Pearl Jam were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame yesterday by none other than legendary comedian David Letterman, however it was the shirt worn by Pearl Jam’s bassist Jeff Ament that caught the attention of most music-lovers.
While we announced a while ago that friend of the band, and frequent collaborator, Neil Young was set to induct the group into the Rock Hall Of Fame, the Canadian music legend sadly had to pull out of the ceremonies. However, comedian David Letterman made a rare public appearance in his place, taking the opportunity to deliver an 15 minute speech which was as completely irreverent as one would expect.
Pearl Jam also made good on their promise to address contributions made by previous drummers during their induction, following on from comments made by Dave Abbruzzese regarding how he and other former drummers were not invited to be inducted.
As Alternative Nation reports, the group’s induction speech included the usual thanks and appreciation before Vedder addressed the Abbruzzese situation. “Somehow we were so fortunate, we had a few drummers,” he started. “They were all kings. We were so fortunate, every one of them was great,” he continued before giving praise to Dave Abbruzzese, “We have the great Dave Abbruzzese, he is a great fucking drummer.”
However, it was bassist Jeff Ament’s shirt that drew most of the attention, with names of numerous musical acts who were yet to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, including Bad Brains, who nominated for induction at this year’s event, and Chad Channing who was famously not inducted as a member of Nirvana.
Pearl Jam shared an image of the shirt on Instagram, which includes many famous names including Faith No More, Björk, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Kate Bush, The Flaming Lips, and more. Also included was Nick Cave, the sole Aussie act. However, Cave’s numerous bands, such as The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds, and Grinderman, were probably omitted for the sake of brevity.
Also included were Oasis and Elliott Smith, who are the only two acts on the shirt who are not yet eligible to be inducted. The Rock Hall’s guidelines state that artists are eligible for induction 25 years after their first record’s release, and since both acts released their debut in 1994, they’ve got a couple of years to go.
Check out Pearl Jam’s performance of ‘Betterman’ following their induction below.
