Stars Who Can't Stand Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is undoubtedly one of the best established and consistent bands from the 1990s alternative rock landscape. Having first emerged in the Seattle grunge movement in 1991 with their classic debut "Ten," the band quickly became one of the most commercially successful bands of the era, proving their ability to perform earnest and vulnerable songs on the arena circuit. Frontman Eddie Vedder has continued to push the band forward while enjoying a solo career and movie soundtrack work. Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, marking just over a quarter of a century as rock legends, although they have shown no signs of slowing down since, with two studio albums — their 11th and 12th — and another Vedder solo album released during the 2020s. They have also remained a bankable draw as a live act.

However, while Pearl Jam has attracted both commercial success and critical respect, they have sometimes found themselves in the firing line when it comes to their fellow musicians, particularly back in the 1990s when alternative rock was at its most competitive. Here are a few star musicians who have suggested Pearl Jam aren't as deserving of their plaudits as some would suggest.

Pearl Jam's biggest rivalry was undoubtedly with Nirvana, the iconic Seattle grunge trio fronted by Kurt Cobain. Like many bands emerging from the Seattle scene, one of the central tenets of Nirvana's artistic vision was authenticity, a push-back against the overblown hair metal and hard rock that had come to dominate the mainstream in the 1980s.

Considering their similar backgrounds, it might be assumed that Pearl Jam and Nirvana would be natural brothers in arms. But instead, the early years of the grunge explosion were characterized by bitterness between the two. Though Pearl Jam's "Ten" was released just weeks before Nirvana's "Nevermind," Nirvana was undoubtedly the first grunge band to cross over into the mainstream with their monster hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" receiving an immense amount of radio play topping the Billboard Alternative Chart. Pearl Jam's commercial success came in Nirvana's wake, and Eddie Vedder's band found themselves criticized for their allegedly too-commercial sound that soon saw them outselling other grunge bands of the era, including Nirvana, per All Music.

Cobain claimed in various interviews that he hated Pearl Jam, describing them as "corporate puppets that are just trying to jump on the alternative bandwagon" and their music as "a corporate, alternative and c***-rock fusion" (via Yahoo News). Nevertheless, the bands grew friendlier as the years wore on, with Cobain admitting in an interview with Rolling Stone shortly before his death that he and Vedder had become friends.

Kurt Cobain wasn't exactly unique in his willingness to publicly criticize other bands in the 1990s — nor was such snark a singularly American phenomenon. Across the pond, Britpop was created, a U.K. musical movement characterized by a bright and upbeat guitar sound which music historians argue was in part a response to the more downbeat and self-serious rock emerging from the U.S., and Seattle in particular.

It is little surprise, then, that the biggest and mouthiest Britpop band of all, Oasis, fronted by Mancunian brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, occasionally took the time to take a sideswipe at grunge's biggest-selling act. In 2000, Liam was being interviewed at a festival where Oasis shared the bill with Pearl Jam. As Eddie Vedder's band played in the background, he described the performance as "rubbish," adding, "I'm not into writing morbid music ... they're all in pain. Well my ears are in pain," before adding a few expletives for good measure (via YouTube).

Noel, whose anthems include the cathartic "Rock & Roll Star," has criticized grunge acts for lacking enthusiasm for their own stardom. "Nothing bothers me more than when groups like Pearl Jam and Nirvana whine and moan and complain about life and being famous," he has said. "Let me tell you, being famous is great! If you hate your job so much, why don't you f*****' go work at a car wash or McDonald's or something?" (via The Guardian) Of course, there are also more than a few stars who can't stand Oasis.

Most musical movements emerge as a reaction to what comes before them, and in the case of grunge, the distinction between the alternative rock of the 1990s and the hard rock of the 1980s was clear and overt, even down to how the bands presented themselves on stage. Whereas rockers of the earlier era specialized in eye-catching outfits and bouffant locks made overblown with monstrous amounts of hairspray, bands like Pearl Jam and Nirvana signaled their rejection of hair metal aesthetics with muted colors and everyday garments like flannel shirts and ripped jeans.

Eddie Vedder has been vocal in his continuing dislike of hair metal bands, chief among them controversial hellraisers Motley Crüe. In 2022, Vedder told The New York Times Magazine that he "despised" Motley Crüe and their song "Girls, Girls, Girls," having encountered such bands while working at a rock club carrying equipment. "F*** you," Vedder said in regard to the band and hair metal in general. "I hated how it made the fellas look. I hated how it made the women look. It felt so vacuous."

Motley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx has made sure that the public knows the feeling is mutual. Shortly after Vedder's interview was published, Sixx took to Twitter, now X, posting: "Made me laugh today reading how much the singer in Pearl Jam hated @MotleyCrue. Now considering that they're one of the most boring bands in history it's kind of a compliment isn't it?"

Another band on the polar opposite side of the rock spectrum when it comes to theatricality is, of course, Kiss, the make-up-donning outfit led by Gene Simmons. Over the course of his five-decade career Simmons has garnered a reputation for being shamelessly outspoken, especially when it comes to his fellow musicians and the music industry in general, and he has weighed in with his opinion on Pearl Jam multiple times.

In 2003, Simmons, who has published posts online painting himself as a proud patriot, criticized Pearl Jam for Eddie Vedder's onstage criticism of then-president George W. Bush, who spearheaded the United States' "War on Terror" in the Middle East. He felt that Vedder's statements constituted a boycott of the band's music. "I don't think everybody that booed will stop buying Pearl Jam records or going to Pearl Jam concerts, but I do know that a segment of the audience will stop. I'm one," Simmons said. "I've bought Pearl Jam records. I'm out. He crossed the line."

Eddie Vedder has kept Pearl Jam a political force throughout the band's career, from fighting what they saw as unfair pricing tactics from Ticketmaster in the 1990s to championing liberal politicians and policies to the present day. And of course, when you get involved in activism it is impossible to please all the people all the time.

However, in September 2024 Pearl Jam made headlines after making purposeful steps to step on the toes of another artist: hard rock star Ted Nugent. Nugent is an outspoken Republican and gun owner, and longtime National Rifle Association member, who said in 2021: "I don't need any man — in fact, no man exists to authorize or offer me a permit or a license for my right to keep and bear arms. My name is Ted Nugent. I was born with the God-given individual right, as guaranteed by the Second Amendment, to keep and bear arms 24-7, 365, 74 years on American soil." (per Blabbermouth).

He was understandably taken aback when it began to circulate that Pearl Jam had adapted his 1975 song "Stranglehold" and was performing the song live with new anti-firearm lyrics, including: "I don't own a gun/ I never wanna own a gun" (per American Songwriter). In response, he called out Vedder on social media, posting on X: "hey Eddie join me on my RAV spirit campfire to discuss how your insane liberal policies have created an explosion in engineered violent recidivism while you fight to disarm helpless innocent citizens."