"You know, [his voice trembling, hoarse, no more than a whisper] I always thought I'd go first. I don't know why I thought that. It just seemed like I would. I mean, I didn't know him on a daily basis -- far from it. But, in a way, I don't even feel right being here without him. It's so difficult to really believe he's gone. I still talk about him like he's still here, you know. I can't figure it out. It doesn't make any sense. I remember when he got sick in Rome -- I didn't realize then that it was actually a suicide attempt -- I was in Seattle. I went out to grab something to eat and I saw the headlines. That he was in a coma. I just freaked out, man. I went home and made some phone calls, tried to find out what the fuck was going on. Then I started pacing the house and started to cry. I just kept saying, 'Don't go, man, just don't fuckin' go... just don't go.' I kept thinking, 'If he goes, I'm fucked.' You know, all these people man, all lining up to say that his death was so fucking inevitable... well, if it was inevitable for him, it's gonna be inevitable for me, too, if this continues. That's why this could be our last show in fuckin' forever as far as I'm concerned. Kurt's death has changed everything. I don't know if I can do it any more. See, people like him and me, we can't be real. It's a contradiction. We can't be these people who just write these real songs. We have to live up to the expectations of a million people. And we can't do that. And then there's a cynical fuckin' media on top of that. Fuck that, fuck 'em. All along the line, they question your fuckin' honesty. No matter what you say, no matter what you do, they think it's an angle. They think it's all a fuckin' game. Because that's all they're used to. That's what they think it is, a fuckin' game. They don't know what's real and what isn't. And when someone comes along who's trying to be real, they don't know the fuckin' difference. So if you say, 'No, I'm not playing your fuckin' game. I want out... I'm not doing this, I'm not doing that...,' they still think you're part of it. They just can't accept that you don't want to be part of it, that you were never part of it. They just think it's an angle. Some kind of fuckin' angle. And that makes it so hard for somebody who's just trying to be honest. So fuck it. And another thing, we never talked about this but it's like you were saying although we were very different people, there was probably a lot we had in common. We had similar backgrounds, yeah, things that happened with our families and shit... I think that's something that comes out in what we wrote in our songs, definitely. It is kinda similar sometimes. But what makes it more similar is the way people responded to what we wrote and sang about, the intense identification. And I think it was maybe a shock to both of us that so many people were going through the same things. I mean, they understood so completely what we were talking about. And this was shit we thought only he and I were ever gonna have to deal with. Because we kinda wrote these songs for ourselves really. Then all of a sudden, there's all these other people who connect with them and you're suddenly the spokesman for a fuckin' generation. Can you imagine that! A... spokesman... for a... generation."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Singer-songwriters from the United StatesGuitarists from the United StatesAlternative rock singersSocialists from the United StatesMulti-instrumentalists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
{{cite web
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eddie_Vedder
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Eddie Vedder
34 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Eddie Vedder →
Related Quotes
"Well, maybe it was just that I wasn't going to like anybody because I had to work and I had to explain to my teachers…"
"There is a thing that happens when you are not as privileged and you start hanging out with a seedier crowd because y…"
"I am not a good enough writer to have an agenda or come up with a message and try to put it into a song, [...] It's m…"
"There was a lot of stuff that got said, but none of it really matters. And I like to think he may have had second tho…"
"Allan Jones: When Kurt went into a coma in Rome, a local Seattle magazine, a small-circulation coffee house rag, carr…"
"{{cite web"
"I tell you, man, when our first record came out, I was shocked how many people related to some of that stuff. Somethi…"
"Let me be as weird as I fuckin' like. It's my fuckin' life."
"Vedder has a variety of comments about God and/or belief, at one point he was saying, "When you're out in the desert,…"
"You kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you're gonna end up with is …"