25 Eddie Vedder Quotes by the Pearl Jam Legend

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published September 9, 2023

Pearl Jam fans rejoice and rock hard with our Eddie Vedder quotes!

Eddie Vedder is known for his powerful voice and amazing skills on the guitar.

Find out what else makes this legendary rocker so cool with our Eddie Vedder quotes below!

Who is Eddie Vedder?

Eddie Jerom Vedder is an American musician and artist.

He is best known as one of the three guitarists from the rock band Pearl Jam.

Check out these Eddie Vedder facts below:

Vedder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
Vedder was voted number 7 best vocalist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Aside from Pearl Jam, Vedder was a vocalist in the supergroup Temple of the Dog.

Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam was one of the most successful bands of the 90s.

Did you know that Pearl Jam was initially named Mookie Blaylock, after the NBA point guard?

When the band was forced to change their name to Pearl Jam, they decided to name their first album, Ten in honor of Mookie Blaylock.

Their first album, Ten, became one of the best-selling alternative rock albums and went 13 times Platinum.

The biggest single off of the album was Jeremy, which received multiple Grammy Awards.

Pearl Jam would go on to win four MTV awards for Video of the Year and Best Group Video.

Pearl Jam’s success was inspirational to those of us who witnessed it.

Bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Rage Against The Machine proved that artists could be themselves and make the music that inspired them.

Watching these bands shoot to the top of the charts for young people like myself demonstrated that anyone with motivation could achieve their dreams.

Did Pearl Jam break up?

No, they did not!

Many bands from Pearl Jam’s era had ups and downs, and many of them eventually broke up.

However, Pearl Jam managed to remain together despite huge success and temptations.

Journalist and author Charles Cross, who has chronicled the Seattle music scene for decades, made the following observation about Pearl Jam:

“The remarkable thing about Pearl Jam is that they did not break up, and the music they create today still has meaning to them.”

For more cool content, check out our Eddie Vedder quotes below.

Short Eddie Vedder quotes about life

Let’s start with some short and sweet Eddie Vedder quotes.

1. “Life moves fast.” — Eddie Vedder

2. “I don’t need drugs to make my life tragic.” ” — Eddie Vedder

3. “I’ve never been a calm, midrange type person.” — Eddie Vedder

4. “There’s a finite amount of time on this planet for each of us.” — Eddie Vedder

5. “As much as you can learn from your history, you have to move forward.” — Eddie Vedder

The top Eddie Vedder quotes about music

Here Eddie opens up about his definition of music and its purpose in life.

6. “Some of [life] is background music.” — Eddie Vedder

7. “Pretty much at all times, music motivates me.” — Eddie Vedder

8. “I think music is the greatest art form that exists.” — Eddie Vedder

9. “The best songs are the ones that make you feel something.” — Eddie Vedder

9. “I think people listen to music for different reasons, and it serves different purposes.” — Eddie Vedder

The best Eddie Vedder quotes to live by

Here we have a collection of wise observations from Eddie.

11. “It’s an art to live with pain, mix the light into gray.” — Eddie Vedder

12. “The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself.” — Eddie Vedder

13. “You can’t be perfect: You can’t be the perfect father, you can’t be the perfect singer.” — Eddie Vedder

14. “I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time.” — Eddie Vedder

15. “Any conversations we hear about ‘So who are Pearl Jam marketing to?’ are despicable.” — Eddie Vedder

Famous Eddie Vedder quotes about the gift and curse of stardom

Below Eddie explains how stardom has its ups and downs.

16. “That’s part of the curse: If you’re gonna play the song, you better play it.” — Eddie Vedder

17. “I’ve tried to phone in ‘Jeremy’ a few times, and it’s tough. It doesn’t work.” — Eddie Vedder

18. “You know, rock stardom, I have a hard time discussing that because I don’t really accept it. It’s not really that tangible.” — Eddie Vedder

19. “What’s really bizarre is how it’s used as a thing, you know, ‘He’s the rock star of politics,’ ‘He’s the rock star of quarterbacks’, like it’s the greatest thing in the world.” — Eddie Vedder

20. “There’s been times when I’ve been standing in a line at a movie, and someone’s hit me with something really heavy about someone really close and how our music has helped them get through it.” — Eddie Vedder

Vedder’s quotes and sayings about fatherhood and kids

Eddie has matured from a full-time rocker to a full-time dad.

Let’s close our list with some of his fatherhood realizations.

21. “[Creating an identity is] what adolescence is about. [Kids are] gonna go through that no matter what.” — Eddie Vedder

22. “We’re almost like lab rats. I tried to eschew the whole cell phone theory until I had kids; then, I had to be reachable at all times.” — Eddie Vedder

23. “There’s an insanity that goes with writing; a mad scientist thing that you have to go through, and sacrificing a kid’s upbringing to do that is not an option.” — Eddie Vedder

24. “The way we’re attached to our phones these days, they buzz and twitch in our pockets, and we have to look and see if it was a text, a voicemail, or an e-mail.” — Eddie Vedder

25. “No matter how good you are, at some point your kids are gonna have to create their own independence and think that Mom and Dad aren’t cool, just to establish themselves.” — Eddie Vedder