Eddie Jerome Vedder was born on December 23, 1964. Eddie is a musician, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, and probably best known for being lead singer and guitar player in the band Pearl Jam. I’ve been a fan of Pearl Jam since the beginning and hope one day to see them perform.

I think the world could be better if people were more empathetic but I know that’s not necessarily a possibility. Some people view empathy as a weakness because they don’t want to allow themselves to get close to other people. While I can understand not wanting to get hurt or to feel so much at times I am somewhat grateful for being empathetic. It used to be that I wasn’t able to easily block the invasive feelings that often hit me, especially in public but I have learned how to do this as I’ve gotten older. I look at that as my defense mechanism.

For all the bullies or whoever it was that made you feel like you were a loser, that you wouldn’t amount to anything and nothing good would happen in your life the best revenge is to prove them wrong. To outlive them to continue going on and try every day, even if you have to fake it and I’ve had a bit of practice. I continue my fight and didn’t just lay down and allow myself to get beat and thankfully I had people in my life that also believed in me and helped guide me to see what I couldn’t see at times.

One of my favorite songs is Black but I have several that I’ve always enjoyed, Dissident, Release, Even Flow, and Daughter amongst others.

This is something that for the most part I don’t feel like I do is soften my viewpoint, at least not too much. If anything I find that I am very in your face regarding my opinions on things and expressing my raw feelings and I think that sometimes you have to slap someone in the face in order to get your point across. Not literally but be blunt. Sometimes that’s the only way that you can make people listen to what you’re trying to say and to actually hear the message.

One of the things I loved was when Pearl Jam & Chris Cornell got together to honor Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone with the group Temple of the Dog. The songs they brought together have stood the test of time and will not be the same without Chris Cornell.