Can you remember what happened on the day you bought your very first album? Do you remember the sense of anticipation as you entered the shop, flipped through the vinyl and CD racks until you found what you wanted and walked to the counter? That journey home felt like it was going to take forever.

Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul remembers very clearly what happened the day he purchased Pearl Jam’s Ten in an Idaho mall, and those memories came flooding back as he crossed paths with Eddie Vedder at the Global Citizen festival in New York on September 24.

Posting a selfie with the singer on his Instagram account last night, Paul was moved to write about the events that took place on August 27, 1991.

“That month I will never forget,” writes Paul. “That was the one time I owned only one album and I cherished that damn thing. It was mine. It was my 12th birthday and I showed up to this small record store inside of our local mall with a sock full of change that I collected specifically to buy Pearl Jam’s first album. I came home with my new birthday gift I had just bought myself and I was beaming. Could not wait to listen to it. I opened the door to my home and I could feel the silence in my bones. My house was empty.

“Now you need to know that I come from a very large family and to walk inside of our home with nobody there was extremely rare,” he continues. “I mean it was my birthday after all and nobody was home. I was alone. Where was everyone?

“So then of course I took advantage of the situation and put the record on and turned it up. For hours and hours just listening to this record over and over again. But where was everyone? Seriously. Eventually the house phone rang with this music blaring in the background and I ran to pick it up hoping it was my mother singing happy birthday to me. It was my mother but she wasn’t singing…

“She said… ‘Honey, we’re at the hospital.’

Eddie Vedder and Aaron Paul, bitch (Image credit: Aaron Paul)

“My heart sank and time stood still and all I could hear was Eddie singing in the background. My mother then explained to me that my sister had just given birth. She had given birth to a little girl the same day Pearl Jam’s first album came out. On my birthday.

“So many emotions went through me on that day and this man was a huge part of that. I love coming of age stories. Goonies, Stand By Me, The Wonder Years. Kids just trying to figure it all out. I will never forget the end of that summer. The summer where I turned 12, listening to my first record, alone inside of my house, on my birthday, wondering where the hell everyone was.”

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