PETER GREEN (10th July 2004): Heading out of the production office and walking towards me is a scruffy haired Eddie Vedder. He puts out his arms and says 'Peter Green'!

A hug is just what I need, and he is all smiles and pulls out a photo of the most beautiful baby. He's going to be a great Dad. Guess it's the way of life someone dies someone's born. He asks how I've been and says 'is this your sixth book now'. Hmm he's keeping tabs on me. *grin*.

His girlfriend is drop dead gorgeous and I'm glad he's happy. We stand side stage during the show and both admire Sharon's birdcages with hanging threads of diamonds.

They look like amazing jellyfish we both say... Too weird. Makes us laugh.

He's a good man that Ed Vedder, wish there were more people like him.

[taken from The Life and Times of Peter Green]

Kurt and Krist on PJ

KURT: We've never had a fight ever. I just have always hated their band. I didn't consider him a person that I really like. We've had a few conversations on the phone and he's a person I really like. You know, I really like him. He's a really nice person.

KRIST: He's come over my house a few times. We had a good time. He's really nice.

MTV NEWS: And he doesn't take exception that you don't like his band?

KURT: I don't think he really cares. I don't know. I can't say that now. I didn't like him then when I was talking sh** about him all the time. Well now I can appreciate him. I realize that the same people that like our band like their band. So why create some kind of feud over something as trite as that?

KRIST: You know how Metallica and G-N-R did a tour? We're going to have a Pearl Jam/Nirvana tour.

From the book KISS THIS : Punk In The Present Tense by GINA ARNOLD: "Pearl Jam is vilified by the mainstream media like no other band,precisely because they offend the more powerful members of the music industry the way punk should have all along -- by threatening and/or ignoring the very machinery of record sales.Pearl Jam is one of the best examples of a band with "truly punk ethics" in music today."

Lou Reed 2000: "I like to go half court, but we don't play those rough elbow-swinging-to-the-nose kinds of street games,'' he says, lighting up a cigarette. "Whenever Eddie Vedder's in town we go one-on-one. He's got a murderous jump shot that he throws like a football. He's really accurate.''

ROBBY KRIEGER (Doors guitarist): The thing with Eddie Vedder was great at the Hall Of Fame induction. You know, he didn't want to do it at first, because he thought, "I can't do that, how can I fit into Jim Morrison's shoes?" But the Hall Of Fame people kept after him: "Come on, Eddie!" So finally he decided to do it. Two or three days before the rehearsals were set to begin, he decided to drive down to L.A. from Seattle in probably the biggest rainstorm we've ever had on the West Coast. He made it a third of the way in two days. He said he was listening to Jim the whole time, to the Doors. He said he really got into it. He finally made it on the last day of rehearsals. We had a few hours to rehearse and it came together real good.

THE DOORS: We had such a good time at rock n roll hall of fame with Eddie. Eddie was great. The chance to play Light My Fire again was a great deal of fun. Eddie didn't make the rehearsal cause he drove from seattle in the worst rain storm. He wanted to live the lyrics, keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel... he got snowed in. Eddie has as touch of the shaman himself... like jim's tendency. Eddie has the same sort of thing. When he was doing Roadhouse Blues and Light My Fire, althought he was singing our songs, he brought his own shamanic thing to the doors. Morrison and Vedder share the same space.

BILLY CORGAN: Pearl Jam represent something fierce and independent. They've managed to stay "cool" in people's eyes because they never sold out.

BEN HARPER (on stage with them): This is the greatest band in the world.

BEN HARPER (on Not For You): There are all kinds of things that make me angry -- about myself and other people. I hate it when I reflect what makes me angry about others, then I do the same thing myself. To quote Eddie Vedder, "If you don't like something, don't you do it, too." That Pearl Jam song has deeply affected me and I try to live by its message.

DENNIS RODMAN: I feel like their music captures my inner spirit. It's powerful, pulsating, passionate, yet there's a streak of positivity running right up it's spine. I mean, you've got a heavy metal lead guitarist (Mike Mcready), a punk-rock rhythm guitarist (Stone Gossard), a wild bassist (Jeff Ament), a no bullshit drummer (Jack Irons) and Eddie, who has the most amazing voice of all time. Their songs tell a story, and I can always relate to it. Eddie doesn't shy away from pain, and he manages to capture a wild range of emotions. As I said, I listen to all different types of music, but I mostly rock out to Pearl Jam. Their music to me is like heroin to a junkie..

HENRY ROLLINS: What was it like playing with Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) on Recipe for Hate? We’ve been friends with Ed for a long time. He was coming down and seeing us play in San Diego when he was in his first band and even before. We kind of already knew each other in that way and when he was in LA, he just stopped by the studios and we told him that he had to sing. Nobody can just stop by the studio and just say hi. Anybody that walks in we put them to work immediately. The only person we’ve ever hired was the slide guitar guy on "Man on a Mission."

VonRay: Once in Orlando, Vaughan began building a following with solo shows in pubs, playing half covers and half original songs under the moniker VonRay. In 1993, he was joined by his brother Dave on gigs and songwriting. Around this time, Vaughan's world was rocked, literally, by Pearl Jam and vocalist Eddie Vedder. "It was life-changing," he says unapologetically. "Pearl Jam's passion, and Eddie's vocals, really opened my ears to what rock & roll songs could be." Kicking his stool aside, Vaughan picked up the electric guitar and started to rock in earnest. Pulling together a full band, including his brother, Vaughan toured extensively in the southeast, soon playing to packed houses all over Florida, Atlanta, Nashville and in the Carolinas. The newcomers also began getting nabbed to open for star acts Third Eye Blind and Seven Mary Three, among others.

BRIAN REITH (The Reds): on EDDIE UNPLUGGED: Eddie Vedder, the lead singer for Pearl Jam, gave the Reds a private concert during his visit to the ballpark Thursday. He borrowed Juan Castro's guitar and played a few songs.

"That's one of the top two coolest things I've ever seen," Sean Casey said. "The birth of my kids is first. Eddie Vedder sitting there playing is next."

Driven To Tears by Tom Kielty: It's not exactly going out on a limb to extol the virtues of Pearl Jam but after seeing them last week I am even more convinced that whether they like it or not they are undoubtedly the successors to the classic rock monster of yesteryear (see Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, etc). Over two nights they delivered nearly 60 different songs with an enthusiastic energy that seemed to convey that if the European tragedy they'd endured earlier this Summer was not behind them, they had come to terms with it. On the first night three people in the audience held up a banner reading, "We're So Sorry, Hope You're Okay," prompting frontman Eddie Vedder to wander to the front of the stage and place a hand over his heart before acknowledging "an extraordinary welcome."

Much like Neil Young's recent appearance in the region the first night seemed intentionally delivered to hard cores who, through the band's fan club, filled the first twenty rows and were treated to a rarity packed set complete with references to local legends Larry Bird and John Havlicek. The first encore began with Vedder performing a solo electric version of Little Steven's "I Am A Patriot," guitarist Stone Gossard's vocal turn on "Mankind" and covers of Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary" and Arthur Alexander's "Soldier Of Love." Any of that collection is rare, when capped by a breakneck version of "Rearviewmirror" and Young's own "Fuckin' Up," those in attendance have a show they're not likely to forget. If the second night lacked the intimacy of its predecessor it compensated with an impressive flex of musical muscle, perhaps spurred on by the presence of Aerosmith's Joe Perry and Steve Tyler on the side of the stage. The "Binaural" threesome of "Breakerfall," "Grievance," and "Insignificance" stood up admirably well in the face of such proven favorites as "State Of Love And Trust" and "Do The Evolution." If the relative scarcity of proven "Ten" era faves was offsetting for some they might take heart in the fact that the premiere of a brand new untitled song on the second night is a sure sign of a band determined not to fall victim to complacency. Hell, they even got to hear the band's biggest single to date, the poignant "Last Kiss," before the band departed the region.

Comedian JAY MOHR was on Saturday Night Live from 1993-1995. On pages 159-160 of his book, he recalls his encounter with Pearl Jam:  "Pearl Jam made me feel cool-period. When they arrived near the end of my first season, Eddie Vedder walked around with a piece of luggage resembling a bag you'd see a hobo carrying. When he opened it up, it was crammed with legal-looking papers. I had promised my future sister-in-law that I would get her Vedder's autograph. All week I waited for the right time to approach him. We literally bumped into each other the evening of the show. I introduced myself to him and asked him if he could sign something for me. He replied, "No one...will know!" He was doing my Christopher Walken impression at me and I loved it.

Vedder smiled and asked me if I could come into the dressing room and say hi to the rest of the band, which I had no problem doing. When I walked into Pearl Jam's dressing room, Eddie Vedder announced in Walken-ese, "Look...who I found." The band members all launched into snippets of Walken. For the next half hour, I stayed in their dressing room doing Christopher Walken like a trained monkey.

The bassist, Jeff Ament, asked me if I played basketball. When I told him I did, he gave me his phone number at the hotel where the band was staying and said that he was registered under the name Otis Birdsong. H told me to call him the next day so we could get together and shoot some hoops. I woke up but I didn't call.

It didn't matter. Pearl Jam recognized me, so the rest of the world could kiss my ass."

JERRY CANTRELL: It's getting a little ridiculous with all these new generation "grunge" bands. Sounds like there's 20 new Pearl Jams popping up everyday. Folks, there's already one Eddie Vedder and he's doing quite fine.

ROBERT PLANT: They're very sweet guys. We met in Sweden right before the Roskilde tragedy occured with them. They were very impressive...especially when they covered one of my songs (laughs).

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: The good groups will always stick around long after they're no longer the flavor of the month or the flavor of the year. Look at Pearl Jam. They're still around doing their thing.

BRIAN MARSHALL: ..I never ever said that Pearl Jam sucked.

JULIAN CASABLANCAS (The Strokes): Pearl Jam got me into rock music.

ANTHONY KIEDIS: They're essentially an indie band that can sell out stadiums.

PETE SAMPRAS: I got the chance to spend time with them two years ago in New York. I was in town for the US OPEN. They're very grounded guys. They don't have any of the attitude that i see when i watch these Behind the Music shows on television.

LANCE MERCER (rock photographer): The one thing that struck me and stayed with me is that never in a million years would you guess they were rock stars. The only reminder was the group of Japanese tourists that screamed when they saw Eddie.

PETE TOWNSHEND: Probably one of the most honest bands i've ever seen.

BONO: I'm a huge fan of the Pearl Jam organization, of what you might call the culture around the group. They exist entirely unto themselves. They don't depend on the media, don't depend on the radio. They'll be around for as long as they wish to be.

BONO: There's only 3 other bands on the planet that have the talent and the mystique to change the world with music. Radiohead, REM, and Pearl Jam.

SCOTT WEILAND: There's always been a media created feud between our band and theres and it's just plain bullshit. There's some beautiful people in that band. They're very magical, which is rare in today's music world.

SCOTT WEILAND: The way they've gone about with their career reminds me a lot of Neil Young. It's like they're saying 'This is what we're gonna do and if you dont like it we really don't give a shit'.

NANCY WILSON: I think the best concert i ever saw in my life was Pearl Jam last year (2000).

CHRIS CORNELL: Pearl Jam is better than any other band almost in history to have had that kind of enormous success, they dealt with it really eloquently. I think that set a great example to other musicians that, you know what, you can actually control the media spotlight. I think they stayed vital. The records they made didn't necessarily appeal to the same number of fans who were into Ten, but they appealed to a lot of people. They sold millions of records without having to make videos and without having to do an overhyped press campaign for each record.

JOHNNY RAMONE: I'd like to congratulate Pearl Jam on receiving the IMPACT Award. I have known them for ten years and they are the most caring and giving rock group I have ever seen. I've had a couple of important issues in my life and I have always been able to turn to them first and they have always come through. This award couldn't go to a more deserving band.

JOHNNY RAMONE: In 20 years they won't remember Limp Bizkit or any of these 'alternative' rip-off bands like they will Pearl Jam. They understand the word "integrity".