Eddie Vedder

Chicago-born Eddie Vedder is best known as the lead singer of seminal grunge band Pearl Jam. He is also a prolific solo musician, having contributed to numerous soundtracks and projects. Too, he is known for being an outspoken political and environmental activist.

When Vedder's parents divorced in 1965, his mother soon remarried a man named Peter Mueller, an attorney, and Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father.

In the mid-1970s, the family, including Vedder's three younger half-brothers, moved to San Diego County, California. Vedder had received a guitar from his mother on his twelfth birthday, and soon began turning to music as a source of comfort.

By his senior year at San Dieguito High School, Vedder was on his own, living in an apartment and supporting himself with a nightly job at a drug store in Encinitas, CA. He eventually dropped out of high school in his senior year due to the pressures of balancing school with working. He later earned his GED.

Between working and school Vedder spent his speare time focusing on music and surfing. He performed in various short-lived bands, the most notable was Bad Radio, but when it disbanded Vedder found himself afloat.

It was around this time that friend and former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons passed to him a demo recorded by some friends of his in Seattle, Washington.

These musicians were Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron.

Vedder listened to the demo and went surfing; by the time he came in from the water the lyrics for each song had been written in his head. He recorded the tracks and returned the augmented demo to Seattle. Vedder wrote lyrics for three of the songs in what he later described as a "mini-opera" entitled "Mamasan."

The songs tell the story of a young man who, like Vedder, learns that he had been lied to about his paternity and that his real father is dead. Unlike Vedder, he grows up to become a serial killer, and is eventually imprisoned and sentenced to death. Vedder recorded vocals for the three songs, and mailed the demo tape back to Seattle. The three songs would later become Pearl Jam's "Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps", respectively. McCready, Gossard, Ament, and Cameron were so impressed that they invited Vedder to Seattle for a jam session. It wasn't long before they offered him the lead singer slot in their new band.

Initially called Mookie Blaylock - the player's basketball trading card was enclosed in the inspirational demo - the quintet soon renamed themselves "Pearl Jam."

Gossard and Ament were working on the Temple of the Dog project founded by Soundgarden's Chris Cornell as a musical tribute to Mother Love Bone's frontman Andrew Wood, who'd of a heroin overdose at age 24. The song "Hunger Strike" became a duet between Cornell and Vedder and Vedder would provide background vocals on several other songs as well. In April 1991, Temple of the Dog was released through A&M Records.

Aside from writing for Pearl Jam, Vedder has contributed to Vedder has contributed solo material to several soundtracks and compilations. By no means an exhaustive list, these include the soundtracks Dead Man Walking (1995), I Am Sam (2001), A Brokedown Melody (2004), Body of War (2007), and Reign Over Me (2007). Vedder collaborated with Pakistani musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for his contributions to the Dead Man Walking soundtrack. He wrote all the music for the Into the Wild soundtrack.

Other than his musical successes with Pearl Jam, Vedder is also known for his political stances and activism, most notably his support for the environment, the West Memphis Three (WM3), pro-choice groups and his opposition to former President George W. Bush's policies and the dual Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

In late 2010 Vedder married his longtime girlfriend and the mother of their two daughters in Hawaii.