Eddie Vedder

Fernanda Garcés Palma4°MB

A great…

His name is Edward Louis Severson, better know as Eddie Vedder

Is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead vocalist and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam.Genres: Alternative rock, folk rock, grunge, hard rock.

Vedder has also contributed to several soundtracks and compilations, including the soundtracks for the films Dead Man Walking, I Am Sam and Into the Wild.

In addition to his musical projects, Eddie Vedder is active in several environmental and pro-choice causes.

His life…

Born Edward Louis Severson III on December 23, 1964, in Evanston, Illinois, Eddie Vedder had a tumultuous childhood. Raised in Chicago, Vedder was just 1 year when his parents divorced. His mother quickly remarried. For many years Vedder was led to believe that his stepfather was his biological dad. The angst he felt when he finally discovered the truth fueled much of his later music, including the creation of one Pearl Jam's earliest hits, "Alive."

After dropping out of high school, Vedder adopted his mother's maiden name and moved

to San Diego, where he soon immersed himself in Southern California's vibrant surfing scene. He also carried with him a passion for music—bands like the Sex Pistols, The Who, the Ramones and Black Flag were big influences—and Vedder became a fixture at a number of different nightclubs.

While living in San Diego Vedder was a part of several bands, including one called Bad Radio. But the groups never went anywhere.

the beginning of Pearl Jam…

Vedder was the last member to join the band that would become known as Pearl Jam. In the early 1990s, former Mother Love Bone guitarist Stone Gossard had started a new band that consisted of bassist Jeff Ament, lead guitarist Mike McCready and drummer Dave Krusen. The group still needed a singer. Needing lyrics for some music he and his bandmates had created, Gossard turned to Jack Irons, formerly of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Irons, who lived in Southern California and had become friends with Vedder, passed a demo tape of the group on to the prospective singer. Vedder set to work and composed three songs—"Alive," "Once" and "Footsteps"—to the music. When Gossard listened to Vedder's tape, he immediately called him and invited him up to Seattle to join the group.

Pearl Jam released its first album, in 1991. The record featured a string of hits, including two of Vedder's original songs, "Alive" and "Once." that quickly fell into heavy rotation on MTV and powered the album to the top of the charts.

The new generation…

Along with bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden, Pearl Jam blazed a new path for a growing contingent of grunge artists, bringing the genre to the forefront of America's youth culture. As it did, the group explored hard subjects like angst, depression and suicide, giving a voice to a new generation of teenagers and young adults known as Generation X.

With a relatively low profile, Pearl Jam continued to put out well-received albums throughout the late 1990s, including No Code in 1996, Yield and the live album Live on Two Legs in 1998, and Binaural in 2000. The band released its ninth studio album, Backspacer, in 2009.