Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [210]
CATHY FAULKNER The famous quote that came out of that radio show was that Eddie wanted to wipe his butt with Time magazine.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY You gotta take the staples out first if you do that.
Putting Pearl Jam on the cover was a great call because the issue sold really well. Also, the week it came out, that album sold a million copies, the first album to sell in that range.
BILLBOARD (“Sales Suggest Pearl Jam, Nirvana Are Here to Stay,” by Craig Rosen, November 6, 1993) The record-breaking debut week of Pearl Jam’s “Vs.” and the staying power of Nirvana’s “In Utero” strongly suggest that the two bands linked to the “Seattle sound” have transcended any such scene and are well on their way to careers that will continue long after “grunge” is a memory …
“Vs.,” released Oct. 19, racked up first-week sales of more than 950,000, the largest first-week sales figure since The Billboard 200 began using SoundScan data May 15, 1991.
Although Nirvana’s Oct. 1 debut at No. 1 with sales of more than 180,000 pales by comparison, “In Utero” has shown staying power that has surprised some observers. This week the album drops to No. 4, but retains its bullet as it experiences a sales gain for the second consecutive week.
COLLEEN COMBS (Kelly Curtis’s assistant) Pearl Jam was just getting bigger and bigger. Ten was a hit quickly, and then Vs. set the all-time-highest first-week sales record. It looked like things were never, ever going to calm down. Eddie didn’t go through that building process, the years it takes you to get climatized to what’s happening. It was all at once for him. Otherwise, he would know that he couldn’t just go out barhopping with somebody on tour.
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE (“Slam Jam: Rocker, Cy Young Winner Team Up in Decatur Street Brawl,” by Michael Perlstein, November 19, 1993) A $4 million-a-year major league baseball pitcher, a platinum selling rock singer and a Terrytown waiter converged in a drunken brawl on a French Quarter street just before dawn Thursday and guess who was left standing?
Hint: The rock singer, grunge super-phenom Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, was sent to Orleans Parish Prison and booked with public drunkenness and disturbing the peace.
Hint: The pitcher, 1993 American League Cy Young winner Jack McDowell of the Chicago White Sox, was rushed to Charity Hospital and treated for a cut on his head after barroom bouncer Anthony Martinez decided that the social fabric had been stretched far enough.
When the melee ended, local waiter and music aficionado James Gorman, 24, had one-upped two of the hottest celebrities of the year.
“He spit on me for no reason,” Gorman said of Vedder, explaining how the scuffle began. “He grabbed me by the throat and started pushing me and that’s when things went wild.”
EDDIE VEDDER I was with Blackie and Ed from Urge. I talked to this guy for a while, and we tried to walk on. But this guy, he wouldn’t let it go. He still had to have more. He still had to cover some more points. And Blackie says, “Look, man, just mellow out, we’re going, you know …” And this guy’s going, “No, no. I got to say one more thing, we gotta talk …” and finally I kinda held him against the wall and I … spit … in … his … face. Big fuckin’ deal. Anyway, then all hell broke loose.
EDDIE ROESER The evening started out innocently enough. We were at Daniel Lanois’s studio, and I think we might have met him. We had quite a few drinks and ended up at an extremely crowded bar. Jack McDowell was there as a guest of Eddie Vedder. Eddie’s just trying to have a good time, and some drunk guy wants to talk with him and ends up saying something like, “You’re not so fuckin’ great,” and Vedder just fuckin’ spit in his face. I think the bouncers took this moment to beat on the out-of-towners.
Before we knew it, the police were there and they had Eddie Vedder in handcuffs. I don’t know if they knew who he was, though it was pretty obvious, but