EVERYBODY LOVES OUR TOWN

Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder at the White House, April 9, 1994.

MARK ARM (Mudhoney singer/guitarist) [Director of the White House Office of Personnel Security] Craig Livingstone—he popped up in the news later when he got canned for something—was the one who welcomed both bands. And then Pearl Jam went on to meet Clinton. We were hoping to meet him, but I think we knew ahead of time that we weren’t going to get the full deal.

MATT LUKIN (Mudhoney bassist) We got a behind-the-velvet-rope tour. Then some kid recognized us as Mudhoney and asked us for an autograph. So, sure, we gave him an autograph, and as soon as that went down, people just started pouring in, thinking we were Pearl Jam. We’re like, “No, no, no, you don’t know who we are. You don’t want our autograph.” And they’re like, “No, no, you’re Pearl Jam.”

DAN PETERS (Mudhoney drummer) I’m sure once they get home and realize that some guy named Dan Peters signed their piece of paper, they were like, “Who the fuck was that?”

Excerpted from Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge.

(Source: brain-of-j)

Politico highlights the political tidbits in my new book, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, including the story behind Pearl Jam’s April 9, 1994, White House visit. (Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library)

See another previously unpublished photo of PJ hobnobbing with President Clinton here. 

PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED PHOTO! On April 9, 1994—the day after Kurt Cobain’s body was found—Pearl Jam met President Clinton in the Oval Office. Learn how this historic meeting came about (and what Eddie Vedder and the president discussed in a one-on-one conversation) in the book Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, out Tuesday, September 6 (preorder here, here or here) (Photo credit: William J. Clinton Presidential Library)