Pearl Jam has been dominating the rock scene since they first emerged from the trendy Seattle music scene in 1990. The lead singer and face of the band is Eddie Vedder, who sometimes also plays guitar. He is joined on stage by Jeff Ament on bass guitasr, Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Mike McCready on lead guitar, and former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron. The band is currently on tour, selling Pearl Jam tickets to promote its latest album, Backspacer.

Though Eddie Vedder has become the most recognizable face and voice of Pearl Jam, the group's formation is really due to the persistence of Ament and Gossard. They had been on the grunge scene long before it became vogue, playing groups like Green River, Malfunkshun, and Mother Love Bone. Mother Love Bone seemed like it would be the band to introduce grunge to mainstream America, but four months after the group released its debut album in 1990 lead singer Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose.

The death of the lead singer simply floored the two musicians and Mother Love Bone dissembled amidst the tragedy. Gossard began writing songs that took a darker tone than the music created by the now disbanded group. He eventually began practicing with a musician from another band that recently broke up, guitarist Mike McCready. McCready prove to be the impetus that brought Gossard back in contact with Ament and the trio put together an demo with a five instrumentals and sent it to Jack Irons, the former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, in hopes of recruiting him.

Irons did not end up joining the three, but he did end up bringing along his friend Eddie Vedder to try out as the vocalist. Vedder had heard the demo, listened to the music, and wrote some lyrics. He put together his own demo and sent the tape back to the three Seattle musicians. They liked what they heard and suddenly Pearl Jam had a singer. The addition of Dave Krusen as the drummer completed the lineup.

Pearl Jam was not Pearl Jam yet. It had yet to sell any Pearl Jam tickets since they had yet to put on a concert and were not even known as Pearl Jam. They were Mookie Blaylock, paying homage to the at-the-time New Jersey Nets point guard. The name was fitting since Vedder and Irons became friends because they played basketball together on the San Diego blacktops and not because they were musicians.

As Mookie Blaylock, Pearl Jam played its first show at Seattle's Off Ramp Café on October 22, 1990. The group immediately found a following of fans that helped create buzz for the band. The record companies had recognized that the Seattle sound was the next big thing and were looking for a band like Mookie Blaylock. Thus, soon after that first show the band signed on Epic Records.

After signing with the record label the band changed names, fearing the trademark issues with the NBA All Star. The group became Pearl Jam, a reference to Vedder's great-grandmother Pearl and her recipe of jam, which was a bit of a mindbender since it included the psychedelic plant peyote. Ament and McCready later detracted from

Vedder's version explaining that they had come up with the name after a Neil Young concert in which the singer-songwriter jammed on stage, extending songs to extreme lengths of 15 to 20 minutes.

Pearl Jam, whether as a reference to drugs or to a legendary musician, became famous after the album Ten. The album was recorded in March 1991 at the London Bridge Studios in Seattle. Ament and Gossard took control over the direction of the album and the group suddenly found itself going through multiple drummers as they continued to sell Pearl Jam tickets for local concerts.

First Krusen went in to rehab. Then his replacement, Matt Chamberlain left to play with the band on the late night sketch show Saturday Night Live. Dave Abbruzzese became the final drummer for the group before the album was released.

The record label released Ten on August 27, 1991. The album, named after Blaylock's jersey number, was dark like grunge music at the time, but was far more influenced by classic rock and featured songs with sophisticated lyrics and instrumentals that resembled catchy anthems.

Pearl Jam saw the sale of the album slowly grow, but eventually resonating with audiences, reaching number two on the Billboard charts and being certified gold in the second half of 1992.

Songs like Alive, Even Flow, and Jeremy drive the album, which remained on the billboard chart for an extremely impressive two years and selling so well (especially after grunge became synonymous with rock) that it would be certified platinum 13 times over.

Pearl Jam tickets sold just as well, just ass did concert tickets for other Seattle groups like Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Soundgarden. The band did not sound like the other Seattle groups and received more than its share of critical backlash from music magazines and the musicians themselves that typified the new burgeoning alternative rock genre.

Still, Pearl Jam toured extensively as the group seemed to use the album as an excuse to tour the world. Selling Pearl Jam concert tickets was equally as much a simple side effect of the touring. The band simply wanted to play.

This meteoric rise in fame peaked in 1992 when the group was invited to perform on the MTV Unplugged concert series. The live album recorded from the session remains a favorite of many today and its songs can still be heard on the radio. Pearl Jam played on Saturday Night Live and on the highly-anticipated Lollapalooza Tour.

It seems like every surge in popularity has its backlash, and Pearl Jam's experience was no different. The difference was that the band itself had an aversion to the excesses of their incredible success. The band earned four awards from the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards for the video Jeremy and then refused to shoot anymore videos for their songs. Ament explained that the group wanted to be remembered for the song and not the visuals form the videos.