History Trivia / PearlJam

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The timing of drummer Dave Abbruzzese's departure and Kurt Cobain's passing meant that, for a brief moment, Music/DaveGrohl of Music/{{Nirvana}} was offered the spot behind the kit. Sadly, he had [[Music/FooFighters other plans in the works]], but there is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDPBwBB25E footage of Grohl joining the band for an encore performance of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" on tour in 1995]].

* ChartDisplacement: Their biggest hits on the Hot 100 are "Last Kiss" (a cover of a forgotten 60s tune!), "I Got Id" (because Billboard chose to count the ''Merkin Ball'' EP as a single), and "Spin the Black Circle" (helped by ''Vitalogy'' not being on CD for two weeks, so listeners went elsewhere). In contrast, ''Jeremy'' peaked at only 79 while ''Alive'' and ''Even Flow'' never even charted on the Hot 100.

* ColbertBump: ''Around the Bend'' became popular after the SeriesFinale for the web series {{WebAnimation/ONE}} used a CoverVersion of it.

* ChartDisplacement: Their biggest hits on the Hot 100 are "Last Kiss" (a cover of a forgotten 60s tune!), "I Got Id" (because Billboard chose to count the ''Merkin Ball'' EP as a single), and "Spin the Black Circle" (helped by ''Vitalogy'' not being on CD for two weeks, so listeners went elsewhere).

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The timing of drummer Dave Abbruzzese's departure and Kurt Cobain's passing meant that, for a brief moment, Music/DaveGrohl of '''Nirvana''' was offered the spot behind the kit. Sadly, he had [[Music/FooFighters other plans in the works]], but there is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDPBwBB25E footage of Grohl joining the band for an encore performance of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" on tour in 1995]].

** Successfully seen in the Ticketmaster debacle.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The timing of drummer Abbruzzese's departure and Kurt Cobain's passing meant that, for a brief moment, Music/DaveGrohl of '''Nirvana''' was offered the spot behind the kit. Sadly, he had [[Music/FooFighters other plans in the works]], but there is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDPBwBB25E footage of Grohl joining the band for an encore performance of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" on tour in 1995]].

** Communications during the recordings of ''Vitalogy'' between band members dropped considerably as Eddie Vedder was taking more control over the songwriting process and Stone Gossard stopped mediating band conflicts. Mike [=McCready=] then had to go to rehab for his alcohol and cocaine addiction. Drummer Dave Abbruzzese was later fired near the end of recordings due to his disagreements with the band's actions such as their battle with Ticketmaster and his conflicts with Vedder and Jeff Ament and was replaced with former Music/RedHotChiliPeppers drummer Jack Irons.

* AscendedFanon: "Alive" was originally meant to be about the self-existential doubt and anger of a teenager who discovers who his recently-dead biological father is and his mother inappropriately dealing with the grief by committing ParentalIncest. Fans instead took it as an inspirational self-affirming life anthem, and Eddie Vedder eventually came to agree in a 2006 interview with [=VH1=].

* FlipFlopOfGod / AscendedFanon: Go ahead and ask what the meaning of "Alive" is. Go ahead, we'll wait.

* CreatorBreakdown: ''Vitalogy'' is a dark album, with frequent allusions to suicide ("Last Exit", "Immortality"), written in response to the pressures of stardom and the death of Music/KurtCobain (though Eddie Vedder has repeatedly denied that "Immortality" is about the latter subject). A milder example is ''Binaural'', written in the aftermath of Eddie's divorce from his first wife, with him suffering from writer's block and Mike from an addiction to prescription drugs. ''Riot Act'' has some for both their backlash against UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and an incident in the 2000 Roskilde Festival where nine fans were trampled to death during PJ's show.

* TroubledProduction: ''Binaural'', as Eddie suffered from WritersBlock, the band had to adjust for recording with Matt Cameron after just touring with him, and Mike was coming off a prescripted drug addiction.

* CreatorRecovery: Once Bush left and Creator/BarackObama was elected, the band recorded ''Backspacer'', which sounds much happier than the angry, politically charged and pessimistic SelfTitledAlbum (not to mention the above mentioned ''Riot Act'').

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The timing of drummer Abbruzzese's departure and Kurt Cobain's passing meant that, for a brief moment, Music/DaveGrohl of '''Nirvana''' was offered the spot behind the kit. Sadly, he had [[Music/FooFighters other plans in the works]], but there is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDPBwBB25E footage of Grohl joining the band for an encore performance of Neil Young's ''[=Rockin'=] in the Free World'' on tour in 1995]].

* LyingCreator: Vedder used to claim that the band's name comes from his great-grandmother Pearl's home-made jam, but later admitted that that's untrue. Some fans assume that it's a reference to semen, but Vedder's later explanation is much less interesting: they came up with "Pearl" apropos of nothing and then added "Jam" to it after watching Music/NeilYoung play a long jam set.

* CreatorBreakdown: ''Vitalogy'' is a dark album, with frequent allusions to suicide ("Last Exit", "Immortality"), written in response to the pressures of stardom and the death of Creator/KurtCobain (though Eddie Vedder has repeatedly denied that "Immortality" is about the latter subject). A milder example is ''Binaural'', written in the aftermath of Eddie's divorce from his first wife, with him suffering from writer's block and Mike from an addiction to prescription drugs. ''Riot Act'' has some for both their backlash against UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush and an incident in the 2000 Roskilde Festival where nine fans were trampled to death during PJ's show.

* FlipFlopOfGod / AscendedFanon: Go ahead and ask what the meaning of "Alive" is. Go ahead, we'll wait...

* CreatorBreakdown: ''Vitalogy'' is a dark album, with frequent allusions to suicide ("Last Exit", "Immortality"), written in response to the pressures of stardom and the death of Creator/KurtCobain (though Eddie Vedder has repeatedly denied that "Immortality" is about the latter subject). A milder example is ''Binaural'', written in the aftermath of Eddie's divorce from his first wife, with him suffering from writer's block and Mike from an addiction to prescription drugs. ''Riot Act'' has some for both their backlash against GeorgeWBush and an incident in the 2000 Roskilde Festival where nine fans were trampled to death during PJ's show.