Pearl Jam war criticism prompts walkout
Thursday, April 3, 2003 Posted: 4:20 PM EST (2120 GMT)
DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- Dozens of fans walked out of a Pearl Jam concert after lead singer Eddie Vedder took a mask of President Bush and impaled it on a microphone stand.
Several concertgoers booed and shouted Tuesday night for Vedder to shut up as he told the crowd he was against the war and Bush. He impaled the mask during the encore of the band's opening show of a U.S. tour.
"It was like he decapitated someone in a primal ritual and stuck their head on a stick," fan Keith Zimmerman said.
Vedder used a Bush mask in Australia and Japan to perform the song "Bushleaguer," from the band's latest album, "Riot Act." The song's lyrics say, "He's not a leader, he's a Texas leaguer."
During the show, Vedder said: "Just to clarify... we support the troops."
"We're just confused on how wanting to bring them back safely all of a sudden becomes non-support," he said. "We love them. They're not the ones who make the foreign policy .... Let's hope for the best and speak our opinions."
Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
The Dixie Chicks were the target of boycotts and bans after their lead singer made anti-Bush statements on a London stage last month.
― Mike Hanle y (mike), Friday, 4 April 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)
If Eddie Vedder cured AIDS, I'm still not sure I'd actually listen to them.
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 4 April 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)
carrie brownstein will be creaming her political panties over all this - sleater-kinney is supporting pearl jam on that tour and she likes to think of herself and her band as polemical political spokespersons. suppose someone needs to be, but one feels a bit cheated by 'famous' people's political outbursts, for some reason. less vedders than bono's, however.
my flatmate sasha hates the celebrity 'peace thing' and the murky differentiation between the administration and the troops - she's like, but wait, didn't they sign up in an army etc? what kind of person wants to do that anyway? a crazy person who wants to kill, perhaps - they're just 'legitimised' murderers.
eddie vedder is as much a rhetoritician as bush, anyway, my flatmate says.
― Clare (not entirely unhappy), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)
I'm sticking to the pro war line I took when Coldplay came out against it. And Mel C.
― Matt (Matt), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:03 (twenty-two years ago)
would you guys like it better if Eddie Vedder had actually said he was just an entertainer and it wasn't his place to comment on such things?
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:09 (twenty-two years ago)
Only if he was eating watermelon and shuffling his feet at the time, Justyn.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)
well - all those question marks would suggest that flatmate sasha pretty much knows it's obvious, just like everyone else.
― Clare (not entirely unhappy), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)
"I'm all for peace! Lemme demonstrate that by violently destroying a mask of the President!"
Eddie Vedder is a dumbass. It would be a more effective (and less hypocritical) statement to fly an American flag upside down.
― JuliaA (j_bdules), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)
Bush sux, and I'm from Texas!
― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)