Vedder pulls a Dixie Chick.....

Also, how could this possibly surprise anyone?

...and her husband tracks him down and beats the shit out of him.

That paragraph is utterly fantastic.

peas, even.

now, if only like Eminem, or Pink, or Jay-Z were to speak out against Bush and/or the war ... that would be something.

literally
(sorry, all the really good stupid human quotes were already taken)

that's a good point ... i was concentrating more on their recent chart success, which would give them more "clout" than Pearl Jam (who at this point, i imagine, as just preaching to the converted). PJ might as well be the Grateful Dead at this point. maybe in 1992 Vedder would have had some heft (yes, as someone upthread said, PJ = 1992 Dixie Chicks), but in 2003 who cares what he has to say about anything?

and i honestly didn't know that Jay-Z had come out against the war. good on him -- i hope it does have some impact.

(On Wednesday, the Marshall Tucker Band announced it would play a May 1 concert in Spartanburg, S.C., as an alternative to the U.S. tour-opening show in nearby Greenville by the Dixie Chicks that same day.)

Those people bought their tickets months ago! That's such a hilariously dumb show of opportunism.

"There were close to 12,000 people at the April 1st Denver show. It's possible two dozen left during encore but it was not noticeable amongst the 11,976 who were loudly applauding and enjoying the evening's music. It just made a better headline to report otherwise. [You'll note the writer doesn't mention this in his review of the show from the day prior. See "Pearl Jam Show Will Make a Great CD" by Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News. And it is little more than a mention in any of the show reviews.]"

Pearl Jam have always been outspoken and will continue to be so. Their statement also suggests that they have no intention in backing down in their beliefs. "Dissension is nothing we shy away from -- it should just be reported about more accurately. Ed's talk from the stage centered on the importance of freedom of speech and the importance of supporting our soldiers as well as an expression of sadness over the public being made to feel as though the two sentiments can't occur simultaneously".

I do know, however, that despite what Eddie Vedder said, some of the people at the Free Republic site (which I do confess to participating in) did say they would still listen to Pearl Jam because they view it as good American stadium rock. *shrug* I dunno, honestly. I defended the Dixie Chicks when Natalie Maines issued her apology by stating that famous people say stupid things all the time and that it was a rarity that anyone famous would actually apologize for the stupid thing they said, so we (as in the other forum) should just accept the apology and move on.

I'm on the fence here. On one hand, I just want to sigh and move on, continuing to listen to Pearl Jam and not really caring in the end what any of the band members think. On the other hand, I want to stomp on an effigy of Eddie Vedder because he did what he did and I'm a Republican and all. Still, at least he hasn't joined up with the "blame America" crowd, at least not yet, and I'm happy about that.

Because as we all know, you can always trust the national media to give a fair and balanced opinion of what the American people actually want...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40057-2003Mar27.html

It would be unlikely if Eminem did. I think he has already made some statement against it...