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JEFF AMENT We’d be playing parks and racetracks. And somebody would be yelling, “The fence is down a mile in the east corner!” and we’d have one guy trying to fix it. It was absolutely stupid.

ERIC JOHNSON In San Francisco, Eddie got food poisoning. I remember he called me at like 6 in the morning and said he had been sick all night and he needed to go to the hospital right away, so I went up to his room to get him and the telling sign was there was half a tuna sandwich still sitting on the tray. I thought, Eww, that’s bad. We were at the hospital for a couple of hours—they put several pints of fluid into him because he was really dehydrated—and then we went pretty much right from the hospital to the show.

We were in a town car, and he was in so much pain that he was on his knees on the little floor well in the back. He was grabbing the seats, and you know how taut the leather seats are—you can’t pinch them or grab the leather? He was grabbing wads of leather in his hand and squeezing, he was in so much pain. When he got to Golden Gate Park, one of the guys from Rock Med that’s always at the shows gave him a shot that kind of eased him back for a little while.

EDDIE VEDDER I thought I was going to die. We’ve been in some pretty tense situations as far as crowd control, and usually I pull it off. I think they just thought I was going to pull it off.

I’m not being a martyr or anything, but it was hard. And then I was looking through the set list. Well, maybe I can pull this off or that off. And then it was like, “I can’t. I just can’t do this. It’s crazy.” That was one of those low moments. That was a really tough thing. But there was nothing, just nothing, I could do. I’m human.

ERIC JOHNSON Eddie did a couple songs, and then couldn’t do any more. Neil had showed up on his Harley and was just gonna play a song with everybody, and he ended up doing like eight or nine songs with the rest of the band.

KELLY CURTIS We were afraid there’d be a riot. Neil just went down and wore ’em out. After that show, Neil said you know what, if it doesn’t feel right, go home. And the band looked at each other and said you know what, we feel like going home. So we called it quits and went home.

COLLEEN COMBS We got so much hate mail from fans after that show. It was so discouraging. Can you imagine having a sick day that causes those kind of repercussions? That is a lot of pressure for a person to handle. We worked really hard to make that tour happen.

EDDIE VEDDER Eventually they came out with a press release that basically said, “The Department of Justice has ceased its investigation of Ticketmaster. No further investigation will take place.” That was it, after a year of struggle. It was really amazing to be right up close and get absolutely stomped on by a huge corporate entity.

BRETT ELIASON Pearl Jam really believed in what they were doing, and from my point of view, what good does it do to have a big fight like that and just give up? They do walk their talk. They always have, they always will.

KIM WARNICK The Fastbacks touring with Pearl Jam in 1996 was the best thing ever. I lived out the ultimate rock dream. We played huge, huge, huge places. But they don’t live the major-rock-star lifestyle. They are as Fugazi as Fugazi. Their whole organization, everything about that band is so right-on, I can’t say enough about them. I’m not just talking about the band and Kelly Curtis, I’m talking about everybody who works for them. Everybody.

We had two weeks in the U.S. and then five weeks in Europe. They didn’t use Ticketmaster. So we didn’t play Madison Square Garden, we played Randall’s Island. So it’s like, “I know you guys are doing the right thing, but this is the only time I might’ve been able to play Madison Square Garden. Dammit! Dammit!” But it’s hard to be mad at them for that.

BRETT ELIASON In ’97, Pearl Jam really didn’t tour much. They had time to think about things, which, I’m sure, led them to change their mind and approach about