Pearl Jam’s first album ‘Ten’ was reissued this week with a bunch of reworked tracks. It’s one of the first albums I ever heard that I could listen to over and over and over so I probably spent a good year doing just that. In 1996 I actually met Eddie Vedder at Acton Town train station in London. It was around midnight and I was going home from a party, changing trains to get onto the Picadilly line. I saw a crowd of people standing around this long haired guy that appeared to be him. Normally I don’t approach strangers, particularly ones who I thought were amazing musicians, but when I heard an American accent, I had to find out. He turned out to be a really nice guy who was willing to answer any stupid question that a 17 year old could think of. We chatted for about 10 minutes, he autographed my party invite and then jumped on a District line train. I think I’ve only been as excited to meet one other ‘celebrity’, the Dalai Lama.
My midlife crisis worries are from the fact that even before I knew this album was being reissued, I had been listening to them again, along with Oasis and Nirvana. It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly 15 years since Kurt Cobain killed himself. Are we really that old?
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