I was one of the lucky ones who got to go the SNL taping last March and I had Isle seats on the floor. I shook Eddie and Mike's hands as they went on and off stage for the finale. Wasn't much more than that. When I was leaving the studio Boom was standing out in the hall, I was definitely the only one on the floor who knew who he was so I approached him and told him how much I love what he adds to the band and that I would be seeing him a bunch in May. He seemed really humbled. Then I went in for the hand shake. BOOM HAS THE BIGGEST HANDS EVER! I thought he was gonna crush mine haha
Far be it from me to bash him, and I guess he must have his reasons, but I can't really see what the problem is. I mean fair enough if it's really busy and there are loads of people around, but if it's just a couple of people.........
I haven’t officially met him, but I wanted to share this with you guys to let you know that he really is a very cool person.
At the Tower theatre show in Philly, I was third row (really second as there was only one row a head of us, the first row was shorter than the rest). Anyway, when he was walking down the stage shaking hands with people I jumped up and was smiling in anticipation. As he was about center stage (I was far right) we made eye contact and he kind of squinted and tilted his head saying “I don’t think I can reach you there.” So I shook my head to show I understood and kind of put my head down in disappointment and when I lifted my head back up , Ed was in front of me stretching out as far as he could to reach me and shake my hand.
I got to shake his hand after night 1 of his solo shows in Atlanta. I was too nervous to say anything more than "Nice to meet you" and he smiled back. His bodyguards would not allow photos or autographs.
And Lukin Fan was there waiting but he decided to go back to his hotel and sleep right before Eddie came out to shake everyone's hands.
I met him twice (shook his hand) and spoke to him a few years back. A nice guy, who is very sincere. Appeared to hang off every word I said.
i met many famous people, couldn't care less about any of them. But then i met Don Mattingly, my Hero, and he was the same way, Sincere, shook my hand twice, he was just himself!!!.which is all u really want.
Don Mattingly yelled at me and refused to sign my baseball when I was a kid
Met after the show, we waited for him at the side door. 3 hours later he emerged from the darkness... guitar case in one hand, cigarett in the other. we chatted, auto's, pix and strangely fondling his shoulder the whole time (and Im a guy, lol)
My nickname is Car (short for Carsten). He signed my wristyband "CAR ED VED"
He signed my daughters picture too. I told him it was his next generation of fans.
I kept the pen which was from Spain (a certain company)
Havent taken a bath since, lol.
My shadowbox... Priceless!
Member # 173***
21 Shows and counting... Finally met Ed @ Zellerbach night 1!!!
Met after the show, we waited for him at the side door. 3 hours later he emerged from the darkness... guitar case in one hand, cigarett in the other. we chatted, auto's, pix and strangely fondling his shoulder the whole time (and Im a guy, lol)
My nickname is Car (short for Carsten). He signed my wristyband "CAR ED VED"
He signed my daughters picture too. I told him it was his next generation of fans.
I kept the pen which was from Spain (a certain company)
I got to shake his hand after night 1 of his solo shows in Atlanta. I was too nervous to say anything more than "Nice to meet you" and he smiled back. His bodyguards would not allow photos or autographs.
And Lukin Fan was there waiting but he decided to go back to his hotel and sleep right before Eddie came out to shake everyone's hands.
:( please don't remind me
www.RLMcDaniel.com
1996: Ft Lauderdale
1998: Birmingham
2000: Charlotte, Tampa
2003: Tampa, Atlanta, Phoenix
2004: Kissimmee
2008: West Palm Beach, Bonnaroo, Columbia
2010: MSG2
2012: Music Midtown
2014: Memphis
2016: Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Jacksonville, JazzFest 2018: Wrigley 1, Fenway 1 2022: Nashville 2023: Ft. Worth II 2024: Baltimore
this was back when spring training for the Yankees was down in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. After the game, a bunch of us were waiting up by the gate where the players leave the parking lot and someone came by and said that Donny B was signing autographs inside the stadium. Well, my cousin and I took off running and we found the large crowd around Mattingly- he was on the other side of the field fence. I didn't want to take the chance of not getting by ball signed, so I pushed and shoved my way to the front of kids - I was probably 10 or 11 at the time, but always a big kid. So, as soon as he spotted me, he stopped signing and yelled at me and told me that he would never sign anything by me!!! Guess I deserved it
www.RLMcDaniel.com
1996: Ft Lauderdale
1998: Birmingham
2000: Charlotte, Tampa
2003: Tampa, Atlanta, Phoenix
2004: Kissimmee
2008: West Palm Beach, Bonnaroo, Columbia
2010: MSG2
2012: Music Midtown
2014: Memphis
2016: Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Jacksonville, JazzFest 2018: Wrigley 1, Fenway 1 2022: Nashville 2023: Ft. Worth II 2024: Baltimore
this was back when spring training for the Yankees was down in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. After the game, a bunch of us were waiting up by the gate where the players leave the parking lot and someone came by and said that Donny B was signing autographs inside the stadium. Well, my cousin and I took off running and we found the large crowd around Mattingly- he was on the other side of the field fence. I didn't want to take the chance of not getting by ball signed, so I pushed and shoved my way to the front of kids - I was probably 10 or 11 at the time, but always a big kid. So, as soon as he spotted me, he stopped signing and yelled at me and told me that he would never sign anything by me!!! Guess I deserved it
I am so jealous of everyone's stories! I still have yet to meet him. I know when I will, I will cry, cry tears of joy. Pearl Jam means so much to me. Eddie's voice and music has such a special place in my heart.
0
81
Needing a ride to Forest Hills and a ounce of weed. Please inquire within. Thanks. Or not. Posts: 58,276
Yeah... he's a pretty nice guy.
...
But, the nicest guy is Mike.
Exactly. I met the band in April 2004 at the Westin Hotel at the Impact Awards show. They were all pretty nice, but Mike by far was the nicest. I had a real conversation with him for about 15 minutes. Just an absolutely genuine and kind person.
Ed was very nice too but seemed kinda distracted and maybe cautious the whole time. We later learned that he was being stalked pretty heavily around that time so it's certainly understandable. Plus some drunk girl with her boobs popping out of her dress kept interrupting his conversations to tell him how much she just loved him. That was pretty sad.
I met him twice (shook his hand) and spoke to him a few years back. A nice guy, who is very sincere. Appeared to hang off every word I said.
I noticed the exact same thing when I met him. I thought, "your're Eddie Vedder, what do you care what I have to say?" Honestly, I think he really does care what we say to him and he appreciates our support. Anyway, he is a nice guy. Before meeting him I loved him and Pearl Jam, but after I now LOVE him and Pearl Jam. I had always told my husband that I thought Eddie would be one of the coolest and down-to-earth people and I was so right!!! It means so much to me that he lived up to my expectations of being a nice person.
I'm on Facebook - facebook.com/christopher.leesye1
1998 Brisbane 2
2003 Brisbane 1
2006 LA 1 & 2
2008 LA 2, San Diego 1 (EV)
2009 LA 1, 2, 3 & 4, San Diego
2011 St. Louis (EV)
2012 Tulsa 1 & 2 (EV)
2013 Chicago, Dallas & OKC
Yeah... he's a pretty nice guy.
...
But, the nicest guy is Mike.
Plus some drunk girl with her boobs popping out of her dress kept interrupting his conversations to tell him how much she just loved him. That was pretty sad.
And you wonder why he's cautious...For every genuine human being out there wanting to give a polite 'hello' there are another however many others with less genuine intentions or behaviour. Wouldn't be easy.
I've met him & the rest of the band on a couple of occasions, and without a doubt each time was one of the most overwhelmingly positive experiences of my life. They are a group of ridiculously nice guys- not sure how anyone else views famous people, but half the time I expect them to be obnoxious and rude- not these guys. Really, just an awesome group, extremely nice and VERY appreciative of appreciation about their music.
The first time was about 9 years ago & I was just left with this overwhelming feeling of here were these 5 guys who were just out making music because that's what they love to do, and the fact that they are one of the most famous bands in the world, well that's just secondary.
That said, I'm not completely a cool customer & was super nervous when one of them agreed to take his picture with my companion. I was holding the camera and just prayed that I got the two of them in the frame despite my shaking hands. I did, and the picture is amazing.
Even their crew is nice. Little protective of the guys (who wouldn't be) but nice and SMART.
"If you're looking for someone to pull you out of that ditch, you're out of luck."
Far be it from me to bash him, and I guess he must have his reasons, but I can't really see what the problem is. I mean fair enough if it's really busy and there are loads of people around, but if it's just a couple of people.........
Some people just dont like getting photos taken maybe
A friend and I had the chance to meet him after his first Baltimore solo show. We were on our way to drive back to Cleveland after the show and we saw a few people waiting outside. So we said what he hell we only have 5+ hours to drive back home lets wait a little bit. So after waiting for what seemed forever he finally came out and shook everyone's hand and had a short conversation with them. My friend apologized to him for being a dick and holding up a sign throughout his whole show the year prior in DC and EV said everyone's an asshole sometimes and forgave him because he was wearing a cubs shirt. I don't even remember what I said to him, but i remember he complemented me on my black keys shirt. He actually asked if I made it. It was a great experience.
On a side note, if anyone has any photos of Ed shaking hands and talking to people after Baltimore 1, I'd love to see the pictures to see if I happened to be in any. PM if you can help out. Thanks!!
Columbus 6/24/03, Pittsburgh 9/28/05, Cleveland 5/20/06, Pittsburgh 6/23/06, Chicago 8/5/07, New York 6/24/08, New York 6/25/08, Hartford 6/27/08, Mansfield 6/28/08, Mansfield 6/30/08, EV D.C. 8/16/08, EV Chicago 8/22/08, EV Baltimore 6/14/09, Chicago 8/23/09, Philadelphia 10/27/09, Philadelphia 10/28/09, Philadelphia 10/30/09, Philadelphia 10/31/09, Columbus 5/6/10, Indianapolis 5/7/10, Cleveland 5/9/10, Buffalo 5/10/10, EV Detroit 6/26/11, Toronto 9/12/11, Hamilton 9/15/11, Pittsburgh 10/11/13, Buffalo 10/12/13, San Diego 11/21/13, Los Angeles 11/23/13, Los Angeles 11/24/13, Cincinnati 10/1/14, Detroit 10/16/14, New York 9/26/15, Greenville 4/16/16, Hampton 4/18/16, Columbia 4/21/16, Philadelphia 4/29/16, Chicago 8/20/16, Chicago 8/22/16, Denver 9/22/22, Los Angeles 5/21/24
First off, I hope nobody has anything on the stove before trying to read this, it's a long one. I got to meet and talk with Eddie for about an hour in a small club in Whistler in 2000. I can't remember all the details or every word said but I remember a lot of it.
First off these two friends of mine now were merely acquaintances through my brother as they were his co-workers. Through a few days of hanging out with them I found out there were fans of PJ so we talked about that a lot. One of the topics was the song Mankind and who sang it. I told them it was Stone, found out online through some old fan sites, probably fivehorizons.com or sony's synergy site. At first they didn't believe me thinking, there's no way they would let Stone sing one. There was no real way I could convince them otherwise.
Cut to a few months later and we find out there is a concert in Vancouver at the Commodore (which holds only about 1,000 people) coming soon but the only way to get tickets is to phone in to a radio show, I was pretty bummed about that. Was at work and they come in and ask if I heard the news. I said yeah, blah blah concert, radio, blah blah. They said, no, Eddie is here, tonight! He had hung out with their roommate at the bar he worked at and told Ed that his roommates are big fans and would love it if he came back the next night. It just so happened that I was wearing my flipped over semi-truck / Nightmare shirt that day, odd coincidence. I am sitting down on an elevated couch type thing by the pool table in the club, my usual spot where I would write, it is big enough for 3 people. I'm on the far left, a buddy from high school is beside me and a random woman is beside him.
We are there a couple hours, they are getting ansy wondering where he is. The place is supposed to close in an hour, my buddy jumps at me with a huge grin on his face, whimpers and starts pointing to his right / my left and Ed is standing right beside where I am sitting. Ed asks, like the humble man he is, if it's okay that he sits beside me. Dumbfounded that he even asks me if it was cool, I said yes. (Recently my wife said, you should have told him he could have sat in your lap if he wanted to!) He jumps up on a kind of shelf (hard to explain what it is) so he is up higher than me already. (I mention this for later on, any other fans that have met Ed in person knows where this is going.)
My two other buddies are standing beside him. Then I say, "okay, I have to ask the stupid question first, 'Stone sang Mankind right?'" "Yes." I point at my buddies and say ha ha! Ed joins in and points at them too, doubters. Cut to later that night and I said to them, "how's that for proving it?" One of my buddies said, "straight from the horses mouth."
My one buddy asks if he has heard of The Tragically Hip (as buddy is a big fan of the Hip) Eddie says, "I think they opened for us one time." My buddy said he would send a Hip cd to Ed through the fanclub c/o Tim B. (I sometimes wonder if he ever got it)
My buddy who was sitting beside me wasn't a PJ fan so he didn't really care that Ed was sitting beside us and said he was going to take off. I moved over to the right and Ed moved over as well and was leaning with his shoulder in my side / back which made it easier to hear since the club was so loud. At one point the young woman sitting beside me said, "you look like brothers."
One of the waiters comes over and drops a bottle of Keith's beside him. Ed passes it to me as he isn't drinking, he seemed quite inebriated the whole time, and says, "take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around." Sadly, I had not heard Crazy Mary so I didn't get the reference, my buddies did and guffawed, surprised they got to hear that. I told Ed that Alexander Keith is a relative of mine, same Scottish clan. He tilted the beer back towards him, took a whiff, pinched the top of my ear and smelled his fingers and said, "yep, smells like you." I could only laugh.
I was wearing a sweatshirt over my PJ tshirt so at one point I lifted it up and told him that it was an odd coincidence that I was wearing this today. He scratched the decal and said that's a good one. Can't remember why but he rubbed his elbow into my ribs, I think he made a joke.
I told him "I liked Present Tense, escpecially the line, 'you can spend your time alone, redigesting past regrets or you can..' well you know what it is." He said that was his favorite song from No Code. I asked him if they had a name for the bonus track on Yeild. He said, "I think we named that one Hummus."
I can't remember at what point I asked this question, "have you talked with with your step-father?" I can't remember exactly what he said, something along the lines of they talked and worked through some things but he still hadn't seen him. I still can't believe I asked him that.
I asked him how was it at the Dylan Anniversary concert, saying, "I heard you sat and watched the whole sound check, that must have been cool." He told me that someone reported that he asked everyone for an autograph, but he didn't. I told him that I didn't hear about that. He was starting to tell me about when Stevie Wonder was doing his soundcheck that he wanted to do a second version. At that time a random stranger comes up and starts talking to Eddie, bs'ing and asks for a picture. They take one together and the guy says, "see you on the flipside." I kind of shook my head, thinking, "wow, I can't believe he just said that." So Eddie turns back to me and says, "as I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted.. Stevie was doing another version of Blowin' In The Wind, then another, then another, during the fourth version the roadies started getting ansy, wanting him to hurry it along, but how are you going to tell Stevie Wonder to "get off the stage"? I said something along the lines of "no kidding." I then asked, "did he do any of those versions for the concert." "No, he did a completely different version."
He told me about a song writing course he was taking (in Hawaii I think) and had written lyrics for a song but didn't have enough time to come up with a guitar piece so he used a ukelele instead. He then went into it and recited Soon Forget word for word. I laughed when he said benjamins. I got to hear a spoken version 2 months before Binaural was released.
I started telling him about a story I wrote, the first time I ate peyote. One of my friends came over and asked me, "who's your friend?" I said, "oh, that's Eddie." She said cool and went over to some other friends. Eddie said, "she seems very nice." I get back into telling him a little about the story and that I want to send it to him if it's possible. He said, "sure, send it to the Ten Club, c/o Tim B." Later on my buddies and I were wondering if that was one of his aliases he uses. Haha. Hi Tim!
The bar was closing soon, my buddy asked Eddie to sign his mini-disc that had some rare PJ stuff he titled "B-sides and rare shit" in pencil. Eddie borrowed the pen I had with me, I was a writer and carried a pen everywhere with me, Eddie signs it with his EV and writes over the penciled words with, "B-sides and good shit" Later on my buddy was laughing at how true that was.Eddie gives me the pen back. I didn't ask for an autograph, didn't have a camera. He gives me a hug while we are sitting down still. Now, I'm not huge but I'm 6'2". I stood up first and he got up to give me another hug, I was expecting to look him in the eye at eye level, I had to look down which kind of scared me. I gave him another hug, don't think I said anything. He gave my two other buddies hugs too and we departed. (thinking back I wonder why we didn't hang out more, we weren't thinking) Outside the club I tried to write Tim B. on a folded up piece of paper I had to make sure I didn't forget. The pen wasn't working, not one drop of ink came out and later exploded inside the pen. Was one of those clear black bic pens. I still have it. I tried writing a letter but it came out pretty awful / fanboyish so I decided to not send it, plus I had lost the story I had written, which was the original point of why I was writing.
So, I'm sure all who have met Eddie or any of the other band members can agree, these are some of the nicest people around. It certainly was surreal looking back on it, I'm surprised I wasn't freaking out or scared him off as anyone who knows me, knows I'm a huge fan. Another one of my friends who saw Eddie and I sitting together said "you deserved that." In my high school grad writeup was nothing but PJ song quotes, including the muttered end of Corduroy. The grad committee did a little thing where they put up a picture of each student and an impression of them. When it came to me, our guy put on a flannel shirt, put his hands in the air and said, "Pearl Jam Rules!" I turned to my mom and said, "I'm wearing a Pearl Jam shirt in that picture." It was the No Code shirt.
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Haha!
Far be it from me to bash him, and I guess he must have his reasons, but I can't really see what the problem is. I mean fair enough if it's really busy and there are loads of people around, but if it's just a couple of people.........
At the Tower theatre show in Philly, I was third row (really second as there was only one row a head of us, the first row was shorter than the rest). Anyway, when he was walking down the stage shaking hands with people I jumped up and was smiling in anticipation. As he was about center stage (I was far right) we made eye contact and he kind of squinted and tilted his head saying “I don’t think I can reach you there.” So I shook my head to show I understood and kind of put my head down in disappointment and when I lifted my head back up , Ed was in front of me stretching out as far as he could to reach me and shake my hand.
It was the single coolest thing EVER.
And Lukin Fan was there waiting but he decided to go back to his hotel and sleep right before Eddie came out to shake everyone's hands.
"Who here has STALKED Eddie Vedder"??????
That thread would have 400 replies and 10,000 views, in a matter of minutes.....
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
Friend and I got these from Ed at SK's last show. He was way cool and spent like 5 minutes with us. Thanks Ed!
no gravity at all.
"handsome dog"
Soundgarden - 1996-10-15
Pearl Jam - 2000-06-30
Fugazi - 2000-10-10
The Mars Volta - 2003-03-24
Met after the show, we waited for him at the side door. 3 hours later he emerged from the darkness... guitar case in one hand, cigarett in the other. we chatted, auto's, pix and strangely fondling his shoulder the whole time (and Im a guy, lol)
My nickname is Car (short for Carsten). He signed my wristyband "CAR ED VED"
He signed my daughters picture too. I told him it was his next generation of fans.
I kept the pen which was from Spain (a certain company)
Havent taken a bath since, lol.
My shadowbox... Priceless!
21 Shows and counting... Finally met Ed @ Zellerbach night 1!!!
:shock: :shock:
1996: Ft Lauderdale
1998: Birmingham
2000: Charlotte, Tampa
2003: Tampa, Atlanta, Phoenix
2004: Kissimmee
2008: West Palm Beach, Bonnaroo, Columbia
2010: MSG2
2012: Music Midtown
2014: Memphis
2018: Wrigley 1, Fenway 1
2022: Nashville
2023: Ft. Worth II
2024: Baltimore
Upcoming: 2025 Hollywood, FL Night 2
1996: Ft Lauderdale
1998: Birmingham
2000: Charlotte, Tampa
2003: Tampa, Atlanta, Phoenix
2004: Kissimmee
2008: West Palm Beach, Bonnaroo, Columbia
2010: MSG2
2012: Music Midtown
2014: Memphis
2018: Wrigley 1, Fenway 1
2022: Nashville
2023: Ft. Worth II
2024: Baltimore
Upcoming: 2025 Hollywood, FL Night 2
This would have broke my heart
Not Yet...
If I knew where it was I would take you there. There's much more than this
He tastes like chicken.
Hail, Hail!!!
If I knew where it was I would take you there. There's much more than this
Ed was very nice too but seemed kinda distracted and maybe cautious the whole time. We later learned that he was being stalked pretty heavily around that time so it's certainly understandable. Plus some drunk girl with her boobs popping out of her dress kept interrupting his conversations to tell him how much she just loved him. That was pretty sad.
I noticed the exact same thing when I met him. I thought, "your're Eddie Vedder, what do you care what I have to say?" Honestly, I think he really does care what we say to him and he appreciates our support. Anyway, he is a nice guy. Before meeting him I loved him and Pearl Jam, but after I now LOVE him and Pearl Jam. I had always told my husband that I thought Eddie would be one of the coolest and down-to-earth people and I was so right!!! It means so much to me that he lived up to my expectations of being a nice person.
fade away...
I am at peace with my lust.....for Eddie.
Male, 34
I'm on Facebook - facebook.com/christopher.leesye1
1998 Brisbane 2
2003 Brisbane 1
2006 LA 1 & 2
2008 LA 2, San Diego 1 (EV)
2009 LA 1, 2, 3 & 4, San Diego
2011 St. Louis (EV)
2012 Tulsa 1 & 2 (EV)
2013 Chicago, Dallas & OKC
And you wonder why he's cautious...For every genuine human being out there wanting to give a polite 'hello' there are another however many others with less genuine intentions or behaviour. Wouldn't be easy.
This is My Autograph that I got from Ed in 1998 ... i wish i knew how to upload it properly... and i really hope that this link works...
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The first time was about 9 years ago & I was just left with this overwhelming feeling of here were these 5 guys who were just out making music because that's what they love to do, and the fact that they are one of the most famous bands in the world, well that's just secondary.
That said, I'm not completely a cool customer & was super nervous when one of them agreed to take his picture with my companion. I was holding the camera and just prayed that I got the two of them in the frame despite my shaking hands. I did, and the picture is amazing.
Even their crew is nice. Little protective of the guys (who wouldn't be) but nice and SMART.
Some people just dont like getting photos taken maybe
On a side note, if anyone has any photos of Ed shaking hands and talking to people after Baltimore 1, I'd love to see the pictures to see if I happened to be in any. PM if you can help out. Thanks!!
First off these two friends of mine now were merely acquaintances through my brother as they were his co-workers. Through a few days of hanging out with them I found out there were fans of PJ so we talked about that a lot. One of the topics was the song Mankind and who sang it. I told them it was Stone, found out online through some old fan sites, probably fivehorizons.com or sony's synergy site. At first they didn't believe me thinking, there's no way they would let Stone sing one. There was no real way I could convince them otherwise.
Cut to a few months later and we find out there is a concert in Vancouver at the Commodore (which holds only about 1,000 people) coming soon but the only way to get tickets is to phone in to a radio show, I was pretty bummed about that. Was at work and they come in and ask if I heard the news. I said yeah, blah blah concert, radio, blah blah. They said, no, Eddie is here, tonight! He had hung out with their roommate at the bar he worked at and told Ed that his roommates are big fans and would love it if he came back the next night. It just so happened that I was wearing my flipped over semi-truck / Nightmare shirt that day, odd coincidence. I am sitting down on an elevated couch type thing by the pool table in the club, my usual spot where I would write, it is big enough for 3 people. I'm on the far left, a buddy from high school is beside me and a random woman is beside him.
We are there a couple hours, they are getting ansy wondering where he is. The place is supposed to close in an hour, my buddy jumps at me with a huge grin on his face, whimpers and starts pointing to his right / my left and Ed is standing right beside where I am sitting. Ed asks, like the humble man he is, if it's okay that he sits beside me. Dumbfounded that he even asks me if it was cool, I said yes. (Recently my wife said, you should have told him he could have sat in your lap if he wanted to!) He jumps up on a kind of shelf (hard to explain what it is) so he is up higher than me already. (I mention this for later on, any other fans that have met Ed in person knows where this is going.)
My two other buddies are standing beside him. Then I say, "okay, I have to ask the stupid question first, 'Stone sang Mankind right?'" "Yes." I point at my buddies and say ha ha! Ed joins in and points at them too, doubters. Cut to later that night and I said to them, "how's that for proving it?" One of my buddies said, "straight from the horses mouth."
My one buddy asks if he has heard of The Tragically Hip (as buddy is a big fan of the Hip) Eddie says, "I think they opened for us one time." My buddy said he would send a Hip cd to Ed through the fanclub c/o Tim B. (I sometimes wonder if he ever got it)
My buddy who was sitting beside me wasn't a PJ fan so he didn't really care that Ed was sitting beside us and said he was going to take off. I moved over to the right and Ed moved over as well and was leaning with his shoulder in my side / back which made it easier to hear since the club was so loud. At one point the young woman sitting beside me said, "you look like brothers."
One of the waiters comes over and drops a bottle of Keith's beside him. Ed passes it to me as he isn't drinking, he seemed quite inebriated the whole time, and says, "take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around." Sadly, I had not heard Crazy Mary so I didn't get the reference, my buddies did and guffawed, surprised they got to hear that. I told Ed that Alexander Keith is a relative of mine, same Scottish clan. He tilted the beer back towards him, took a whiff, pinched the top of my ear and smelled his fingers and said, "yep, smells like you." I could only laugh.
I was wearing a sweatshirt over my PJ tshirt so at one point I lifted it up and told him that it was an odd coincidence that I was wearing this today. He scratched the decal and said that's a good one. Can't remember why but he rubbed his elbow into my ribs, I think he made a joke.
I told him "I liked Present Tense, escpecially the line, 'you can spend your time alone, redigesting past regrets or you can..' well you know what it is." He said that was his favorite song from No Code. I asked him if they had a name for the bonus track on Yeild. He said, "I think we named that one Hummus."
I can't remember at what point I asked this question, "have you talked with with your step-father?" I can't remember exactly what he said, something along the lines of they talked and worked through some things but he still hadn't seen him. I still can't believe I asked him that.
I asked him how was it at the Dylan Anniversary concert, saying, "I heard you sat and watched the whole sound check, that must have been cool." He told me that someone reported that he asked everyone for an autograph, but he didn't. I told him that I didn't hear about that. He was starting to tell me about when Stevie Wonder was doing his soundcheck that he wanted to do a second version. At that time a random stranger comes up and starts talking to Eddie, bs'ing and asks for a picture. They take one together and the guy says, "see you on the flipside." I kind of shook my head, thinking, "wow, I can't believe he just said that." So Eddie turns back to me and says, "as I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted.. Stevie was doing another version of Blowin' In The Wind, then another, then another, during the fourth version the roadies started getting ansy, wanting him to hurry it along, but how are you going to tell Stevie Wonder to "get off the stage"? I said something along the lines of "no kidding." I then asked, "did he do any of those versions for the concert." "No, he did a completely different version."
He told me about a song writing course he was taking (in Hawaii I think) and had written lyrics for a song but didn't have enough time to come up with a guitar piece so he used a ukelele instead. He then went into it and recited Soon Forget word for word. I laughed when he said benjamins. I got to hear a spoken version 2 months before Binaural was released.
I started telling him about a story I wrote, the first time I ate peyote. One of my friends came over and asked me, "who's your friend?" I said, "oh, that's Eddie." She said cool and went over to some other friends. Eddie said, "she seems very nice." I get back into telling him a little about the story and that I want to send it to him if it's possible. He said, "sure, send it to the Ten Club, c/o Tim B." Later on my buddies and I were wondering if that was one of his aliases he uses. Haha. Hi Tim!
The bar was closing soon, my buddy asked Eddie to sign his mini-disc that had some rare PJ stuff he titled "B-sides and rare shit" in pencil. Eddie borrowed the pen I had with me, I was a writer and carried a pen everywhere with me, Eddie signs it with his EV and writes over the penciled words with, "B-sides and good shit" Later on my buddy was laughing at how true that was.Eddie gives me the pen back. I didn't ask for an autograph, didn't have a camera. He gives me a hug while we are sitting down still. Now, I'm not huge but I'm 6'2". I stood up first and he got up to give me another hug, I was expecting to look him in the eye at eye level, I had to look down which kind of scared me. I gave him another hug, don't think I said anything. He gave my two other buddies hugs too and we departed. (thinking back I wonder why we didn't hang out more, we weren't thinking) Outside the club I tried to write Tim B. on a folded up piece of paper I had to make sure I didn't forget. The pen wasn't working, not one drop of ink came out and later exploded inside the pen. Was one of those clear black bic pens. I still have it. I tried writing a letter but it came out pretty awful / fanboyish so I decided to not send it, plus I had lost the story I had written, which was the original point of why I was writing.
So, I'm sure all who have met Eddie or any of the other band members can agree, these are some of the nicest people around. It certainly was surreal looking back on it, I'm surprised I wasn't freaking out or scared him off as anyone who knows me, knows I'm a huge fan. Another one of my friends who saw Eddie and I sitting together said "you deserved that." In my high school grad writeup was nothing but PJ song quotes, including the muttered end of Corduroy. The grad committee did a little thing where they put up a picture of each student and an impression of them. When it came to me, our guy put on a flannel shirt, put his hands in the air and said, "Pearl Jam Rules!" I turned to my mom and said, "I'm wearing a Pearl Jam shirt in that picture." It was the No Code shirt.