in mine?

Speaker 2 That to me speaks of somebody who understands pain and heartbreak and stuff in a way that's so profound. It's so honest and revealing.

Speaker 2 Did you start crying well? I'm done, man. No, it's like

Speaker 2 there is a vulnerability in that to be able to say that, to communicate that to somebody that that I don't know man it really speaks to

Speaker 3 I don't know if you want to talk about that or that kind of writing a lyric like that does it feel exposing or does it make you feel vulnerable at all well back that was in the that was the first record so we didn't have anybody listening to us you know so there was there was no reason to when we were recording it there was no reason to think that you know, I was exposing any kind of vulnerable side.

Speaker 3 It was just really communicating what I was feeling or

Speaker 3 to be honest, again, that was something that that music, the plaintive chord changes and all that, it sounded like heartbreak.

Speaker 3 So, you know, so I think some of it may be based in truth or experience, but then you create a story around that or you create, and then you witness some stuff going on over here, and then you incorporate that.

Speaker 3 But in the end, you had, it wasn't just, you you know, men singing that, it was like men and women singing.

Speaker 3 And actually, it was so many, you know, back then, our crowds were average age of 19 or something.

Speaker 2 We will be right back.

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Speaker 2 And now, back to the show.

Speaker 2 You guys, you know, made incredible and still do rock and roll music and rock, whatever you want to call it. It was, you know, guitar-driven.
It was hard. It was a great sound.

Speaker 2 And yet you weren't afraid you did bring this kind of,

Speaker 2 you know, you guys kind of exposed yourself in this way that was very,

Speaker 2 I don't know, just really accessible to you guys because it was very kind of honest. There was something, I think that that's, you know, you connected with your audience like right from the get.

Speaker 2 And for me, I always connected to your music because of the way you guys were so open in that way. I loved that you weren't just sort of

Speaker 2 music oftentimes, especially kind of hard rock music, was very sort of felt very male-driven. And like you said, it was much more inclusive, it felt like.

Speaker 3 You know, I was always a little bit envious of.

Speaker 3 the singer and writer of lyrics in this band Mud Honey, Mark Harm, because it was so acerbic and felt so, his lyrics were pushing outward and galvanized. And it felt to me like he was just protected.

Speaker 3 You know, it was like giggy pop or and Kurt too, his lyrics were cryptic and tough and weren't even sure sometimes what he was singing about or Michael Stipe, it was like protected in some kind of shroud of mystery.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I always wished I was better at that at the time,

Speaker 3 but it was just the way that I was writing or feeling or, you know, I really, to be honest, I didn't know what I was doing as far as you know, what would happen if anybody heard it, because we just didn't think anybody really would.

Speaker 3 Not like as many people as ended up hearing it.

Speaker 3 Which maybe probably made the second record a little tougher because then you did have the thing of

Speaker 3 maybe people were listening and

Speaker 3 or that it would be heard and criticized.

Speaker 3 And that was probably the hardest one to get through lyrically and still have it be pure and not reacting to

Speaker 3 the future reaction.

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah, yeah. All those albums are just so good.
So you've made so many of them. And

Speaker 4 now the solo effort,

Speaker 4 getting that done in between,

Speaker 4 is there a dominant thing in your life now? I'll bet it's family

Speaker 4 and just generally just us having the privilege of getting older because the only other alternative is death.

Speaker 4 And you're starting to absorb a lot of different things is that what's fueling your change in sound to the extent that that that that there that there is one I mean I know I'm sure it's vastly different than what you guys do with the band but what what is what's the main thing that's driving what sounds good to you nowadays and what you're writing about you know I think I went down to Los Angeles to participate in something called Vax Live.

Speaker 3 It was put on by Global Citizen and a lot of great people coming together to encourage people to vaccinate right when the opportunity was being afforded and encouraging pharmaceutical companies, et cetera, to make the vaccinations available to third world countries, et cetera.

Speaker 3 So it was a great endeavor and

Speaker 3 then I just happened to bump into a guy that I'd come to know over the years a bit.

Speaker 3 His name is Andrew Watt, and

Speaker 3 kind of producer, musician.

Speaker 3 And we've been friends for a while or just kind of acquaintances and I just wanted to go see his studio and and we hung out for a couple days and just immediately started writing so I think what was informing some of this new stuff was just a new collaborator a new studio a new which is a little home kind of spun basement and just working with some

Speaker 3 another guy Josh Klinghoffer which has been working with

Speaker 2 our group

Speaker 3 with the when we go out live playing the our new record, which was two years ago, which we haven't toured on yet.

Speaker 2 Can't wait for that.

Speaker 3 Called Gigaton. So, so Josh was in the fold, and we just started hanging out.

Speaker 3 And then we actually was going so well, we had the rest of the guys come down, and then we started doing some Pearl Jam songs as well, just in this new atmosphere and new feeling.

Speaker 3 And that went really well, too. So I think coming out of COVID, it was

Speaker 3 like an antidote to all the isolation.

Speaker 4 But what's affecting your taste nowadays? Is it your sensibility? Is it being adjusted mostly with

Speaker 4 your family dynamic and your tempo there?

Speaker 3 I think, well, certainly that's part of the fabric, you know, of

Speaker 3 nothing makes you feel more grown up than being a parent.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 And having kids now that are, you know, becoming young adults if they're not already there. And it's a house of badass women.
So,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 I think it comes from a place of humility

Speaker 3 and responsibility and

Speaker 3 always looking out for

Speaker 3 their world.

Speaker 2 Let me ask you something just about. I was going to say, Eddie, sorry, Sean, just before you, I know that you mentioned that you like, your buddy had a little basement studio.

Speaker 2 I'm in my new little basement studio anytime, Eddie. I just know, I don't want to embarrass you.
Jason, stay out of it. Yeah.
Eddie, anytime, man. I got a little vocal area.

Speaker 4 Look how inspiring that environment is.

Speaker 2 One microphone. He's all set up.
I got two microphones, too. Sorry.

Speaker 2 Yeah, man.

Speaker 3 You know what, Will? I'm going to send you. See that blank space right there?

Speaker 2 Yeah. I'm going to send you a nice ukulele with a holder.

Speaker 3 You just put it right there.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 3 I think I should send you all of ukulele. Look, Jason, you got a space for ukulele?

Speaker 2 Right there. Right there.

Speaker 2 Bring it. And Jason will send you a signed headshot.

Speaker 4 Yeah, I can sign a 8x10 for you.

Speaker 2 Happy to it. I'll be right up there.
Yeah, you look like the dry cleaners up at the Oakwood Corporate Housing. But speaking about that, you just pointed to your guitars on your wall.
Do you

Speaker 2 I don't even know. How many instruments do you play? And what's the one instrument that you don't that you wish you did?

Speaker 3 I wish I could play. I mean, I can make I can get a sound out of a violin, but I wish I could actually really play one.
Or maybe a cello, like a fretless stringed instrument with a bow would be.

Speaker 4 Is that because you love classical music?

Speaker 3 No,

Speaker 3 but I don't mind it. But I think you could

Speaker 3 do some intro. I'm a big fan of this guy, Warren Ellis, who plays with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and just Nick Cave.
And Warren had a band called

Speaker 3 The Dirty Three, which was all instrumental back in the day.

Speaker 4 We almost called this podcast that.

Speaker 2 That's amazing. The Dirty Panel.

Speaker 2 The Dirty Three. Rather Way would have been good.

Speaker 3 But they were incredible, and it was all improvisational, and

Speaker 3 he's been a

Speaker 3 huge inspiration to me all my life.

Speaker 2 Was there as time went on, you know, Pearl Jam, I think, was formed around late 80s, early 90s, right, or something like that? 90, 91, yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and as time went on, did the, and technology improved around music, did that help? Did that hinder? Did you embrace it? Were you like, screw that?

Speaker 2 We're all acoustic. Like, did that influence you in any way either? We're analog.
We're analog.

Speaker 3 I think technology is great. I still, my goal has been, or I think the group kind of agrees, using the technology to do what we've always done, but maybe do it more efficiently or quicker.

Speaker 3 And to be honest, it probably doesn't sound quite as good if you don't do it right onto tape, like two-inch tape like we used to, analog, et cetera.

Speaker 3 I just think you can get lost in the technology.

Speaker 3 But if you can comb through it and distill the technology to do the simple things that you used to do with the old stuff, I just feel like nothing can really make the music better than just playing well and writing well.

Speaker 3 And that you can do with anything, so we don't need all the extra stuff, but you can use the technology to just make it

Speaker 3 go a little quicker and maybe sound a little bit better sometimes.

Speaker 4 So you guys don't feel any pressure to sort of keep up with what I seem to see as somewhat of a trend, where this integration of electronic sound with the more sort of traditional sort of amplifier, you know, music, guitar sounds like a sound.

Speaker 2 You've never sounded older, Jason. I know.
I've never sounded more out of touch. You know, like than this moment.
And you've sounded out of touch a lot.

Speaker 4 I'll name the two other groups I listen to,

Speaker 4 Radiohead and Wilco, where they take sort of an electronic sound and they infuse it into some of the...

Speaker 4 Is that something that you guys play around with? Do you feel obligated to?

Speaker 4 Is it interesting to you?

Speaker 3 I think if I was better at it, I think sometimes I'd be inspired to do that.

Speaker 3 And then that entails reading like manuals or figuring out how to work these knobs. And I'll buy this, I'll read about a

Speaker 3 guitar pedal that

Speaker 3 Ed O'Brien from radio had used and or I'd watch him use it and then I'd say, oh, I need and then realize that you need to spend a lot of time figuring out what the knobs do.

Speaker 3 And I, I, I wanted, I'd rather be writing right or doing something that I could write about.

Speaker 2 Yeah, hey, Eddie, I forgot to ask you. Can I just ask you really quick? Um,

Speaker 2 I keep going back, like, oh man, I've always, because these are things I've always wanted to talk to you about because we only talk to each other for like 90 seconds.

Speaker 3 Well, I'm so happy to be talking.

Speaker 4 Yeah, 15 years ago. He's been waiting since that phone.

Speaker 2 I got my list out. I have like a whole Eddie photo

Speaker 2 but uh oh God bless you lighting up a nail oh he's smoking well he's smoking go ahead

Speaker 2 I don't smoke in my studio that's the only thing

Speaker 2 why not well if you're gonna have Eddie over there you're gonna have to allow smoking of course he can who's kidding who so hang on so uh I don't know what year it was but you and uh a guy who I've known for a long time Bill Janovitz from Buffalo Tom You know Bill.

Speaker 2 I love Bill. Great guy.
Great guy in a great band. And you guys

Speaker 2 played their song.

Speaker 2 Taylor's Fake.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. Have you guys, Sean and Jason? Have you guys seen that?

Speaker 2 No, I have not. I want to see it now.

Speaker 4 Can I YouTube that?

Speaker 2 That was cool, right? You were in Boston doing that where everybody, you know, and you guys knew the song. I mean, did you and Bill know each other for a while, or what was the deal?

Speaker 3 I think we played one show with them,

Speaker 3 I think, in Boston, back in maybe 91.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 I had already had their record or CD at that time. And then that song used to hit me.
And I remember the first time we ever had a tour bus and

Speaker 3 looking out the window and feeling very tragic

Speaker 3 amongst all the newfound success.

Speaker 3 and having that song really hit me. And then years later,

Speaker 3 I used the word taillights in one of my songs. And

Speaker 3 next time I saw Bill, I said, hey, you know, I was going to call you, but I used that. I used taillights.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I apologize. And he says, oh, don't worry about it.
He goes, you know, I got it from Keith Richards.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 what is it? The song about

Speaker 3 Before They Make Me Run, I think. Either that or the When the Whip Comes Down.
Something about Taylights Fade, but yeah.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 4 Why do I remember you

Speaker 4 in a Red Sox cap? Is that a cap you wear often? Are you a Red Sox fan? You're a baseball fan, aren't you?

Speaker 3 I have an affinity to the Red Sox, and partly because of the history and the glory of that old building, which is Fenway Park. And I grew up at

Speaker 3 Wrigley Field, so the old buildings and baseball and the smaller field are kind of in my DNA. And then the third oldest ballpark is Dodger Stadium.
That's right.

Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 My beloved.

Speaker 4 So it's the Cubs that are your, that are your, that's your team, right?

Speaker 3 Yeah, but I feel like I can like the Red Sox because it's American League, you know.

Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah, I gotcha.

Speaker 4 Talk to me about the difference between recording in a studio where you guys have multiple tracks and you can really dial in, you can do your vocals a million times once the music is laid down, or vice versa.

Speaker 4 I'm not sure what the sequencing is there, versus when

Speaker 4 you get together as a group and you play live and

Speaker 4 you know that

Speaker 4 there's no net under you guys, and you're feeling and hearing the momentum and the sound of the music at the same time. The audience is.

Speaker 4 Do you leave yourself open to a completely different experience there and allow the audience to drive and inform the mood there?

Speaker 4 What songs, what order you're going to play, how you're going to play them?

Speaker 4 Is it participatory like that, or

Speaker 4 is it pretty siloed?

Speaker 3 No, for sure. I mean, that's what makes our job job harder, but we've done it to ourselves.
And that's why people like to, apparently, like to see us more than once or

Speaker 3 more than once in a weekend or more

Speaker 3 or 10 times on a tour or something, because

Speaker 3 all the shows are different. And I think that comes, we have our crew.

Speaker 3 We've just been a big family for 30 years. And, you know, if I were to do the same thing twice,

Speaker 3 they would know it um

Speaker 3 and i and i like to entertain we like to keep them entertained and on their toes and and i think they respect that and um

Speaker 3 and that level of respect and and feeling like we're all part of it and and everyone's gonna have to be on point for the whole night is part of why we can make changes or or you know we do things like call audibles, you know, if we're feeling something's happening or, you know, the other thing is being able to stop a show.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
Have you ever cut a show short because the audience wasn't as responsive as you'd like or didn't come back for an encore because you're like, you know what?

Speaker 4 We're good.

Speaker 3 You know what, Sean?

Speaker 4 They don't deserve it.

Speaker 3 I shouldn't say this, but we probably end up playing longer on those nights because we're going to get them.

Speaker 2 We're not leading that until we fucking get them. I get that, Vibe.
I get that.

Speaker 4 Is there a city that's tougher than others others or a country that's tougher than others?

Speaker 4 And the opposite as well?

Speaker 4 Is there an easy lay somewhere?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 3 if I could take it out of that vernacular.

Speaker 2 Please do. Yeah, please save Jason from himself.

Speaker 3 The crowds in South America are just.

Speaker 3 They will sing guitar solos. They will sing in unison.
100,000 people will sing the guitar solo. That's great.

Speaker 3 They'll also, there'll be 5,000 people outside of your hotel room at one in the morning singing the song and singing the guitar solos.

Speaker 4 And I'll bet you LA and New York are tough crowds.

Speaker 3 They used to be.

Speaker 3 I think they used to be. And

Speaker 3 I think back in the day, we were more concerned about that or look, we were spoiled at some point. So if people weren't being riled up, we'd want to rile them up even more or something.

Speaker 3 But I just don't think we

Speaker 3 care about that as much anymore. And we're there to just play well.
And I mean, we're there to communicate. And the other thing is making a big room feel small and intimate.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 that's always kind of the goal. And

Speaker 3 you just never know what can happen.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 creating a space where other things can happen.

Speaker 3 It could be some kind of crowd interaction or some interaction within the band, but just being open to that and grabbing it as opposed to having like a scripted out thing which would kind of be amazing you could do longer tours if you just kind of knew that you got up at two you had a workout you went to sound check you did the set you went home you did the same thing the next night i mean you could really fit in a lot of shows it would it would be easier got up at two in the afternoon that's a wake up at two in the afternoon well because you stay up until five in the morning you see good lord this is a tough question this is like

Speaker 2 Do you have a show or experience or a festival or like a moment that you felt like was kind of that kind of rose above there?

Speaker 2 You just felt so connected and you're like, you look back on and go like that moment.

Speaker 4 That's the one I'm going to chase.

Speaker 3 I mean, it kind of happens a lot, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Same.

Speaker 2 Shut up, Will. No, Eddie and I are the fucking

Speaker 2 artists. Shut up.
We're artists and you're a robot. Have you ever

Speaker 2 seen promises, promises?

Speaker 2 It was on Broadway.

Speaker 4 Have you ever seen Sean in promises, promises?

Speaker 2 Have you ever

Speaker 2 scared because you opened your mouth and because you were getting sick, nothing came out or, you know, you had no voice or whatever caused you to do a lesser performance than you hoped for?

Speaker 2 And what did you do and how did you handle it?

Speaker 3 Well, I used to stress out about that stuff more, but

Speaker 3 now I think it's just, you know, relax, get through it. You know, there's things you can do.

Speaker 2 Well, you would know.

Speaker 3 You can change your breathing. You can do certain things to to get it out or maybe you have to sing a one certain line at a lower uh or do a harmony octave or something or just talk it or or

Speaker 2 jeremy spoke up in class today point the microphone at the audience is that what you were gonna say you do the you do the yeah let them do it hey you guys do it right yeah i was in um i went to

Speaker 2 this like three four years ago i went to berlin with the with the guys from uh you too and with bono and edge and those guys and i went to see them do a show whoa whoa whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 4 What do you mean you went to Berlin with you two?

Speaker 2 I kind of with Bono.

Speaker 4 You're on the plane?

Speaker 2 I wasn't on the plane. I met them there, but I was hanging with Edge and Bono in the south of France.
They live in the south, and I was working down there, as you know, and we were hanging out.

Speaker 2 They're great guys.

Speaker 2 They're great. Are they?

Speaker 2 So, so we go

Speaker 2 vaping at his drippiest. Oh, are they?

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 anyway. So you're on tour with you too.
Go ahead. No, I met them at the show, but we're, you know, whatever.
We were all. So anyway, I go to the show.
Bono loses his voice like three songs in.

Speaker 3 That show.

Speaker 2 I was at that show. Oh.
And he can't. And you took over.

Speaker 2 I took over. And I got to give the audience what they want.

Speaker 2 You know, and people didn't notice.

Speaker 2 Wait, what happened to Bono? Did he, was he sick or something? They canceled the show, man.

Speaker 3 It was almost like he inhaled

Speaker 3 like a chemical or a smoke thing, and it just shut down his vocal cords. It just, that's what I heard, yeah.

Speaker 2 That's exactly right. They had this new smoke.
The people who are doing the whatever, does that fall under pyro, I guess, or whatever?

Speaker 2 But scary, though, right? I mean, those are those, I've had that moment too, like as because we all perform where you go, like, oh, shit, is this the thing? Yeah. Is this the moment?

Speaker 2 You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 Eddie, what is the

Speaker 4 guns to your head? You can only do one thing for the rest of your life between the two, making music or surfing?

Speaker 3 Making music.

Speaker 4 Okay. But you do love the surfing.

Speaker 3 I've,

Speaker 3 you know, look,

Speaker 3 I'm at an age where I can't surf as big of waves as I used to. And so I've had my fill and I've got a couple nice pictures of me on big waves.

Speaker 4 Do you get out there with Larry Hamilton at all?

Speaker 3 I used to, yeah.

Speaker 3 I haven't seen him in a while, but

Speaker 3 yeah, he, you know, he invented so many of the things that people now do on the water.

Speaker 3 He'd invent something, stand-up paddle. He'd invent tow and surfing with his friends and then move on to something else and then invent stand-up paddle and then move on to something else.

Speaker 3 Now he's foiling where he's three feet off the water and foiling through that. So I've been lucky enough to be with him and

Speaker 3 be taught by him.

Speaker 4 What is it?

Speaker 4 If the waves are X amount of feet high, that's too high for you to paddle out? What is it?

Speaker 3 Well, nowadays I would say, you know, I'm not going to, a

Speaker 2 12-foot wave is a lot of water. Good God.

Speaker 3 You know, I've been under.

Speaker 2 Sean and Jason, Sean, have you surfed? No. Look at me.
No.

Speaker 4 Yeah, no, I know.

Speaker 3 Jack Johnson is the best surfing musician. Oh, really? I mean, he grew up right there at Pipeline.
He's incredible. And great, great person, great family.

Speaker 4 Now,

Speaker 4 have you done the Laird Hamilton workout with him in the pool there?

Speaker 2 I have, yeah. That stuff.

Speaker 4 Can you explain to our listener what that is?

Speaker 2 What is that?

Speaker 3 Well, it's just a series of exercises that you do underwater, thinking that, you know, you're getting used to your body under duress, underwater. So when you, you know, it applies to surfing.

Speaker 3 And so if you have like a major wipeout, you're used to like battling underwater. And it might just be.

Speaker 3 you know, you have a swim mask on and you're carrying some weights and you hold your breath and then you just do laps under the pool.

Speaker 3 You know, you see if if you can do a couple laps or be under for 90 seconds then come up and get another breath and then do more or you just you go to the deep end and you push yourself up get a breath go down push yourself up get a breath go down

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 3 the cool thing is the heavier the weights the faster you go down so that's kind of nice um

Speaker 3 And that's just, you know, they used to do it years ago, that the Hawaiians would go swim down, pick up a big rock, you know, run for 30 yards, and then come up and get a breath, and then do laps.

Speaker 2 Just to train themselves.

Speaker 4 So, Laird's probably the closest thing to a human fish we have today. Would you say that?

Speaker 3 Him and Kelly Slater, yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah, they're Kelly Slater, great golfer, great golfer. Do you play golf, Eddie?

Speaker 3 I do not.

Speaker 2 All right, you know what, Eddie? I don't either. Eddie,

Speaker 2 were you doing the cold plunge stuff, too? Did you get into that?

Speaker 3 He's an expert at that. I've got the Puget Sound, so I can jump into that.

Speaker 2 That's fairly cold.

Speaker 3 I might someday.

Speaker 3 I feel like I haven't needed it quite yet, but I'm certainly getting it. Just take a cold shower.

Speaker 2 I love it, man. I do that cold thing, too.
I'm super into it.

Speaker 4 And we will be right back.

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Speaker 4 All right, back to the show.

Speaker 2 I want to know, Eddie, you've worked with so many people, legendary, huge names, too many to list. Is there anybody you haven't worked with that's on your dream list?

Speaker 3 Outside of you,

Speaker 4 you've got an appointment with Will at the studio.

Speaker 3 You know, it's just this life and music.

Speaker 3 Gro would tell you the same thing if he hasn't already. It's just been

Speaker 3 such a huge, incredible blessing. And

Speaker 3 growing up loving music just about more than anything. And

Speaker 3 then knowing the music and then getting to know the people that made it and inspired you to begin with.

Speaker 3 And then

Speaker 3 when you become

Speaker 3 close friends, that's just a whole nother.

Speaker 3 level of

Speaker 3 then it then it kind of changes then then you're just friends and and it right and now you don't even think that that's you have to kind of remind yourself that oh that's that's the guy that kind of raised you

Speaker 4 musically that's what Jason and Will think of me can you talk about your your your co your co-bandmate on on Mrs. Mills

Speaker 3 yeah I sent I sent Jason a song yesterday

Speaker 3 it'll be out in February with the rest of the the collection of this new song on earthling let's listen to a clip

Speaker 4 But you had a special guest star there on Mrs. Mills.

Speaker 3 Well, the song asked for it, and it was a song about a piano. And there's a piano that resides at Abbey Road.

Speaker 3 And it was interesting to hear that Paul McCartney tried to purchase it to have it because I think it was like the Lady Madonna piano. A lot of songs were.
And they called it Mrs.

Speaker 3 Mills because it was left behind by a woman, Gladys Mills, who used to write kind of English pub songs and sing-alongs, and her piano was left, and they call it Mrs.

Speaker 3 Mills, and it's still there because they refused to sell it to Paul.

Speaker 3 And we had our own Mrs. Mills in California, the same model, Steinway.

Speaker 3 And the guy I was working with, Andrew, he had Elton John in there playing Mrs. Mills.
Paul came in and played Mrs. Mills because they recorded a song together.

Speaker 3 Elton, we did a couple songs and he played the shit out of Mrs.

Speaker 2 Mills.

Speaker 3 And then Stevie Wonder came in, and Stevie was playing Mrs. Mills.
And I started thinking about how this piano preferred not to be owned.

Speaker 3 She just wanted to be there with all these fantastic men were laying their hands all over her, and she liked it that way.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 so that's what the song's about. And it did have kind of a

Speaker 3 beetlesque

Speaker 3 feel. And we thought, thought

Speaker 3 speaking of fills we we thought about

Speaker 3 you'd kind of go for a ringo type sound on the drums and then um we're able to reach him and and he was joyfully contributed and and made it into something really really special so we got to uh sit and record and and play with ringo and and it was just a

Speaker 2 a real

Speaker 4 it's a great song education do you like the oh yeah all three of those he sent were just i i genuinely meant what i said

Speaker 4 i could listen to these in a loop for a week straight and not get tired how the hell do i no no no

Speaker 2 wasted on bateman bateman doesn't appreciate anything yeah wait you know what um eddie i wanted to finish we started the whole thing with me recounting the time that um i worked at illinois state university yes at the concert with

Speaker 2 that for sure no wait because i wanted to finish because you grew up in chicago yeah i grew up in glen allen illinois suburb of chicago yeah that's west of chicago that's correct yeah you were in evanston I was north.

Speaker 3 Yeah. You were about the same distance.

Speaker 2 Anyway, I was at this concert. It was, again, it was you.
It was pearl jam, red hot chili peppers. Oh my god, Sean.
Smashing pumpkins.

Speaker 2 And so, and you, I was, I weigh, I weighed like 70 pounds. And

Speaker 2 they let us in the front row, and I worked with the security. So when you did the body surfing and jumped into the crowd, I am the one who had to keep everybody off the stage so they wouldn't rush it.

Speaker 2 And I was like,

Speaker 2 wait a second. I was was 19 years old at 70 pounds thinking I could hold back a crowd rushing the stage to get to Eddie Vetter.
And let's not forget, super, super gay. Oh, my God.

Speaker 2 Oh, yes, you pointed out. I wore a cape.
I was so gay. Oh, boys.

Speaker 3 A cape that said security.

Speaker 2 Oh, God. Oh, boy.

Speaker 4 The question is, Sean.

Speaker 2 The question is, did you feel safer knowing that Sean was there? Exactly. Did you feel safer?

Speaker 2 I do remember you buy you jumped into the crowd didn't you didn't you used to do that yeah yeah that would be a nightly occurrence yeah

Speaker 3 and then the chili peppers would play and then i'd do it a bunch more just for yeah are you still doing that when you guys are going out and playing those huge venues when's the last time you jumped into the pit trying to think

Speaker 3 jill would not be happy it was fun in the in the 20 movie or whatever the cameron crow uh Pearl Jam documentary. There was a maybe a four-minute thing of just all the

Speaker 3 montage of me jumping in and watching my young kids react. That was pretty fun.

Speaker 2 Did anybody just grab your junk one time?

Speaker 2 Oh, Sean.

Speaker 2 This isn't like the bushes. You just jump in the pit, you dumb.

Speaker 2 I'm just saying about the crunch grab. I mean, they had to have.

Speaker 3 Actually, maybe that explains the calluses. But yeah, so maybe

Speaker 2 somebody did.

Speaker 4 Are you close to rescheduling your dates that you owe us on the domestic tour? I think I saw there were two there for the forum in Los Angeles. Are we close to resetting those?

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Yeah. I think we're going back to Europe in the summer, and I think there's been

Speaker 3 some that's being announced in the States, hopefully before that. I'm not sure if they've been announced, but that's the plan.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 4 Don't make like you don't know us when those come out.

Speaker 4 Come on, guys.

Speaker 2 Okay. Yeah, man.
Come on.

Speaker 3 I don't think you know how much I like you as well.

Speaker 2 Well, we're going to be all over you when you get out there.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. Are we all over it?

Speaker 4 Let's speak about your...

Speaker 2 I'm going to body surf over.

Speaker 4 Are you going to

Speaker 2 say, please grab here and an arrow to your junk?

Speaker 4 Talk to me about

Speaker 4 scoring movies briefly or longly, however you want.

Speaker 4 Your work with Sean Penn is fantastic. Is that something that you enjoy doing? I mean, you're mostly writing writing songs for those films as opposed to scoring to picture yes.

Speaker 3 Question? Yeah, I think, you know, Sean is really the driving force behind all that, or I feel like the ones that have meant the most or anything at all were really just the Sean ones.

Speaker 3 And, you know, working with Sean is great, as you know, because

Speaker 3 he can be a

Speaker 3 as much as he's my older brother, and,

Speaker 3 you know, we're so close, but he's still a terrifying individual, and

Speaker 3 it will really bring out the best in you. And even lyrically, you know, if you've ever been out with Sean, you know, he might at three in the morning kind of recite

Speaker 3 a Dylan song with nine verses and do it perfectly. Or

Speaker 3 you know, and so when you write, you want to give him something that's worthy of you know reciting at some point.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 3 you know, he's just been a great collaborator.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 this last one we did, uh, Flag Day that came out just a few months ago was just another great experience. And his daughter is just incredible in it.
He's incredible in it.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 Your daughter participated as well, yeah.

Speaker 3 Well, yeah, it was,

Speaker 3 I love the story because it was just, she was just a stand-in vocalist. We needed a, you know, we were writing songs, Glenn Hansard and I, the great

Speaker 3 Irish singer person, Irish human,

Speaker 3 Irish earthling.

Speaker 4 But he

Speaker 3 he

Speaker 3 we came up with this song we really wanted Sean to hear,

Speaker 3 but we didn't have our female vocalist for another week or so. And so I just asked my daughter to come down and give it a whirl.

Speaker 3 And she doesn't spend a lot of time saying, you know, she's shy about it and very humble and just kind of, you know, enjoys it.

Speaker 3 but she came in and and I played it for Sean and there was something about her voice and the vulnerability of it and that it was just kind of perfect for the song so he said not only do I I like the song but this this version and there was also great symmetry because it was him and his daughter and then Olivia as well so it It was a great experience.

Speaker 3 And then the craziest, coolest thing, which we could have never predicted and even a week before had no idea it would happen or three days before.

Speaker 3 But Olivia came up and sang on stage when we played the Ohana Festival with all her uncles, you know, in the band, you know, from Glenn to Chad Smith to Josh and Andrew and all these great players.

Speaker 3 So it was kind of like she had the perfect wave and

Speaker 3 she surfed the shit out of it. She sang great, and that was a big thing to be in front of people.

Speaker 2 So that's very,

Speaker 2 Eddie, speak a little bit, because you just talked about Glenn Hansard, who I'm such a fan of his music.

Speaker 2 I'm so happy that you guys, that the idea of you guys working together for whatever reason makes me really, really happy. Tell me about your relationship with Glenn and how that came to be.

Speaker 3 You know, I'll tell it quick. The crazy thing, or I mean, it came from such a

Speaker 3 tragedy in a way, because

Speaker 3 he was playing

Speaker 3 somewhere in Oregon. And I read about it the next day that

Speaker 3 during the set, some

Speaker 3 young man who obviously had some deep, deep issues

Speaker 3 walked away from his girlfriend, left her in the crowd. Next thing you know, he was jumping from the back of the stage onto the stage and

Speaker 3 killed himself.

Speaker 3 It happened behind Glenn. Glenn thought maybe an amp had fallen over.

Speaker 3 It got even more hectic because there was a one,

Speaker 3 a two-lane burrow into the venue, like a winery or something, and he was there with his group swell season. And all the crowd had to stay put so they could get emergency vehicles in and out.

Speaker 3 So everyone was kind of watching this thing happen.

Speaker 3 Anyways, I was able to get his number and reached out that next day just to see how he was, because we had gone through some stuff with the Ross Gilda thing.

Speaker 3 the concert where

Speaker 3 we had our own extra large dose of tragedy. So that's how we met on the phone.

Speaker 3 And then I called the next day and checked back in on him and they decided to keep playing, which I think for them was a great idea.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 3 that's how our friendship started. And now we're, again, just brothers.
And I just love the guy.

Speaker 2 And that's so great.

Speaker 3 Every day I get to see Glenn is a good day.

Speaker 4 Let me ask you a final question. We will let you go.
You've been very generous with your time.

Speaker 4 This is the dumbest question

Speaker 4 of the morning.

Speaker 2 Do you want me to ask it?

Speaker 4 You're going to pretend Sean texted me and asked me to ask you this question.

Speaker 2 That's really nice. That's probably nice.

Speaker 4 And it's a final Pearl Jam question. Does the title of the band mean what I think it means?

Speaker 2 Go, Eddie, go. No, no, don't put it online.
Tell us what you think it means first.

Speaker 4 No, I'm going to wait until he gives a little color on it. There's a slight grin on his face, listener.

Speaker 3 Well, the thing is, I don't really know what it means, so you could be right.

Speaker 2 I think you do.

Speaker 2 Okay, there it is.

Speaker 4 Can you explain the grin?

Speaker 3 Just a ridiculous question.

Speaker 2 It's a ridiculous question. It is a ridiculous.
Thank you, Eddie Vetter.

Speaker 4 What do you think Pearl Jam means?

Speaker 2 I think it means whatever.

Speaker 2 You know, first of all, Eddie Vetter just clowned you, dude. You just got clowned by Eddie Vetter.

Speaker 2 I think it means. Can I say what I think it means? Go ahead, Sean.

Speaker 2 I think it means when a couple who is deeply in love with each other

Speaker 2 have

Speaker 2 an intimate relationship. Okay.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 they have a leave behind

Speaker 2 during an intimate encounter.

Speaker 4 There's an organ scream.

Speaker 2 What is that? There's an organ scream. An organ scream.
There's an organ scream.

Speaker 3 And what you get is Pearl Jam.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And then you write music to it.
Yeah. Are you talking about a dick barf? Whoa, bro.
Well, I don't know what. I mean, which was the other option for the banner.
That was the original stage.

Speaker 2 That was

Speaker 2 human.

Speaker 2 Kind of. Fucking dick barf.
It didn't clear. It was already taken.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 3 Did you guys hear about the Guar show? You know, Guar, speaking of great bandrooms.

Speaker 3 Did you see that

Speaker 3 they were playing a theater?

Speaker 3 and they had somebody crowd surfing and by the time he got pushed up on the stage, he had lost his prosthetic leg. No.
No. So everyone had to scramble, and then they stopped the show.

Speaker 3 See, this is the good thing. Any singer should be able to stop the show.
Anybody running the show, any promoter should have a kill switch and be able to stop the show.

Speaker 3 It's just something you need to do. And I tell you, when the leg...

Speaker 3 comes up from the back of the crowd it's just the and gets passed up just the leg it was it's just fantastic filled with pearl jam at that point.

Speaker 2 By the time it gets to the front, do you think that Eddie and I could play brothers? Do you think I've had that?

Speaker 4 Yeah, I was thinking about that early on.

Speaker 2 That's a compliment to me, by the way. That's it.
It is. Yeah.
It is. Are you guys resisting the urge to just sing Eddie's songs to me?

Speaker 4 I've been trying not to joke out for a solid hour now.

Speaker 2 I keep wanting to go like keep it together.

Speaker 4 No, don't do it. We're about to get away with it.

Speaker 2 Okay. Eddie, Eddie.
But it's on the table. Sorry.
I just can't fucking, man. I love you, Eddie, dude.
I love you. You're a beast.

Speaker 4 And until we see you in Inglewood,

Speaker 4 please be well. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for doing this.

Speaker 3 Such

Speaker 2 a pleasure. It's an honor to meet you.
I got some. I really, really love you guys.

Speaker 4 Thank you. You are the man.

Speaker 2 Life. Oh my God.
Thank you, Eddie. All right.

Speaker 4 Be well. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
And hopefully we'll see you soon.

Speaker 3 Much love, fellas. All right, Eddie.

Speaker 2 Bye, buddy. Chuck.
Bye.

Speaker 4 You guys are welcome.

Speaker 2 Okay. You're welcome.

Speaker 4 I just walked on.

Speaker 4 There's about a half a dozen true rock stars in this world. I agree.
There goes one of them.

Speaker 2 Wait, how do you know him, Jay? What do you, I just, you know, he doesn't know me.

Speaker 4 He doesn't know him. He doesn't know me, Sean.

Speaker 2 He doesn't know him at all.

Speaker 4 I don't, but

Speaker 4 I requested, and he was nice enough to say yes.

Speaker 2 That's so nice. I met Eddie.
I met him at SNL like, like, 15 years ago, maybe longer, and longer. It was like, yeah, 15, 16 years ago.

Speaker 2 This was the photo that he remembers so clearly yeah he took it and it was like the first it wasn't whenever it was before the iphone and he had an actual camera and i was on 8h right after the show we hung out after it too but we were in the thing and i was just waiting at 8h talking to somebody and eddie comes over he had a briefcase with him which is funny um no joke and then he goes and they just performed on the show and then he goes Hey, do you mind if we take a photo?

Speaker 2 And I was like, what? And then he produced, he's got a camera.

Speaker 2 he's just been taking photos like he asked you to take a photo with him yeah good lord and it was i i couldn't i i and then i went and talked to him and the rest of the guys at the after at the after party um like mike uh mccready and those dudes and and uh mike mccready was a big arrested fan oh

Speaker 2 yeah and um we were still on the original on air on the original fox version and you know the the the more guys that are like rockers the more because you know when i growing up, you only see them in videos, you just hear their songs.

Speaker 2 You just assume they're like testosterone-filled, tough guys are going to kick my ass. And then you meet them and they're like the heart of gold, gentle giants, like the sweetest.

Speaker 2 That's what I meant about Eddie's music, about his vulnerability to his music and the way that makes it. It's so interesting.

Speaker 4 There was power and emotion that matched

Speaker 4 the weight of their musical sound, too.

Speaker 2 And it's okay, Sean, to what you were saying, it's okay for men to be vulnerable in that way and express themselves in that way. That's what a real man is.
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 2 And I don't know about you guys. I mean, he just said it, and I said it to him.
And I say it to you guys all the time.

Speaker 2 You know, there was a while, it felt like it wasn't okay for men to say, I love you to their friends. And I say it all the time.
It's really important. I love you.

Speaker 2 I love you too. And I think it's so true because it's like, oh, it's too scary to say that.
No, it's not. It only makes you evolve.

Speaker 4 Sure. And I mean,

Speaker 2 fuck you, Jason.

Speaker 4 Well, I'm just saying in the past, you know, it used to be like, if you said, I love you

Speaker 4 to

Speaker 4 a man, people would think that you were gay or maybe even bye.

Speaker 2 Bye.

Speaker 2 Old school. Bye.

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