Steven Hyden: I thought that would be part of it, because part of the story is about the passage of time and things that are able to hang around for a long time.
When you were writing the book, did you know it would end up that way? InsideHook: I wasn’t surprised that Long Road was smart and insightful, but I was taken aback by how moving it often was. We also talked about the death of idealism, the pros and cons of Vedder’s much-imitated singing style, and which Pearl Jam album he likes most. Speaking from his Minnesota home - and, appropriately, wearing a plaid shirt - Hyden opened up about writing such an emotional book, which is divided into chapters that are each devoted to a specific Pearl Jam song. The book wrestles with the question of why Pearl Jam mattered - and why, to some, they still very much do. Hyden is clear-eyed about Pearl Jam’s strengths and weaknesses - their fallow periods and their underrated records - but the book is also quite personal, the author infusing his own memories of coming of age at a time when Vs. His new book Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation is an examination of Pearl Jam, but it’s also a look at how they shaped Gen X kids like himself - how Vedder was an extension of the 1990s in all their idealism and shifting political viewpoints. As Hyden grew up, so did Vedder, and although Hyden’s interest in the group sometimes waned, he found himself later reconnecting with the older, more mature frontman - not to mention a band that had weathered hard times and come out the other side intact. Steven Hyden, Uproxx’s Cultural Critic and the author of critical analyses such as Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, was 14 when Pearl Jam’s era-defining debut Ten came out - the perfect age to embrace the band’s songs of alienation and guarded hope. They have survived and thrived, even if the scene they came up in has faded away and the group’s cultural relevance has greatly diminished.
Forged in the wake of the overdose death of Andrew Wood, the charismatic frontman of Mother Love Bone - a Seattle band that included future Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament - Pearl Jam don’t record as much as they did in their heyday, but they remain a popular touring act. What does Pearl Jam mean in 2022? In the 1990s, they were one of the world’s biggest bands, riding an alternative-rock wave that also included Nirvana and Soundgarden, but by the end of that decade, Eddie Vedder and his cohorts were far from fashionable, their earnest, anthemic sound replaced by rap-rock and boy bands as the zeitgeist’s dominant sounds.
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