Going through Pearl Jam withdrawl?

I haven't posted anything Vedder-related in a while, so I figured I would mention that Rolling Stone has a lengthy cover story about Pearl Jam in their current issue. The entire article is online. Some good stuff.

Vedder's eyes narrow, and he continues, speaking slowly, "Someone who had severe mental problems and chemical imbalances ended up targeting me and thinking that all the songs were written about her and that I was the father of her two children, and that the kids were products of rape, and that I was Jesus and that Jesus rapes." He winces. "Everyone says, 'Fame, blah, blah, blah.' No, no. This is not fame. This is physical threats upon your life." Vedder is vague on the details, but the problem seems to have peaked between 1994 and 1996. He and Beth Liebling (whom he married in 1994 and divorced in 2000) put up new fences around their Seattle house and enlisted twenty-four-hour security, even demanding that Pearl Jam's then-label, Epic Records, help pay for it: "If you want records out of me, you're going to have to help pay for security to protect your guy right now." Still, one day, he reveals, "This woman drove her car at fifty miles per hour into the wall of my house and almost killed herself."

Fear of the stalker -- which he chronicled in the track "Lukin," from 1996's No Code ("I find my wife, I call the cops, this day's work's never done/The last I heard that freak was purchasing a fucking gun") -- made it hard for Vedder to leave the house and contributed to his reputation as an angry recluse. He won't say what happened to the woman, except to note that she's still alive and there are no ongoing legal proceedings against her. "It will always be a problem," he says. Vedder eventually found another place to live, outside Seattle, a place he still won't name.

There is also a LONG web-only interview with Eddie Vedder as well. Some more good stuff there.

I look around the audience, and there's so many faces, and I've looked into the eyes of at least the ones I could see -- there's at least 1,000 faces -- and I've communicated directly to them and seen where they're coming from. Those faces range from like twelve-year-olds, to tonight probably fifty-year-olds, and it seems like we are connected. They knew what was going on, singing along, not to the old songs but the new songs. They know how old I am, they know where I'm coming from. One thing I don't feel is separation from the crowd. I don't feel like we're speaking from a platform, I feel like we are communicating on the same level.

And while you're checking out rollingstone.com, feel free to hop over and read the short article about The Roots' new album, coming in late-August. Can't wait. Their new single (found here) is quite good.