A lot of people may not remember this — I myself, admittedly, had forgotten about it — but Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain at one point didn’t like each other and engaged in a bit of a public pissing match after both Seattle-area bands “made it.”
“We never got in a fight, ever. I’ve just always hated their band,” Cobain said in an interview once.
So one of the more surprising elements of Cameron Crowe’s Pearl Jam documentary is footage the director dug up of the two rockers burying the hatchet in person backstage at the 1992 VMAs, even slow-dancing together as Eric Clapton performed onstage.
Reports the Hollywood Reporter:
It’s grainy footage, but it captures the grunge frontmen setting aside their public smackdown and sharing a dance.
“For a second the camera is blurred, and then you see Kurt look over, and go like this, and it’s not like saying don’t tell anybody, or keep a lid on this private moment,” Vedder told a hushed media in Toronto.
“It’s because on the stage above us Eric Clapton was playing ‘Tears of Heaven,’” he added.
Vedder said the lost footage represents a powerful moment.
“I think it’s because he (Cobain) is smiling. You think, if only he could have pulled through,” he added.
“It’s so powerful. It’s such a human moment, and it is what happens outside the glare of the media, when Kurt and Eddie got to express themselves as people,” Crowe summed up.
Coincidentally, consider the 1992 VMAs to be the best VMA broadcast ever — long before the show morphed into what it is now and, in the words of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, “f*cked the dog.” Below are videos of Pearl Jam performing “Jeremy” at the awards show, along with video of Nirvana’s performance. Enjoy.
