David Fricke

In the late summer of 1990, Eddie Vedder was a singer without a band and a songwriter in limbo.

He was working the night shift at a gas station in San Diego when his friend Jack Irons, the founding drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, handed him a cassette tape. It was a demo of instrumentals by two pals of Irons’ in Seattle, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, founding members of the proto-grunge band Mother Love Bone who wanted Irons to join their new group.

Instead, Irons gave the tape to Vedder.