Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder was born on this day in 1964 in Evanston, Illinois. His parents separated when he was a baby and his mother remarried when her son was so young that he grew up assuming her second husband was his biological father. The couple would become foster parents to seven other children younger than Eddie before relocating to the San Diego area.
His mother gave Eddie a guitar on his 12th birthday. When he was in his late teens. his parents divorced. His mother moved back to Illinois with the other children. Eddie remained in southern California with her husband. Eddie recounted that in his mid teens he "was all alone - except for music. After dropping out of high school, he rejoined his mother and adopted siblings in Illinois. He had a series of jobs but continued to dabble in music. His first break came as a result of becoming friends with Jack Irons, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who tipped Vedder to an opportunity to send a demo to Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament, former members of the Seattle band Mother Love Bone that were working on a Temple of the Dog tribute to their former band's lead singer who had died of a heroin overdose. Future Pearl jam member Mike McCready was also in on the project.
McCready, Gossard and Ament later formed Pearl Jam, recruited Vedder and set out to release an album titled Mookie Blaylock for the NBA player for the New Jersey Nets, Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors. Blocked with using that title, the group switched the debut album title to 10, Blaylock's Jersey number. To this day, Vedder remains one of the most avid sports fans in the Rock ranks.
Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on December 23 include...
1940 Jefferson Airplane & Hot Tuna bassist Jorma Kaukonen born.
1941 Tim Hardin isborn.
1943 Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) of Spinal Tap born.
1945 Iron Butterfly drummer Ron Bushy is born.
1946 Spooky Tooth, Stealers Wheel, Mott the Hoople (under the name Ariel Bender) guitarist Luther Grosvenor born.
1949 King Crimson multi-instrumentalist Adrian Belew born.
1956 Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray born.
1964 Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys suffers nervous break-down during flight from LA to Houston.
1969 Elton John & Bernie Taupin start writing together.
1972 Grand Funk Railroad's former manager presents the band with a court order to turn over $1 million is assets to him.
1972 John Lennon’s Imagine premiers.
1977 Cat Stevens changes his name to Yusuf Islam.
1979 Stevie Ray Vaughan marries Lenora Bailey.
1987 David Gilmour comes to terms on allowing Waters to use the name Pink Floyd.
1996 Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx marries Donna Derucio.
1999 Burglar breaks into George Harrison's Maui home and bakes a pizza, does laundry and calls his friends.
2006 Bono awarded an honorary knighthood.
2020 Mountain guitarist Leslie West dies in a Florida hospital two days after suffering a heart attack at his Daytona home.
