Eddie Vedder on Music, Life, Ukuleles & Uncle Neil

Eddie Vedder
Photo by Danny Clinch

From SignOnSanDiego.com "Eddie Vedder on music, life & ukuleles" by George Varga:

Eddie Vedder: "I think music is just something – I have friends who are, and who have been, professional athletes – and the one thing that is nice about my lot in life is you can – how do I say it? – you can just keep playing. And I don't feel like I'm half way there. I'm, maybe, a third of the way there...

One of the prime examples (of musical longevity) for myself and our group – maybe because we're so close and have such a strong relationship with him – but 'Uncle Neil,' Neil Young, is still working and constantly inventing sounds and songs on his instrument, and changing the sound. That's where you see that there really are no boundaries.

And he just keeps going; he's never been satisfied, even with the grand state of what he's accomplished already. The acreage that he’s accumulated over the years – speaking of it as a musical landscape – you can't, the eye can't, see to the edges of that, and yet it still goes further. Maybe that’s what he meant on (the 1995 Young/Pearl Jam album) 'Mirror Ball,' with (the song) 'I'm The Ocean'."

Q: Or, to quote the Young song "Field of Opportunity," from his 1978 album, "Comes a Time": In the field of opportunity / It's plowing time again...

Eddie Vedder: "For us as a band, being with Neil makes us feel like we're pushing ourselves a little bit," Vedder noted. "And then you realize – it's really interesting – not that you're trying to keep up with him, but that you try harder, for sure."

More on Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam and Uncle Neil Young.

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