Born on December 23: Eddie Vedder, grunge soul of Pearl Jam loves the ukulele

His real name is Edward Louis Severson, and he was born in 1974 in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was barely a year old. What better way to start life!

For a long time, Eddie was convinced that his mother's second husband was his biological father. As the family of four moved to California, his mom had the bright idea of giving him a guitar for his twelfth birthday. Bless her! Her family life, made up of separations and tumultuous relationships, hasn't been a smooth ride. The absence of his father was always in the background, and he eventually recounted it on “Alive”, one of the emblematic tracks featured on Pearl Jam's 1991 debut album “Ten”.

With his bruised and battered adolescence, Eddie could have turned out very badly. Instead, he had the strength to draw on them for some of his most moving songs, such as “Better Man”, about the relationship between his mother and stepfather, or “Once” and “Footsteps”. It's no exaggeration to say that music has played a therapeutic, even life-saving role for him. 

In his early days, he evolved in the shadow of Rage Against The Machine and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As is often the case, it was by chance that a real opportunity arose, with this Seattle band looking for a singer. His impressive voice, husky and incantatory, obviously had a lot to do with it, but this is how his new combo quickly became a leader of the grunge movement. 

Behind guitarist Mike McCready's deluge of sound, Eddie's interest in other, more soothing sounds soon began to emerge. On his second album, “Vs.” in 1993, he added a few notes of accordion, harmonica, sitar and... ukulele, in addition to his trademark tambourine. So it's no real surprise that his first solo album in 2011 bears the name of this instrument as its title!

Alongside a career spanning 12 albums with Pearl Jam (the latest this year is entitled “Dark Matter”), he regularly took a few breaths for himself. He began with the soundtrack to “Into The Wild”, the film written and directed by Sean Penn in 2007. On “Rise” and “No Ceiling”, for example, we hear the sour sound of that four-string mini-guitar born in Portugal and adopted by Hawaii: the ukulele, of course. This album also features “Societ ‘y’, one of his most moving compositions. Later, in 2011, “Ukelele Songs” can be heard above all as a declaration of love for this instrument. I also see it as a mischievous wink. Eleven years later, “Earthlink” also broadens the musical field explored by Vedder, to the point of inviting Elton John to join him on “Picture”. An association hardly imaginable with Pearl Jam!

In these uncertain times, which will soon see the return of Trump to the White House, Vedder remains on the left of the American political spectrum. An unconditional supporter of Bernie Sanders, he has successively backed the candidacies of Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. When he sometimes covers Little Steven's “I Am A Patriot” at his concerts, we know which way his heart leans...

(Stéphane Soupart - Tr.: MH - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Eddie Vedder with Pearl Jam on stage at the Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands, June 1992