Photo by Taylor HillWith Pearl Jam set to broadcast today’s Jazz Fest performance to soliders in Iraq, we’ve decided to look back to October, 2004 for this interview with Eddie Vedder

There’s no need to get into a long-winded biography about Eddie Vedder. The man has worn his heart on his sleeve since emerging onto the music since in the year of the alternative explosion in 1991. It seems like he’s been railing against something ever since then, whether it be the environment with his work with the Surfrider Foundation, his pro-choice activism with Rock for Choice, or his benefits for cancer research in the name of his departed friend Johnny Ramone. Vedder and his band have always put their time and money where their mouths are.

He’s never been a big fan of the Bush family; actually they make him ill. The mere mention of George Walker Bush gets him in a lather. His support of Ralph Nader in the 2000 election was met with friction even amongst his friends, but that didn’t deter him from the belief that there needs to be a third party in American politics.

Vedder can’t sit idly by. Along with Bruce Springsteen and a coalition of other artists/activists, Pearl Jam barnstormed through the swing states on the wildly successful and possibly influential Vote for Change tour this fall. “It feels better to be out participating rather than watching it on the TV, then talking about it at night in the bar. It felt good to be out there and involved,” he says.

Between feeding his cat and smoking a few butts, Vedder spoke with vigor – and a bit of venom – from his Seattle home about the November 2 election and the war in Iraq.

What if any, were your expectations going into the Vote for Change tour?

EV: I think they were fairly small. People say, “What right do you have to be speaking to people and why should they be listening to you?” If they want to, they can. At one point someone said, “Don’t you think you’re preaching to the choir?” I thought about the responses we were getting, which were like 98% positive. If there was any dissent out there, it wasn’t formidable enough to make any kind of dent. I think there were interesting questions being raised; when I talked to kids out front or when I spoke with young men and women out in the parking lot, it was thoughtful and intelligent. But for the most part, maybe it was preaching to the choir, because there was really positive feedback coming our way.

But I think it was important for the choir to get together. It was good for people to feel solidarity and be in a room and feel the energy and the activism, right there for people to share with each other, as opposed to sitting at home watching polls. I don’t know anybody who has been polled, and I don’t know anybody who knows anybody that’s been polled. Yet they are saying that it is close or Kerry is down, and maybe you start losing hope and distrusting your neighbor.

The tour became a great way to share information with a spoonful of sugar because you are playing the music. But also with the music what I didn’t expect and I you don’t realize it until you are out there is that the songs take on more meaning. It’s like, “I knew what I was thinking when I wrote this,” and now is the time when it really comes true. Whether you are talking about loss of life or the song “Grievance,” “I pledge my grievance to the flag,” raising your voice. Yet it comes even more when you are playing for a purpose, which I feel we always are in a way. But it was laid out on this one, people knew why were there.

At one point I said, “We don’t even care how you vote, it’s just that you vote and participate.” Then I realized that was a lie, and we do care and that’s why we are here. I feel like anybody who has done a half day’s research will realize that there is clear choice here. Just looking into the history of the candidates – when Kerry was risking his life in Vietnam at the same time that Bush was president of his fraternity, barely pulling “C’s.”

What’s important right now is to dispel this myth that somehow Bush, Jr. is a man of the people. I really don’t understand it, because he is fairly inept at communicating, and somehow that brings him down to an average working-class level? I don’t believe that. I think his inability to communicate on the issues has to do with the fact that he doesn’t know much about them. He hasn’t had the same kind of struggles that most people have had. That’s the mystery to me that he is on their side, when it’s damn clear if you follow the money trail that his friends and the people that he loves and the people that love him all have to do with making billions of dollars and his part in facilitating their profits.

You stay informed by reading and watching the news; did you happen to catch the Frontline special “The Choice 2004” on PBS?

EV: It was amazing, and it seemed to be fairly bi-partisan; if Laura Bush was being interviewed for it they are trying to tell the whole story. To me, there is no comparison. Can I refer to that show? What’s incredible is that they [Republicans] start questioning Kerry’s service, and then not only do they question his service in Vietnam, but they question the fact that he was bringing to light the atrocities, and they showed it with unbelievable footage; it’s amazing that all exists, speaking in front of the Senate or Congress with the other soldiers, it was like therapy for them to come clean over the horrible realities that had taken place over there.

Then they cut to 2004 and they say, "How dare he speak out, saying that he’s betrayed the soldiers that were over there, and trying to deny that it wasn’t the perfect war and that everybody behaved completely civilly. War is hell and we have seen in this one too, whether it has to do with the prisons or the civilian causalities, smart bombs that aren’t so smart that are hitting their target s 40% of the time.

What’s astounding in 2004, they are saying how dare he speak out against the Vietnam War. As if the Vietnam War was the correct thing? In the last 20 years we have pretty much come to terms, and even in the last ten with Robert McNamara coming out coming out and saying what a clusterfuck this was. Now are they somehow saying that the Vietnam War was the right thing to do? And how dare Kerry speak out against the atrocities that took place? He was a hero for coming back and saying how awful it was over there and that we had to stop this thing.

While George Bush was in Alabama getting drunk every night…

EV: And bragging about it. Then they question John Kerry’s ability to lead and John Kerry’s ability to be a strong leader in the face of war, a guy that has actually been through it. They don’t really talk about it, but it sounds like he has actually had to kill people in the line of duty. You have to question what kind of empathy does George Bush have in regards to human life? I claim to have more than he does and our band does just from what we went through in Denmark in knowing how much just the loss of one young life affects a whole community. With nine people that were lost in Denmark, I absolutely know.

For me, and for us to see the names of young men and women pop up at the end of the week in who was lost and they are in their early twenties… at some point you can’t live with it anymore. You don’t really feel it here on American soil. We’ve got tax breaks. We are pissed that our gas prices go up twenty or fifty cents, and we don’t really feel that this war is happening. Yet we see these names coming through. I can’t handle it anymore. That’s why you have to speak out. If people say don’t listen to him or they question why we would do it, as a human being it makes me insane. I cannot live with our country over there with a huge loss of life. Not to mention the Iraqi loss of life. Eleven, 12, 000 dead, another 40,000-60,000 maimed or injured. That’s enough to almost fill Giants Stadium. The price is too much.
Do you feel like the momentum of the tour will translate to the polls?

EV: When you think about it, it’s pretty small-scale. The biggest momentum – it’s interesting how this happened – was that before the first night of the tour we had the first debate. We saw Kerry as an intelligent, thoughtful, well-spoken representative of this country go against someone who was flummoxed by every question and was put off by the fact that anything he said was questioned and turned into a little petulant child on international television and you think, “This is who is running our country?” Not that we didn’t know that before, but just to see it illustrated.

I know what we felt out there and it was really positive and it’s one small part of the fabric of people all over this country that have been active and registering new voters, getting young women and single moms to vote, really reaching out and saying that this is the time to be active. Again, I think the idea is that it’s not this election, it’s time to participate between a dialogue between the citizenry and the government, and to keep things moving. They are doing things on behalf of our country as well; they are trying to plant seeds of democracy on the other side of the world mainly due to oil interests. Yet here at home our own citizens are falling down. They don’t have health care.

The take-over of our government by corporate interests is headed down a path where if it’s not addressed now, that is where we lose our hope and rights as citizens. We’ll lose our information because it will become a media that is a monopoly. We’ll lose our rights because they are saying that they can come into your house based on anti-American activities, not anti-terrorists. Something like participating in a W.T.O. or anti-corporate protest, will that mean you are anti-American? Will that take you down?

Do you think that there is a possibility that Bush will “steal” the election again?

EV: It’s striking that there hasn’t been more reporting done on black box voting by this company called Diebold. I believe they are based in Texas, which raises questions. It also raises questions when the guy who runs the company says publicly, “I will do whatever I can to provide or give this election to you.” I am surprised that there hasn’t been more reporting done on this. It will be a shame if it all comes out a year later, like it did in Florida. I think that’s a huge question. I think that’s another reason why you don’t want it to be a close vote. You get as many people out there and get it to be where the disparity in votes is so huge that they can’t manipulate it. From what I hear, there is a lot going on, on the Republican side, to manipulate things. If someone says that then they are talking conspiracy. Gore Vidal would say, “Let’s change that word, and call it coincidence.” [laughs]

What do you think of the President co-opting 9/11?

They have somehow claimed ownership to that tragedy and for them to say that the world is a scary place and they are the only ones to defend us… Just think of all of our people who are still in Afghanistan; we don’t even hear about them. What has gone on in Iraq is a recruitment video for more terrorists. That’s us trying to occupy and build the biggest United States embassy in the world in the middle of Iraq.

How about Bruce Springsteen sticking his neck out and being involved in the Vote for Change tour?

I can relate in some ways on a smaller level, if someone says we have a bunch of bands together and do you want to do this, and you say sure and put yourself on a level playing field like Bruce did. Then once you are into it you realize, all of a sudden he’s like, “OK.” I am sure he knew it a bit, but was in a bit of denial just in order to get himself to do it, that he could just participate on the same level as everyone else. Obviously the main focus became Bruce Springsteen, who has never put himself out like this. To put himself into a position where people are pulling cheap shots to get themselves noticed… Not only did he have the guts to do it, but he handled himself and was able to offer his services and do it in such a way that was powerful. I’d be shocked if no one was energized by his performance in D.C. What was great in Jersey, he talked about reading the paper and he had three thoughts and the third one was, “Get me to the Meadowlands.” That was exciting. That’s how he felt. This was an opportunity to get out and see how everyone is feeling.

I know you are a voracious reader; do you have a book recommendation?

A book that Michael Moore just put out called, “Will They Ever Trust Us Again?” It’s letters from soldiers. I think what is important about it is, it is the one voice that we haven’t really heard coming up to these elections. We haven’t heard from soldiers, we haven’t heard a lot from families of those who have lost loved ones, or who have to deal with loved ones that have come back… Even if they have all of their limbs their psychological makeup has changed forever. Their voices are the ones that should carry a lot of weight, as we put down our vote. What you realize is that it can happen to anybody, and they [soldiers] don’t really have a choice.

One guy whose story I heard about outside of this book, just on a personal level, he went in because he wanted to be a chef, he was into the culinary arts. Before he knew it he was in Iraq and he was in one of the first battalions to have causalities and he was one of them. Then the military came back with his casket and turned his funeral into a military funeral and tells everybody that he is an “American hero” and he died for patriotism and freedom.

His mom had a heart attack the next day. She was freaked out because he didn’t care about this, and how dare they highjack the funeral from her. She was saying that he cared about food. That he had an art, a passion. It had nothing to do with our so-called freedoms, which it turns out weren’t being affected at all, by this lunatic fringe leader who was quite powerless and we knew it because of the sanctions.