Pearl Jam guested on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show to promote their new album, Dark Matter, and talked about the track “Waiting For Stevie,” inspired by Eddie Vedder’s interaction with Stevie Wonder.
Frontman Vedder and his bandmates — lead guitarist Mike McCready, rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament, and drummer Matt Cameron —sat with Howard Stern for a wide-ranging conversation before performing four songs live.
Pearl Jam had plenty to say about Dark Matter, with Stern particularly eager to hear about the genesis of one of his favorite tracks off the album, “Waiting for Stevie,” written while Eddie and producer Andrew Watt were in the studio waiting on Stevie Wonder to pop in and lay down a harmonica track.
“If you hear that, it’s Stevie playing incredibly fast,” Vedder explained of his song “Try,” which features Wonder. “That was an incredible experience, just watching him become the music. It was like he wasn’t even there anymore as a person. He was just music, flowing through this … big chromatic [harmonica] he was playing.”
Just how late was the “Higher Ground” crooner?
“We were supposed to play at 4 p.m. and I think maybe he got there at 11 at night,” Eddie said. “But that’s okay.”
“Is it?” Howard wondered.
“Absolutely,” Vedder responded. He went on to explain that while Stevie’s late arrival inspired the music of “Waiting for Stevie,” its lyrics were only tangentially related to the “Superstition” singer.
“In a way, it’s a song about being affected by music, and maybe music changing your life, and maybe leading you to your tribe,” Vedder said. “In that way it connects to Stevie because his music has that power.”
Check out Pearl Jam on Howard Stern here:
Video courtesy of SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show