On Sept. 18, 1991, just three weeks after Pearl Jam's debut album, Ten, came out on Epic/Sony, this neophyte music journalist living in Toronto had one of her all-time favorite interviews. It was with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder for a metal magazine called M.E.A.T. (originally an acronym for Metal Events Around Toronto) that covered such acts as Skid Row, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe, Metallica and more. I wasn't too into all the glam bands I had to interview during that era, but I was given an assignment to interview Mother Love Bone, whose album, Apple, was getting a release in Canada, even though its singer, Andrew Wood, had died of an overdose. I loved that album and either guitarist Stone Gossard or bassist Jeff Ament told me about their new band, Pearl Jam.
When they had a pair of gigs at New York's New Music Seminar festival, I made sure I went to one of them. I was hooked. When I got the Seattle band's debut, Ten, co-produced by Rick Parashar, I couldn't stop listening.
By the time I was set to interview Vedder, I knew that album front to back. I called Curtis Management, and it took quite a while to get him on the phone -- they kept coming back and asking me to wait just another minute, and when he finally took the phone, he seemed out of breath. The following is a transcription of that interview recorded on cassette via my answering machine. Just as the cassette ran out, he told me I could call him back if I needed anything more. Not long after, Pearl Jam blew up and Vedder was very selective about the press he would do; this music scribe, who has since interviewed thousands of people, unfortunately could never get another interview with him.