Here's Why Eddie Vedder Hated Making Pearl Jam's 'Vs.' Album

As Pearl Jam's sophomore Vs. album turns 25 this month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band is looking back on one of its career-defining albums. 

Eddie Vedder doesn't have entirely fond memories of the record. While his band is ultimately proud of what it achieved, Vedder says, that doesn't mean making it was a good time for him.

Vedder told Rolling Stone in a new interview that Vs. was the album he "enjoyed making the least."

The singer says he hated the studio where the band recorded Vs. He felt The Site was far too comfortable to produce a gritty and authentic sounding rock and roll album.

"How do you make a rock record he?" Vedder remembered asking. "Maybe the old rockers, maybe they love this. Maybe they need the comfort and the relaxation. Maybe they need it to make dinner music."

The studio's luxurious setting was so diametrically opposed to the mood of the album that rather than stay in the accommodations provided, Vedder often wrote lyrics and slept in his truck. 

In a separate radio interview, Vedder described the "breakdown" he suffered while making Vs

The wild success of Pearl Jam's debut started a whirlwind for the band, making them a headliner and prompting their record label to put them up in a posh studio like The Site. Vedder felt like the band was rushing through Vs., losing control of its music and turning over the reigns to its managers.

"At the end of the record, I didn't feel like it was done," he recalled. "I still had some changes, and lyric changes, and changes in the production of it all."

He continued: "Things were happening quick, and there were forces stronger than us that were dictating things at that point. I literally had a breakdown in the kitchen, 'What is going to happen here?'"

Producer Brendan O'Brien talked Vedder off the ledge, assuring him they still had time to make changes, which they did, Vedder said. 

But the front man was still on edge. He described the brief respite after the album was completed as feeling like "the longest we'd ever been apart at the time." 


Photo: Getty Images


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