Questions for the 10C Sirius/XM radio show

**Note: THIS TRANSCRIPT IS INCOMPLETE. IT ONLY COVERS THE LAST 30 MINUTES OR SO OF THE PROGRAM FOR THIS WEEK. I WILL UPDATE FROM A MORE COMPLETE RECORDING IN THE FUTURE. STAY TUNED!**

Thanks to tremors for recording this week!

Tim Bierman (TB)
The Rob (TR)
Ed Vedder (EV)
Mike McCready (MMC)
Jason Leung (JL)

1. What do you think about guys like Aaron Lewis (people who cover PJ)? I just heard his version of Black and I know how he respects you guys to the fullest. You always hear about guys like him, who he looked up to, but you never hear about how you guys feel about guys like him.

TB: "Well, I can't speak for the band on that lever for sure, so that would be more of a question you'd have to ask they guys. But I do know that there's got to be a certain amount of respect they have for Aaron and his success and everything. I can't even really say that anyone has sought that song out and listened to it. But I also know that there is, because Aaron is a serious artist I'm sure that the guys are flattered, especially Ed, flattered that someone would think enough of that song to cover it."

2. When do you think the new Deep magazine is going to come out?

TB: "That's a good question. Something that we've been talking about the last couple of days here so we are currently, I guess, officially working on it."

*TB on the cartoon contest entries*
"There were some unbelievable entries with that for sure so we're looking forward to that part of it."

3. I've always loved the song Chloe Dancer and Crown of Thorns and have always thought of them as one song together. Do you have any idea why PJ doesn't play them together in concert?

TB: "Once again that's more of a question for the guys. I think, once again I'm just sort of throwing this out there-I'm probably not the right person to ask for this but, I think Crown of Thorns really kind of connects with the guys that are in PJ that weren't in Mother Love Bone. I think that the fact that Eddie wants to cover that song is a pretty special thing in itself and that covering Chloe Dancer really doesn't resonate as well with him. Does that make sense at all?

"Because they are two different songs even though they are together. The subject matter is kind of different and Eddie, I think I can speak for Eddie in this regard, he doesn't just do a cover because he likes the way it sounds or (because) it's got a good beat. He has to fully be committed to it and be able to relate to it, you know?"

4. There was filming at the pre-party for MSG2 on May 21,2010. Is that film going to show up somewhere?

TB: *laughs* "Yeah that film is going to show up somewhere. Don't worry about that."

*Mike McCready calls in*

MMC: "Hello, what's up guys? I'm down in LA working on one of the episodes of Fringe (a television show), doing some music for it so I thought I'd call in."

TR: "That's great! So you've been getting into doing a lot of film and tv scoring stuff in your off time."

MMC: "As much as I can yeah. I've been getting in to that world a little bit when we have some down time off touring. It's a different creative process. I've been enjoying working with different people and working to film and it's starting to kind of happen. I've been kind of lucky on that.

"So I'm doing that and have been just thinking about tour stories. I was thinking about (Yellow) Ledbetter, that guy was talking about it and I wrote that on my bed a long( time ago and remember bringing it in for the first record and just hoping it was gonna make the first record and it never did! I was kind of bummed but it turned into something else that turned into something even larger that I couldn't imagine it would have ever been. It seems like it's important to a lot of people and it's fun to play. It's turned in to more of a concert thing and I'm very grateful for that."

TR: "I've read in Jason's book that you guys have had many encounters along his journey... That you've even autographed the van at one point."

MMC: "Yeah I did! That was in St. Johns, Newfoundland and I remember meeting him the first time up there and he had this spiky, kind of spiky-blue hair and he had been following us all the way across Canada and was like 'Whoa!" I was very impressed by that. At the end of the tour I did sign that van, and I think Stone did too. I remember walking around town.

"And there's a lot of people who are integral in following us around and doing good stuff. There's Laura Trafton, and Eric (Long), and Lisa Cressman, and there's people that I know they go out and they take their own time and do pre-parties before our shows and it kind of blows my mind that fans will take that kind of initiative and do something kind of proactive for a charity that's around town or whatever. It's a unique thing that I think, we're all very proud of, that it happens. It's very organic.

"...The fact that the fans, and Jason (author the book "This All Encompassing Trip"), they take care of each other on the road and have social networks and talk to each other is another important thing that happens.

"I heard some whispering. What's happening?"

TR: "Yeah I think there's another friend of yours in Seattle wanting to join in."

*Ed Vedder gets on the air*

EV: "Hi Mike... (jokes) Mike. Mike we're at practice where are you?"

MMC: *laughs*

EV: "It's 3:10. Oh no, It's not quite three."

MMC: "I'm gonna be late. I'm gonna start driving from LA right now. I might be a little late."

EV: "All right well we'll just keep it going then. How are you?"

MMC: "I'm good."

TR: "Welcome to the show."

EV: "I was walking by the door and I could see Tim Bierman in here with these, like, headphones with like a Garth Brooks-mike. It looked like he was working at air traffic control or something so I had to kinda see what he was doing.

"And you guys are talking about this guy Jason. "This All Encompassing Book." *laughs* Or "This All Encompassing Trip." That's what it looks like to me. "All Encompassing..." Have you seen this thing Mike?"

MMC: "I haven't seen it yet but I've seen the van. I remember he followed us all the way across Canada. And it was all, kind of torn up and beat up van and it was impressive that he drove that far. From Vancouver to St. Johns I think."

JL: "You guys made it a challenge for us."

EV: "Is that Jason there? Is that him?"

JL: "That's me."

EV: "All right Jason I'm glad I get to say 'hi' to you... Yeah "All Encompassing Book" because the letters are really small. The print's really small. And it's 400 pages. There's a lot in here."

JL: *laughs* "I've heard you're an avid reader there Ed."

EV: "Ahhh... Reader and writer... Yeah I suppose. Ummm... But it's nice that you have some good photos in here too it really looks well done. And I saw a little something... like more of a film clip thing. I don't know if you've seen that Mike, but it's really impressive."

MMC: "Not yet."

EV: "Cool. It's special energy and I'm glad you've shared it. It's really really nice.

"There was one thing in the book that I read about: San Diego and dedicating Life Wasted to Jason and all the crew. You know who you are. Remember that part?"

JL: "Yeah."

EV: "That was actually... I just wanted to clear that up... That was... I wish I was talking about you, and I guess it would work, that it fit if I was sending it out to you guys, but actually it was my brother Jason who worked on the Life Wasted film clip thing and his crew that were all there that night."

MMC: "Yeah they had all the stuff upstairs too, that night."

EV: "Oh yeah! We had like a little art showing of all the plaster pieces and meat sculpture from the record that was used on. Avocado, I guess it was?

"Yeah well good on you for taking the initiative and turning it really into something. That looks like a great story. Well, good onya Jason!"

JL: "I just want to share the story with everyone else. It's made a big impact on my life just like your music has and I'm sure a lot of the fans out there would appreciate reading something like this."

TR: "So Eddie I would like to ask you... When you're writing a song do you ever envision that lyric would turn in to the title of a book and a radio show?"

EV: "Ummm... Ahhh... Oh! 'This all encompassing trip,' that's a lyric isn't it."

TR: (coyly) "Yeah. Present Tense."

EV: "I'd forgotten about that. *laughter from background* I was just thinking that's a great title!

*laughter*

"Yeah, that's good.

"Umm... Well the thing is, you write and, maybe Jason will experience this too with the book, you kind of do it for whatever reasons and then it might create all kinds of things back. You don't know what you'll get back from it and you don't think about it when you do it. You just kind of do it. I hope I share in the story that nice things come back to you.

"I didn't hear the beginning of Mike's conversations but Jason, does Jason have one thing that he'd like to ask us or something before we take off?"

MMC: "Yeah."

EV: (for) "Gas money?"

*laughter*

EV: "You know what we need to do? We need to get you an electric van."

JL: "One that doesn't break down."

TR: "I think I along with everyone else wants to ask: When does he get to do this again?"

EV: "I'm sure there's other bands out there... He can go now if he wants to just find another group.

*laughter*

"Don't wait on us! No, we've got a lot of work to do. We've got... I think we've got a few things we need to accomplish before we go back and play shows and do stuff that we've already kind of done before. So (there's) plenty of time for the electric car to be perfected in time for tour.

"So Mike are you not making practice? Is that..."

MMC: "I don't think I'll make it today. I can't surf though cause there's no waves down here (southern California) right now... If we're rehearsing in a couple days I'll try to drive up there. Get up there as quick as I can."

EV: "Okay, cause you know if you don't make it then I'm gonna have to play lead (trails off) and you don't want that."

MMC: *laughs* "What I was trying to figure out earlier was how you do that e-bow thing. I was trying to do that thing that you do. You'll have to show me that some time."

EV: "Yeah it's easy it's..."

MMC: "It's not! I tried to do it today and it was crunching the strings so it wasn't happening."

EV: "Naw there's You Tube footage of the San Diego Zoo and they had an electric guitar and an e-bow and they threw it in the monkey cage and he immediately picked it up."

*laughter*

MMC: "Well, I'm not at that level yet. So... Someday"!

*Ed signs off*

*Tim signs on*

TB: "Now that I've got my Garth Brooks headset back on I might go down and play lead guitar today."

MMC: "Nice! Garth Brooks-slash-Kiss headset." *garbled speech*

TB: "I had to arm wrestle Eddie for the head set, by the way."

MMC: "Nice! Nice! I don't want to arm wrestle either of you guys."

5. TR: "Do you (Mike McCready) remember when that show (2000 show at Washington D.C., Merriwether Post Pavilion) started why the band seemed to be in a bad mood? Sonic Youth was supposed to open and Ed came out and announced they were not going to."

MMC: "I don't remember the tension from that night. I remember the tension from other nights. That's all part and parcel of being up there on stage and whatever... Five guys being in a band for twenty years. Just kind of the tension and feeling of the night and there can be some stuff that goes down... But yeah, I don't specifically remember that per-se though. Sorry I don't. I can't back you up on that. Not to say that it definitely isn't right though."

TR: "Hey Mike, does tension on the stage sometimes work it's way into making great music?"

MMC: "I think so. I mean, I think that if you look at us, from my angle we play and you're getting tension from the audience, you're getting tension from each other, and I think that if you use that in a positive way and can kind of put it in your playing you can beat your guitar a little harder or play a lead a little bit different... You know hit the drums a little harder... I think that's going to make better music, you know?

"And there's a lot of bands that are great examples of that. The Who are certainly an example of that, that probably created out of a lot of tension. And I think that happens with any band. I think you can also create music out of being happy with each other. But, you know, we've been around for twenty years and we're all kind of brothers in a way and you go through your times where you're kind of pissed at each other or you're not and you're just kind of like 'okay, let's move on to the next thing.' It's natural human relations but hopefully, at the end of the day, you want to make the music the best thing possible. And if everyone's on board, which we generally always are, then that's the most important thing. That the fans get a good show out of that."

*NEXT WEEK'S GUEST (December 8, 2010)*
Pearl Jam Manager, Kelly Curtis for a show all about the business of Pearl Jam and how behind-the-scenes things manifest themselves.

Black Diamond wrote:

I was the filming one... The one you could not decipher

Brilliant!

So the footage in question was for the MSG 2 show on the 2009 tour? I just want to clarify so that I can go back and properly edit the question and answer.

Black Diamond wrote:

Sorry, I did check your thread before and was going to ask one of your questions but got selfish

All's forgiven!

pjsteelerfan wrote:

Good stuff, thanks for the transcript.

Very curious about what Kelly Curtis will say next week.

You're welcome.

I'm also eager to hear what he has to say.

It should be noted that there are plenty of good business-related questions in the Unanswered Questions list on the front page!

pdalowsky wrote:

...ask Ed or Mike of the chances of a autobiography one day...i'd love that so much

Added to the list!

awang_vedder wrote:

how big a chance, pearl jam play ASIA in 2010/2011 like they did in year 1995? If there are still chances to add other location in ASIA....will they come to INDONESIA?

I updated the 19th Unanswered Question to include Asian nations as well as not-commonly-toured states in the U.S.

CJMST3K wrote:

"Will the upcoming movie be a documentary, and if so will the band be in charge of editing out whatever they want, or will this be a documentary of the full PJ history, with 'warts and all'?"

I rolled it in to question 5 which already sought to determine the nature of the film. Is that ok?