Former Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese recently spoke with Alternative Nation about Billy Corgan’s statements about Pearl Jam’s early days and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ threat.
“Um….nope. That didn’t happen,” the rocker said of Corgan’s story. A fan responded to Dave, “Bro shush. This is why Pearl Jam kicked you out.” Abbruzzese then told the fan to go screw himself.
Corgan made a claim about Pearl Jam’s early tour with Smashing Pumpkins and Red Hot Chili Peppers in a new episode of the Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan. According to the singer, Pearl Jam got shocking news behind the scenes during their 1991 tour together.
Billy recalled, “We were on the Chili Pepper tour. It was Pearl Jam, Pumpkins, Chili Peppers was the bill. We played about 40 shows on that tour. And during the tour that’s when [the Chili Peppers’ hit single] ‘Under the Bridge’ took off, and that record just blew up like crazy.”
The frontman continued, “And Pearl Jam had I think one song out, it would have been ‘Alive’ or something. And I remember coming to one of the gigs, it was about halfway through the [tour], and we were hanging out with them every day, like you do on tour.”
“And they all look like somebody had died. And I said, ‘What’s wrong with you guys?’ Because they’re usually kind of an upbeat bunch,” Corgan noted.
He mentioned Pearl Jam members’ response, saying, “And they go, ‘They’re gonna withdraw our tour support.’ I was like, ‘You’re on this massive tour.’ [They said] ‘If this single doesn’t catch, they’re gonna pull our support.'”
“That’s what people don’t understand about the way that business worked back then. If that song hadn’t caught on…,” Billy talked about how different the music business was back then.
Pearl Jam’s ‘Alive’ became a hit, and their album ‘Ten’ sold 13 million copies in the US alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR3RcTUsoQA
