Comedian Bill Burr spent his teenage years headbanging to ’80s hair metal and hard rock, so he was none too pleased when grunge came along in the early ’90s and knocked his favorite bands off the charts. So much so, that he recently told Eddie Vedder that he hated Pearl Jam for a good 20 years.
Burr — who found himself in the ’90s alternative-rock conversation in recent weeks thanks to his awkward meeting with look-alike Billy Corgan on Howie Mandel’s podcast — confronted the Pearl Jam singer at the SNL50 celebration in February, as he recollected Thursday night (April 3rd) on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
“Pearl Jam, that was the band that made me realize my youth was over,” Burr told Meyers. “I was watching all the hair metal and … all those bands. And I was loving them. And they were on the countdown.”
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He continued, “And then Nirvana came in, and I was like, ‘What’s this?’ They always say, like, Nirvana knocked [the hair metal] out. It was Pearl Jam. When Pearl Jam came, that was another one of those grunge Seattle bands. And that’s when I was like, “Oh, my God. This isn’t ending.’ Like, this is just gonna keep coming.”
The comedian went on, “And then all my bands, Skid Row and all of them, were gone. And it was just these sad guys singing about being under a bridge and not being happy. And I’m like, ‘What happened to nothing but a good time and ignoring all your problems with cocaine, right?’ Like, that was all over.”
So, when Burr found himself face-to-face with Vedder at the SNL50 celebration, he didn’t hold back his feelings as he addressed the Pearl Jam frontman.
“So I got to sit next to him … I did it in good nature. I was like, ‘Man, I hated your band. You ended my thing.’ And he was cracking up. I go, ‘Do you know how long it took me to admit how great a band Pearl Jam is?’ Because now I love ’em. But it was like 20 years where I just, like. ‘I’m not listening to those guys.’”
Meyers then asked Burr what music he listens to with his two young kids. “AC/DC,” replied the stand-up comic. “I raise them right. And you know what’s my favorite thing ever? Is my son, not only does he love AC/DC, he dresses up like ’em. I got him a guitar, and he watches the videos. He can do, like, his [Angus Young] Chuck Berry [duck walk] thing.”
Bill Burr and other Pearl Jam fans can catch the band on their upcoming spring US tour, kicking off April 24th in Hollywood, Florida, and running through a May 18th gig in Pittsburgh. Tickets are available here.
Watch Bill Burr on Late Night with Seth Meyers below. The conversation about Eddie Vedder starts around the 3:40 mark.
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