Pearl Jam Drummer Used to Play Shows in His Pajamas

Story by Cat Badra

Pearl Jam Documentary Has Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain Slow Dancing

Cameron Crowe, the director for the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary, has been tight with Eddie Vedder and the guys of Pearl Jam since the ‘80s. That came in handy when shaping the film, which looks back at Pearl Jam’s entire career, pulling out previously unseen footage and clips, such as Pearl Jam’s second-ever gig on Dec. 22, 1990, and the guys jamming to the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” in a Lollapalooza dressing room in 1992.

Pearl Jam Twenty premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last weekend, and in a press conference, bass player Jeff Ament said he was as surprised as anyone with the footage. He found the backstage shots from the Cult show especially crazy-looking: “I’ve told that story a lot, but then all of a sudden to get pulled back to what it really was like is pretty shocking,” he said, via Rolling Stone. “I didn’t know I wore hats like that.”

Drummer Matt Cameron was shocked to see himself onstage wearing, well, his sleeping attire: “I wore PJ pants for one show,” he said, laughing.

Even with all the nostalgia, the big moment, everybody concurs, is the shot of Kurt Cobain and Vedder slow-dancing to “Tears in Heaven.”

“You see Kurt looking over and go like this [puts finger to lips] and it’s not saying, ‘Don’t tell anybody’ or ‘Keep the lid on this little private moment,’” Vedder said. “It was actually because on the stage above us, Eric Clapton was playing ‘Tears in Heaven.’ The first time I saw that footage, it was incredibly emotional, just ’cause he’s smiling and you think, ‘You just gotta pull through.’

“…That’s the thing about today, maybe it’s a good thing that this movie just happened now. We’ve been in grateful mode and appreciation mode for each other for quite some time. It’s a galvanizing moment.”

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Cat Badra

Meet the expert - Cat Badra is a music writer for Audio Ink Radio and a range of other music, sports and lifestyle publications. She's a graduate of Michigan State University with a master's degree in theater and speech. Contact her at cat@audioinkradio.com.