Eddie Vedder Quotes & Sayings

Singing someone else's songs is like keeping your clothes on. — Eddie Vedder

If you're anti-war it doesn't mean you are 'Pro' one side or the other in a conflict. However, it does make you 'Pro' many thingsPro-Peace, Pro-Human, Pro-Evolution, it makes you Pro-Communication, Pro-Diplomacy, Pro-Love, Pro-Understanding, Pro-Forgiveness. — Eddie Vedder

I don't need drugs to make my life tragic. — Eddie Vedder

I'm really high ... I mean the altitude of course. — Eddie Vedder

I learned so much about music by playing this little, miniature songwriting machine [ukulele], especially about melody. The motto is less strings more melody. — Eddie Vedder

As far as viewpoints, I think I'm more well-rounded and definitely more educated, and probably more hopeful than I used to be. I think when you're young and you get into a cause, you get frustrated with it within a few years, or six months. — Eddie Vedder

I've been writing and collecting songs on the ukulele for at least 10 years, so it was time to clear them out of the apartment building and make room for some new occupants.I need to make room for the bassoon record. — Eddie Vedder

Sorry is the fool who trades his soul for a corvette Thinks he'll get the girl he'll only get the mechanic. — Eddie Vedder

If it's a band I like, I just hope they will survive it all. And I'll admit that if it's crap music, I hope they won't and it'll go away. Simply because there are too many great bands who should be heard in their place. — Eddie Vedder

I think that if your approach is one where you don't want to alienate anybody, you're going to have to soften the viewpoint or the information that you're offering to such an extent that it doesn't have the power to make any difference. You have to take that risk. — Eddie Vedder

Your pot laws are great! But your gun laws are even better! — Eddie Vedder

I've never been a calm, midrange type person. — Eddie Vedder

If he can't sleep, how will he ever dream? — Eddie Vedder

I just don't understand, if they see numbers [of CEO salaries]that represent people, how they can somehow skirt around that and morally justify taking or ruining those lives and leaving them with nothing. That, to me, is violent crime. It's certainly more violent than selling grams of pot to other adults. — Eddie Vedder

The word religion has such bad connotations for me, that it's been responsible for wars, and it shouldn't be that way at all, it's just the way the meaning of the word has evolved to me. I have to wonder what we did on this planet before religion. — Eddie Vedder

One thing you might suggest to a young band is don't get involved in any kind of long-term contract because everything changes on a bimonthly basis: The way people hear music and access it, the way it is distributed. — Eddie Vedder

I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me. — Eddie Vedder

The interesting thing is that it seems like George W. Bush would have been happy being the president of anything. He could have been president of Major League Baseball. — Eddie Vedder

It's a fragile thing,this life we lead if I think too much I can get overwhelmed by the grace by which live our lives with death over our shoulder. — Eddie Vedder

You have to be able to grow and move with the organism that is the music industry. You need to maintain flexibility. Ownership of your own stuff is key and then you're able to dictate on a present-terms basis what would be the most effective way to protect yourself and what you've created. You also don't want to lock yourself into a situation where a major label owns part of your touring and merchandise. — Eddie Vedder

Life moves fast. As much as you can learn from your history, you have to move forward. — Eddie Vedder

If at noon you sit down and there's just silence or blank tape, in an hour if you have a song, that didn't exist an hour ago. Now it exists and it might exist for a long time. There's something empowering about that. — Eddie Vedder

The one thing about going from the audience to the stage in just three years is that you know how it feels to be down there. — Eddie Vedder

I've got my indignation but I'm pure in all my thoughts. — Eddie Vedder

Delight, Delight, Delight ... in our youth. — Eddie Vedder

The nice thing about money is that you can do good things with it. I still feel like if something needs to be done or we need to raise money for someone on death row, we can find ways to do it. — Eddie Vedder

Music was your real passion, this thing you held dear even above family. It was this relationship that never betrayed you. Once it became your job - this thing that was highly visible, this thing that became about commerce - that's when you were holding onto music like it was a palm tree in a hurricane. — Eddie Vedder

Before music videos first came out, you'd listen to a song with headphones on, sitting in a beanbag chair with your eyes closed, and you'd come up with your own visions, these things that came from within. Then all of a sudden, sometimes even the very first time you heard a song, it was with these visual images attached, and it robbed you of any form of self-expression. — Eddie Vedder

No matter how good you are, at some point your kids are gonna have to create their own independence and think that Mom and Dad aren't cool, just to establish themselves. That's what adolescence is about. They're gonna go through that no matter what. — Eddie Vedder

Sure as I am breathing, sure as I'm sad I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh I leave here believing more than I had This love has got no ceiling — Eddie Vedder

I just finished touring, and I'm on a detox thing. It's a heavy detox, so nothing in my belly except water, salt, and cayenne pepper. — Eddie Vedder

I had a $1.50 from playing the ukulele after owning it seven minutes. I thought, "Hmmm, this has some possibilities." — Eddie Vedder

Well, maybe it was just that I wasn't going to like anybody because I had to work and I had to explain to my teachers why I wasn't keeping up. I'd fall asleep and things in class and they'd lecture me about the reality of their classroom. I said, 'You want to see my reality?' I opened up my backpack to where you usually keep your pencils. That's where I kept my bills ... electric bills, rent ... That was my reality. — Eddie Vedder

Music saved me; I mean, my upbringing was like a hurricane, and music was the tree I held onto. — Eddie Vedder

I'm probably never happier than when I'm by myself in the water. What I've worked and sacrificed for is not to be on stage playing music but to surf in some secluded place. It's a grounding element. Waves don't care who you are. — Eddie Vedder

I'm optimistic yet disillusioned, hopeful yet frustrated. — Eddie Vedder

Any conversations we hear about 'So who are Pearl Jam marketing to?' are despicable. — Eddie Vedder

Music's at its best when it has a purpose. — Eddie Vedder

Competition is healthy, if you can turn it off and on. When someone gets too cocky in victory, that can ruin the positive aspect. — Eddie Vedder

Cannot find the comfort in this world. — Eddie Vedder

If I'm not on tour or in the studio, I'm in nature somewhere, usually some kind of ocean. Playing music has afforded me that. It's not lost on me that it's a tremendous opportunity to be able to spend your life being surrounded by nature. — Eddie Vedder

I would do anything to be around music.
You don't even have to pay me. — Eddie Vedder

Is it O.K. that I speak in English? The only thing I know in Dutch is how to order pot. — Eddie Vedder

There is a thing that happens when you are not as privileged and you start hanging out with a seedier crowd because you can afford to do the same things, And all of a sudden the big night out is sitting in somebody's trailer, smoking something or getting hold of something to put up to your nose. — Eddie Vedder

I just have this deep kind of connection to reality of being like ... in a way, I feel like a dock worker. I want to stay in connection with my dock-worker side, 'cause that's how I grew up. — Eddie Vedder

If there was anything that I learned with my own writing process, maybe there's too many choices what to write about. Just the amount of subject matter in the world these days; maybe that feels chaotic for me. — Eddie Vedder

Do you force your kids to pay attention to what's going on, or do you let them live their lives outside of it? My hope is that my child is a strong activist. That would make me most proud. — Eddie Vedder

Well there's a lot of machines making music today too so you should expect perfection from them! Other than that it's humans programming it which is actually why i still like it. But yeah, that sounds about right. Now what I've got to do is I've got to stop expecting it of myself. — Eddie Vedder

I can still write blues songs because I remember everything. — Eddie Vedder

Things like guitars and ukuleles, you should never part with it, because there will probably be good, healthy times spent, just playing and writing. — Eddie Vedder

When it comes to grunge or even just Seattle, I think there was one band that made the definitive music of the time. It wasn't us or Nirvana, but Mudhoney. Nirvana delivered it to the world, but Mudhoney were the band of that time and sound. — Eddie Vedder

You can't be perfect. You can't be the perfect father. You can't be the perfect singer. — Eddie Vedder

It's a mystery to me
We have a greed with which we have agreed
You think you have to want more than you need
Until you have it all you won't be free
When you want more than you have
You think you need
And when you think more than you want
Your thoughts begin to bleed
I think I need to find a bigger place
'Cause when you have more than you think
You need more space
Society, you're a crazy breed
I hope you're not lonely without me
Society, crazy and deep
I hope you're not lonely without me — Eddie Vedder

I used to kind of blame someone for not being able to get through that - I'm talking about the addiction part - but I've had a few experiences recently where you don't blame the person anymore. — Eddie Vedder

I would thank God, but I don't believe in it ... It's like a movie that was way too popular. It's a story that's been told too many times and just doesn't mean anything ... All I really believe in is this moment, like right now. — Eddie Vedder

Everytime I see the Spice Girls, it makes me want to try to fly by
climbing my roof and strapping bricks to my shoes. — Eddie Vedder

War hurts. It hurts no matter which sides the bombs are falling on. — Eddie Vedder

You can go down the list of great artists and kind of understand that they are products of their environment. Whether it's U2 or Henry Rollins or myself or Johnny Lydon, they're gonna be products of their environment. — Eddie Vedder

It just seemed like I would. I mean, I didn't know him on a daily basis
far from it. But, in a way, I don't even feel right being here without him. It's so difficult to really believe he's gone. I still talk about him like he's still here, you know. I can't figure it out. It doesn't make any sense. — Eddie Vedder

I probably get strangers coming up to me two or three times a week to just say something nice. I get more than my share of compliments as I walk through my daily life. I'm not having to show off or make a point about how good I am at doing something. I think I've always kind of been that way. — Eddie Vedder

If people don't like what I'm doing I really don't have time to hear it. I'm doing something good with my life and I challenge them to do the same. — Eddie Vedder

I wish I was the verb 'to trust' and never let you down ... — Eddie Vedder

Dream the dreams of other men, you'll be no ones rival. — Eddie Vedder

I had actually been going to Hawaii for quite a while before I ever picked up the uke. I think with anything new you're going to get more enjoyment out of it if it comes to you quickly, and the uke facilitates that. — Eddie Vedder

At some point, when you read about this factual information that comes out in The New Zealand Herald and it's barely mentioned in The New York Times, then I think you've got to question where this is being manipulated, and where the filters are. — Eddie Vedder

I don't know how people do it these days - paparazzi and that kind of thing. That's something I can't even imagine. — Eddie Vedder

You mature as far as your understanding of what it's going to take, and you increase your stamina. You don't let frustration overtake you when you're looking for change. — Eddie Vedder

I believe in the power of music. To me, it isn't just a fad. This is a positive thing. — Eddie Vedder

It's fun singing with other people who are really good singers. There's something kind of poignant about braiding a couple vocals. — Eddie Vedder

It's more like you write what comes to you ... You try to reflect the mood of the songs. Take 'Rearviewmirror', we start off with the music and it kinds of propels the lyrics. It made me feel like I was in a car, leaving something, a bad situation. There's an emotion there. I remembered all the times I wanted to leave ... — Eddie Vedder

That makes it even more offensive to me that she's interested in our band and she did something for Slaughter. — Eddie Vedder

I had a long talk with Bruce Springsteen on a rooftop during the Vote for Change tour (in 2004). And it boiled down to this: That guy you used to be, he's still in the car. He'll always be in the car. Just don't let him drive. He might be shouting out directions. But whatever you do, don't let him get behind the wheel. — Eddie Vedder

If 'little George Dubya Bush' wins, we are going to apply for Canadian citizenship. — Eddie Vedder

So much energy comes out of concerts sometimes, especially good ones that are really moving. And that energy, no matter how great the show is, it dissipates within two weeks or a month. — Eddie Vedder

I'm trying to break any chain of negative parenting that I might have survived. — Eddie Vedder

I think music is the greatest art form that exists, and I think people listen to music for different reasons, and it serves different purposes. The best songs are the ones that make you feel something — Eddie Vedder

I think the hardest thing about making music now is being a great dad at the same time. There's an insanity that goes with writing - a mad scientist thing that you have to go through - and sacrificing a kid's upbringing to do that is not an option. — Eddie Vedder

It seems like a necessary balance to life, being part of the community. — Eddie Vedder

On bended knee is no way to be free
lifting up an empty cup I ask silently
that all my destinations will accept the one that's me
so I can breath
Circles they grow and they swallow people whole
half their lives they say goodnight to wive's they'll never know
got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul
so it goes ... — Eddie Vedder

Nothingman" is about a troubled relationship. I wrote it before I was married.I might bring something I know from the relationship to "Nothingman," but I'm thinking about someone else going through it, someone who fucked up. I didn't fuck up. The idea is about if you love someone and they love you, don't fuck up ... 'cause you are left with less than nothing. — Eddie Vedder

Caffeine. The gateway drug. — Eddie Vedder

You know, punk bands now sell with one record - their first or second record - sell 10 times the amount of records than the Ramones did throughout their career with 20-something records. That's why I go over to Johnny Ramone's house and do yard work three times a week, just to absolve some of the guilt. — Eddie Vedder

Sometimes, whether you like it or not, people elevate you. It's real easy to fall. — Eddie Vedder

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to say things. I'm a little exhausted by the process. — Eddie Vedder

After the Ramones, it was more about new wave for me than punk. — Eddie Vedder

I feel like we have to keep our eyes on the road. Being nostalgic is like taking an offramp and getting a sandwich - and then you get back on the highway. I don't want to be spending the rest of my life at the gas station. — Eddie Vedder

I'm an example of someone who never made it to university. I did have this dream to be a musician. I felt that this dream had an expiration date. — Eddie Vedder

I don't work so hard at trying to get every song to be three-dimensional and mean so much. I just want to breathe, right now, with the music. — Eddie Vedder

The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. — Eddie Vedder

No music is going to stop the war. What's going to stop the war is a large amount of body bags, or a large amount of people in the streets, protesting it before it starts. — Eddie Vedder

I'd like people to be educated on the voting machines, making sure that our democracy isn't being hijacked by computer technology. There's no reason there can't be a paper trail on those machines. — Eddie Vedder

I think what happens is when something becomes successful, then a lot of people take credit for it in such ways that it takes credit away from you. — Eddie Vedder

Ladies and gentleman of Florida, this is the real Jeff Ament ... take a very good look because there's an imposter running around ... if someone comes up to you and says he's Jeff Ament and says he wants to take your pot or wants to take you to a strip club, it's probably not him. — Eddie Vedder

It's saying, just stop, and be together. Don't talk now, just breathe and feel each other's presence ... — Eddie Vedder

I got a great grandma. Her name is Pearl, and she was at one time married to an Indian chief, who, in a wonderful crossing of cultures, she integrated some of his, and some of hers, and um,
it was a combination of peyote and preserves, and it was this hallucinogenic jam. — Eddie Vedder

At a certain point, you realize you have a responsibility more behind yourself and your need for adrenaline. I'm glad I did things in my 20s that were more reckless. — Eddie Vedder

I just think that all of us in this room should have a voice in how the USA is represented. And he don't allow us our voice, that's all I'm saying. — Eddie Vedder

Wait a minute, yes, those are human heads. — Eddie Vedder

I was able to apply ukulele to whatever I'm trying to write. It's become part of songwriting for me, the knowledge I gained from hearing the melodies come out, and then applying that to guitar or vocals. — Eddie Vedder

I am not a good enough writer to have an agenda or come up with a message and try to put it into a song. It's more like you write what comes to you ... You try to reflect the mood of the songs. — Eddie Vedder