Eddie Vedder says Pearl Jam will work with Andrew Watt on their next album.
The ‘Alive’ group’s frontman had the famed record producer – who has worked on records with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Post Malone and Miley Cyrus – oversee his new solo LP ‘Earthlings’ and anticipates the studio wizard producing their follow-up to 2020’s ‘Gigaton’.
He said: “We’ll make a record with Andrew, I believe. We’ve already talked about it.
“You know, the pandemic came right as we were leaving for a tour on the ‘Gigaton’ record.
“And we had a lot of shows planned.
“Then, in between, I think we’ll be recording, because now we’ve got a healthy ambition to do so.
“I think we’ll move quick for a year or two, then I can see us slowing down for a little bit.
“We have the ability to play better than ever, but also know what we want to maintain the health of the group and want to keep coming back.”
‘Earthlings’ features a host of music legends, including Sir Ringo Starr, Sir Elton John, Stevie Wonder, plus Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and their former guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.
And Eddie’s late father, who died when he was 13, makes a moving posthumous appearance.
He shared: “I didn’t really get to know my real father.
“I met him maybe three or four times as a kid, but he was, you know, a friend of the family. It would have been nice to have been in a room with him at some point before he died when I was 13. It would have been nice to share that I knew that he was my pop, but it didn’t happen.
“But the crazy thing that did happen was that about 10 years ago, the Chicago Cubs, some of their old timers get together and play baseball for about a week, and I would go down there every other year and hang with these guys, learn about the game more so I can teach my kids more, you know, I coach baseball.
“One of the ex-players, this erudite badass trumpeter, who used to play third base, his name is Carmen Fanzone.
“He also became head of the Musicians Union in Los Angeles – an incredibly cool individual. I saw Carmen playing the horn in a little club in Arizona, and this guy playing keyboards with him had been best friends with my dad.
“Two years later, he brought me some photos of them in little basement studios.
“Then a couple years after that, he brought me five songs of my dad singing, on a disc. I carried that disc around for two, three months in my suitcase, not ready to hear it.
“Finally, I got the guts, and after a couple bottles of wine played it one night in Argentina. And he was good. It was incredible – like he left a message for me.”
Speaking to MOJO, the rocker concluded: “I thought of the record like a setlist – by the end, that’s when you start bringing out special guests. We had Stevie and Elton, Ringo was an incredible addition … and then my pop gets to be on a record with those guys, which is not too shabby.”