Background and formation (1984–1990) Stone Gossard and
Jeff Ament were members of Seattle-based grunge band
Green River during the mid-1980s. Green River toured and recorded to moderate success, but disbanded in 1987 due to a stylistic division between the pair and bandmate
Mark Arm. In late 1987, Gossard and Ament began playing with
Malfunkshun vocalist
Andrew Wood, eventually organizing the band
Mother Love Bone. In 1988 and 1989, the band recorded and toured to increasing interest.
PolyGram signed the band in late 1988. Mother Love Bone's debut album,
Apple, was released in August 1990, five months after Wood died of a
heroin overdose. Ament and Gossard were devastated by the death of Wood and the resulting demise of Mother Love Bone. Gossard spent his time afterwards writing material that was harder-edged than what he had been doing previously. After a few months, Gossard started practicing with fellow Seattle guitarist Mike McCready, whose band, Shadow, had broken up; McCready in turn encouraged Gossard to reconnect with Ament. Vedder was the lead vocalist for the San Diego band
Bad Radio and worked part-time at a gas station. He listened to the tape shortly before going surfing, where lyrics came to him. Vedder sent the tape with his vocals back to the three Seattle musicians, who were impressed enough to fly Vedder up to Seattle for an audition. Within a week, Vedder had joined the band. They opened for
Alice in Chains at the
Moore Theatre in Seattle on December 22, 1990, and served as the opening act for the band's
Facelift tour in 1991. Mookie Blaylock soon signed to
Epic Records and renamed themselves Pearl Jam. In a 2006 cover story for
Rolling Stone, Vedder admitted that this story was "total bullshit", but added that he did have a great-grandmother named Pearl. Ament and McCready explained that Ament came up with "pearl", and that the band later settled on Pearl Jam after attending a
Neil Young concert in which he extended his songs as improvisations (i.e. "jams") of 15–20 minutes in length. McCready said that "
Ten was mostly Stone and Jeff; Eddie and I were along for the ride at that time." Krusen left the band in May 1991 after checking himself into rehabilitation for alcoholism; he was replaced by
Matt Chamberlain, who previously played with
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. After playing only a handful of shows, one of which was filmed for the "Alive" video, Chamberlain left to join the band for
Saturday Night Live. Chamberlain suggested
Dave Abbruzzese as his replacement. Abbruzzese joined the group and played the rest of Pearl Jam's live shows supporting
Ten. The album was slow to sell, but by the second half of 1992 it became a breakthrough success, being certified gold and reaching number two on the
Billboard charts. The song "Jeremy" and its accompanying video were inspired by a true story in which a high school student shot himself in front of his classmates.
Ten stayed on the
Billboard charts for nearly five years, going
13× platinum. Pearl Jam
toured relentlessly in support of
Ten. Ament stated that "essentially
Ten was just an excuse to tour", adding: "We told the record company, 'We know we can be a great band, so let's just get the opportunity to get out and play.'" The band's manager Kelly Curtis stated: "Once people came and saw them live, this lightbulb would go on. Doing their first tour, you kind of knew it was happening and there was no stopping it." In 1992, Pearl Jam made television appearances on
Saturday Night Live and
MTV Unplugged and took a slot on that summer's
Lollapalooza tour with
Ministry,
Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Soundgarden, among others. The band contributed two songs to the
soundtrack of the 1992
Cameron Crowe film
Singles: "
State of Love and Trust" and "
Breath". Ament, Gossard and Vedder appeared in
Singles under the name Citizen Dick; their parts were filmed when Pearl Jam was known as Mookie Blaylock.
Vs., Vitalogy and dealing with success (1993–1995) in the
Oval Office in April 1994 The band members grew uncomfortable with their success, with much of the burden of Pearl Jam's popularity falling on frontman Vedder. "Ten years from now", Ament said, "I don't want people to remember our songs as videos." Released on October 19, 1993, Pearl Jam's second album,
Vs., sold 950,378 copies in its first week of release and outperformed all other entries in the
Billboard top ten that week combined. The album set the record for most copies of an album sold in its first week of release, which it held until broken by
Garth Brooks' 1998 album
Double Live.
Vs. included the singles "
Go", "
Daughter", "
Animal", and "
Dissident". Paul Evans of
Rolling Stone stated: "Few American bands have arrived more clearly talented than this one did with
Ten; and
Vs. tops even that debut." He added: "Like
Jim Morrison and
Pete Townshend, Vedder makes a forte of his psychological-mythic explorations... As guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready paint dense and slashing backdrops, he invites us into a drama of experiment and strife." The band decided, beginning with the release of
Vs., to scale back its commercial efforts. The members declined to produce any more music videos after the massive success of "Jeremy" and opted for fewer interviews and television appearances. Industry insiders compared Pearl Jam's tour that year to the touring habits of
Led Zeppelin in that the band "ignored the press and took its music directly to the fans". During the
Vs. Tour, the band set a cap on ticket prices in an attempt to thwart
scalpers. By 1994, Pearl Jam was "fighting on all fronts" as its manager described the band at the time. Reporter
Chuck Philips broke a series of stories showing that Ticketmaster was gouging Pearl Jam's customers. Pearl Jam was outraged when, after it played a pair of charity benefit shows in Chicago, it discovered that ticket vendor
Ticketmaster had added a service charge to the tickets. Pearl Jam was committed to keeping their concert ticket prices down but
Fred Rosen of Ticketmaster refused to waive the service charge. Because Ticketmaster controlled most major venues, the band was forced to create from scratch its own outdoor stadiums in rural areas in order to perform. Pearl Jam's efforts to organize a tour without the ticket giant collapsed, which Pearl Jam said was evidence of Ticketmaster's monopoly. An analysis of journalist Chuck Philips' investigative series in a well known legal monograph concluded that it was hard to imagine a legitimate reason for Ticketmaster's exclusive contracts with venues and contracts to cover such a lengthy period of time. The authors wrote: "The pervasiveness of Ticketmaster's exclusive agreements, coupled with their excessive duration and the manner in which they are procured, supported a finding that Ticketmaster had engaged in anticompetitive conduct under section 2 of the Sherman Act." The
United States Department of Justice was investigating the company's practices at the time and asked the band to create a memorandum of its experiences with the company. Band members Gossard and Ament testified at a subcommittee investigation on June 30, 1994, in Washington, D.C. Pearl Jam alleged that Ticketmaster used anti-competitive and monopolistic practices to gouge fans. After Pearl Jam's testimony before Congress,
Congressman Dingell (D-Mich.) wrote a bill requiring full disclosure to prevent Ticketmaster from burying escalating service fees. Pearl Jam's manager said he was gratified that Congress recognized the problem as a national issue. The band eventually canceled its 1994 summer tour in protest. After the Justice Department dropped the case, Pearl Jam continued to boycott Ticketmaster, refusing to play venues that had contracts with the company. The band tried to work around Ticketmaster's exclusive contracts by hosting charities and benefits at major venues because the exclusive contracts often contained a clause allowing charity event promoters to sell their own tickets. Music critic
Jim DeRogatis noted that, along with the Ticketmaster debacle, "the band has refused to release singles or make videos; it has demanded that its albums be released on
vinyl; and it wants to be more like its 1960s heroes,
the Who, releasing two or three albums a year". He also stated that sources said that most of the band's third album
Vitalogy was completed by early 1994, but that either a forced delay by Epic or the battle with Ticketmaster was to blame for the delay. After Pearl Jam finished the recording of
Vitalogy, drummer Dave Abbruzzese was fired. The band cited political differences between Abbruzzese and the other members; for example, Abbruzzese disagreed with the Ticketmaster boycott.
Vitalogy was released first on November 21, 1994, on vinyl and then two weeks later on December 6, 1994, on CD and cassette. The CD became the second-fastest-selling in history, with more than 877,000 units sold in its first week. Many of the songs on the album appear to be inspired by the pressures of fame. The song "
Spin the Black Circle", an homage to vinyl records, won a
Grammy Award in 1996 for
Best Hard Rock Performance.
Vitalogy also included the songs "
Not for You", "
Corduroy", "
Better Man", and "
Immortality". "Better Man" (), a song originally written and performed by Vedder while in Bad Radio, reached number one on the
Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, spending a total of eight weeks there. Considered a "blatantly great pop song" by producer Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam was reluctant to record it and initially rejected it from
Vs. due to its accessibility. Pearl Jam's initiative to play only at non-Ticketmaster venues effectively, with a few exceptions, prevented it from playing shows in the United States for the next three years. Ament later said: "We were so hardheaded about the 1995 tour. Had to prove we could tour on our own, and it pretty much killed us, killed our career." Released in 1996,
No Code was seen as a deliberate break from the band's sound since
Ten, favoring
experimental ballads and noisy
garage rockers. David Browne of
Entertainment Weekly stated that "
No Code displays a wider range of moods and instrumentation than on any previous Pearl Jam album." The lyrical themes on the album deal with issues of self-examination, with Ament stating: "In some ways, it's like the band's story. It's about growing up." On February 3, 1998, Pearl Jam released
Yield. The album was cited as a return to the band's early, straightforward rock sound. Tom Sinclair of
Entertainment Weekly stated that the band has "turned in an intermittently affecting album that veers between fiery garage rock and rootsy, acoustic-based ruminations. Perhaps mindful of their position as the last alt-rock ambassadors with any degree of clout, they've come up with their most cohesive album since their 1991 debut,
Ten." Lyrically,
Yield continued with the more contemplative type of writing found on
No Code, with Vedder saying: "What was rage in the past has become reflection."
Yield debuted at number two on the
Billboard charts, but like
No Code soon began dropping down the charts. It included the singles "
Given to Fly" and "
Wishlist". The band hired comic book artist
Todd McFarlane to create an animated video for the song "
Do the Evolution" from the album, its first music video since 1992. A documentary detailing the making of
Yield,
Single Video Theory, was released on VHS and DVD later that year. In April 1998, Pearl Jam again changed drummers. Jack Irons left the band due to dissatisfaction with touring and was replaced with former Soundgarden drummer
Matt Cameron on a temporary basis, but he soon became a permanent replacement for Irons. Pearl Jam's 1998
Yield Tour in North America marked the band's return to full-scale touring. The band's
anti-trust lawsuit against Ticketmaster had proven to be unsuccessful and hindered live tours. Many fans had complained about the difficulty in obtaining tickets and the use of non-Ticketmaster venues, which were judged to be out-of-the-way and impersonal. For this tour and future tours, Pearl Jam again began using Ticketmaster in order to "better accommodate concertgoers". The 1998 summer tour was a big success, and after it was completed the band released
Live on Two Legs, a live album which featured select performances from the tour. In 1998, Pearl Jam recorded "
Last Kiss", a cover of a 1960s ballad made famous by
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. It was recorded during a soundcheck and released on the band's 1998 fan club Christmas single. The following year, the cover was put into heavy rotation across the country. By popular demand, the cover was released to the public as a single in 1999, with all of the proceeds going to the aid of refugees of the
Kosovo War.
Binaural was the first album since the band's debut not produced by Brendan O'Brien, although O'Brien was called in later to remix several tracks. Gossard stated that the band members "were ready for a change". The album is lyrically darker than the band's previous album
Yield, with Gossard describing the lyrics as "pretty sombre". Pearl Jam decided to record every show on its 2000
Binaural Tour professionally, after noting the desire of fans to own a copy of the shows they attended and the popularity of
bootleg recordings. The band had been open in the past about allowing fans to make amateur recordings, and these
"official bootlegs" were an attempt to provide a more affordable and better quality product for fans. Pearl Jam originally intended to release them to only fan club members, but the band's record contract prevented it from doing so. Pearl Jam released all of the albums in record stores as well as through its fan club. The band released 72 live albums in 2000 and 2001, and twice set a record for most albums to debut in the
Billboard 200 at the same time. Pearl Jam's 2000 European tour ended in tragedy on June 30, with
an accident at the
Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Nine fans died (and others were injured) from being crushed underfoot and suffocated as the crowd rushed to the front. After numerous requests for the crowd to step back, the band stopped playing and tried to calm the crowd when the musicians realized what was happening, but it was already too late. The two remaining dates of the tour were canceled and members of the band contemplated retiring after this event. A month after the European tour concluded, the band embarked on its two-leg 2000 North American tour. On performing after the Roskilde tragedy, Vedder said that "playing, facing crowds, being together—it enabled us to start processing it". After concluding the Binaural Tour, the band released
Touring Band 2000 the following year. The DVD featured select performances from the North American legs of the tour. Following the events of the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Vedder and McCready were joined by
Neil Young to perform the song "Long Road" from the EP
Merkin Ball at the
America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert. The concert, which aired on September 21, 2001, raised money for the victims and their families.
Riot Act (2002–2005) Pearl Jam commenced work on a new album following a year-long break after its full-scale tour in support of
Binaural. McCready described the recording environment as "a pretty positive one" and "very intense and spiritual". Regarding the time period when the lyrics were being written, Vedder said: "There's been a lot of mortality... It's a weird time to be writing. Roskilde changed the shape of us as people, and our filter for seeing the world changed." Pearl Jam released
Riot Act on November 12, 2002. It included the singles "
I Am Mine" and "
Save You". The album featured a much more
folk-based and experimental sound, evident in the presence of
B3 organist
Boom Gaspar on songs such as "
Love Boat Captain".
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote: "
Riot Act is the album that Pearl Jam has been wanting to make since
Vitalogy—a muscular
art rock record, one that still hits hard but that is filled with ragged edges and odd detours." The track titled "Arc" was recorded as a vocal tribute to the nine people who died at the Roskilde Festival in June 2000. Vedder only performed this song nine times on the 2003 tour, and the band left the track off all released bootlegs. In 2003, the band embarked on its
Riot Act Tour, which included tours in Australia and North America. The band continued its official bootleg program, making every concert from the tour available in CD form through its official website. A total of six bootlegs were made available in record stores: Perth, Western Australia; Tokyo; State College, Pennsylvania; two shows from Madison Square Garden; and Mansfield, Massachusetts. At many shows during the 2003 North American tour, Vedder performed
Riot Act's "Bu$hleaguer", a commentary on President
George W. Bush, with a rubber mask of Bush, wearing it at the beginning of the song and then hanging it on a mic stand to allow him to sing. The band made news when it was reported that several fans left after Vedder had "impaled" the Bush mask on his mic stand at the band's show in Denver, Colorado. In June 2003, Pearl Jam announced it was leaving Epic Records following the end of its contract with the label. The band stated it had "no interest" in signing with another label. The band's first release without a label was the single for "
Man of the Hour", in partnership with Amazon.com. Director
Tim Burton approached Pearl Jam to request an original song for the soundtrack of his film
Big Fish. After screening an early print of the film, Pearl Jam recorded the song for him. "Man of the Hour", which was later nominated for a
Golden Globe Award, can be heard in the closing credits of
Big Fish. The band released
Lost Dogs, a two-disc collection of rarities and
B-sides, and
Live at the Garden, a DVD featuring the band's July 8, 2003
concert at Madison Square Garden through Epic Records in November 2003. In 2004, Pearl Jam released the live album
Live at Benaroya Hall through a one-album deal with
BMG. 2004 marked the first time that Pearl Jam licensed a song for usage in a television show; a snippet of the song "
Yellow Ledbetter" was used in the
final episode of the television series
Friends. Later that year, Epic released
rearviewmirror (Greatest Hits 1991–2003), a greatest-hits collection spanning 1991 to 2003. This release marked the end of Pearl Jam's contractual agreement with Epic Records. Pearl Jam played a show at Easy Street Records in Seattle in April 2005; recordings from the show were compiled for the album
Live at Easy Street and released exclusively to independent record stores in June 2006. The band embarked on a Canadian
cross-country tour in September 2005, kicking off the tour with a fundraising concert in Missoula, Montana for Democratic politician
Jon Tester and playing
The Gorge Amphitheatre. After touring Canada, Pearl Jam proceeded to open a
Rolling Stones concert in Pittsburgh, then played two shows at the
Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, then closed the tour with a concert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The official bootlegs for the band's 2005 shows were distributed via Pearl Jam's official website in MP3 form. Pearl Jam also played a benefit concert to raise money for
Hurricane Katrina relief on October 5, 2005, at the
House of Blues in Chicago. On November 22, 2005, Pearl Jam began its first Latin American tour.
Move to J Records and Pearl Jam (2006–2008) in
Pistoia, Italy in September 2006 The work for Pearl Jam's follow-up to
Riot Act began after its appearance on the 2004
Vote for Change tour. The time period between the two albums was the longest gap between Pearl Jam's studio albums to date and the new album was its first release for a new label.
Clive Davis announced in February 2006 that Pearl Jam had signed with his label
J Records, which like Epic, is part of
Sony Music Entertainment (then known as
Sony BMG), though J has since folded into
RCA Records. The album
Pearl Jam was released on May 2, 2006. A number of critics cited
Pearl Jam as a return to the band's early sound, and McCready compared the material to
Vs. in a 2005 interview. Ament said: "The band playing in a room—that came across. There's a kind of immediacy to the record, and that's what we were going for." Chris Willman of
Entertainment Weekly wrote that "in a world full of boys sent to do a man's job of rocking, Pearl Jam can still pull off gravitas". Current socio-political issues in the United States are addressed on the album. "
World Wide Suicide", a song criticizing the
Iraq War and U.S. foreign policy, was released as a single and topped the
Billboard Modern Rock chart; it was Pearl Jam's first number one on that chart since "
Who You Are" in 1996, and first number one on any chart in the United States since 1998 when "
Given to Fly" reached number one on the
Mainstream Rock chart.
Pearl Jam also included the singles "
Life Wasted" and "
Gone". To support
Pearl Jam, the band embarked on its
2006 world tour. It toured North America, Australia and notably Europe; Pearl Jam had not toured the continent for six years. The North American tour included three two-night stands opening for
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The band served as the headliners for the
Leeds and
Reading festivals, despite having vowed to never play at a festival again after
Roskilde. Vedder started both concerts with an emotional plea to the crowd to look after each other. He commented during the Leeds set that the band's decision to play a festival for the first time after Roskilde had nothing to do with "guts" but with trust in the audience. In 2007, Pearl Jam recorded a cover of the Who's "
Love, Reign o'er Me" for the film
Reign Over Me; it was later made available as a music download on the iTunes Music Store. The band embarked on a
13-date European tour, and headlined
Lollapalooza in Grant Park, Chicago on August 5, 2007. The band released a CD box set in June 2007, titled
Live at the Gorge 05/06, that documents its shows at
The Gorge Amphitheatre, and in September 2007 a concert DVD, titled
Immagine in Cornice, which documents the band's Italian shows from its 2006 tour was released. In June 2008, Pearl Jam performed as the headline act at the
Bonnaroo Music Festival. The Bonnaroo appearance took place amidst a
twelve-date tour in the Eastern United States. In July 2008, the band performed at the VH1 tribute to the Who with
Foo Fighters,
Incubus and
the Flaming Lips. In the days prior to
Election Day 2008, Pearl Jam digitally released through its official website a free documentary film, titled
Vote for Change? 2004, which follows the band's time spent on the 2004 Vote for Change tour.
Reissues and Backspacer (2009–2012) In March 2009,
Ten was reissued in four editions, featuring such extras as a remastering and remix of the entire album by Brendan O'Brien, a DVD of the band's 1992 appearance on
MTV Unplugged, and an LP of its concert of September 20, 1992 at Magnuson Park in Seattle. It was the first reissue in a planned re-release of Pearl Jam's entire catalog that led up to the band's 20th anniversary in 2011. was also planned to coincide with the anniversary. In 2011,
Vs. and
Vitalogy were reissued in the spring time in deluxe form. In 2009, the band began to build on instrumental and demo tracks written during 2008. The album
Backspacer was its first to be produced by Brendan O'Brien since
Yield. and has sold 635,000 copies as of July 2013, according to
Nielsen SoundScan. The music on the record features a sound influenced by pop and
new wave. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that "prior to
Backspacer, Pearl Jam wouldn't or couldn't have made music this unfettered, unapologetically assured, casual, and, yes, fun". Regarding the lyrics, Vedder said: "I've tried, over the years, to be hopeful in the lyrics, and I think that's going to be easier now." "
The Fixer" was chosen as the album's first single. Pearl Jam did not re-sign its record deal with J Records, and the band released the album through its own label Monkeywrench Records in the United States and through
Universal Music Group internationally. Pearl Jam reached a deal with Target to be the exclusive big-box retailer for the album in the United States. The album also saw release through the band's official website, independent record stores, online retailers, and iTunes. In an interview in September 2009 McCready revealed that Pearl Jam was scheduled to finish the
Backspacer outtakes within six months, and told San Diego radio station
KBZT that the band may release an EP in 2010 consisting of those songs, and Vedder instead suggested that the songs may be used for the band's next studio album. In August 2009, Pearl Jam headlined the
Virgin Festival, the
Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, and played five shows in Europe and three in North America. In October 2009, Pearl Jam headlined the
Austin City Limits Music Festival. Later in October on Halloween night, the band played in what was the last performance at the Philadelphia Spectrum. An additional leg consisting of a tour of Oceania took place afterwards. A European tour took place in June and July 2010, where the band performed in Northern Ireland for the first time at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. In late October 2010, Pearl Jam performed at the 24th Annual
Bridge School Benefit Concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. A live album, titled
Live on Ten Legs, was released on January 17, 2011. It is a compilation of live tracks from their 2003 to 2010 world tours, and is a follow-up to
Live on Two Legs, which consisted of songs recorded during their 1998 North American tour. in June 2012 In March 2011, bassist Jeff Ament told
Billboard that the band had 25 songs and they'd be heading into the studio in April to begin recording the follow-up to
Backspacer. On May 16, 2011, the band confirmed that they would play the Labor Day weekend at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin, followed by
ten shows in Canada. On September 8, 2011, the band released a new song titled "Olé". On November 18, the band released
Toronto 9.11.11—a free live album available through the launch of Google Music. On November 21, 2011, as part of their PJ20 World Tour, Pearl Jam visited
Costa Rica for the first time to a 30,000 crowd of fans at the
National Stadium. The following month, the band announced a
tour of Europe, which started in June 2012.
Lightning Bolt and Gigaton (2013–2020) On July 11, 2013, the band announced that their tenth studio album
Lightning Bolt would be released internationally on October 14, 2013, and on the next day in the United States, along with releasing the first single "
Mind Your Manners". The band played a
two-leg tour in North America during October and November, followed by headlining the final
Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand in 2014. The second single, "
Sirens", was released on September 18, 2013. After selling 166,000 copies in its first week,
Lightning Bolt became Pearl Jam's fifth album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. At the
57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015, the album won the award for
Best Recording Package. In November 2015 the band played a
nine-date tour of Latin America. In January 2016, the band announced a
tour of the United States and Canada, including appearances at the
New Orleans Jazz Festival and
Bonnaroo. In April 2017, Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony they were inducted by comedian
David Letterman. In August 2017, the band announced the release of the live album and concert film ''
Let's Play Two'' from the band's shows at Wrigley Field in Chicago the previous year. The band launched a
2018 tour with shows in South America in March 2018, including shows at
Lollapalooza events in Brazil and Chile. followed by performances in Europe and North America. The tour included two shows for homelessness-related charities in the band's hometown of Seattle. Prior to the first shows of the tour, Pearl Jam released the song "
Can't Deny Me". In December 2019, Pearl Jam confirmed that they would be
touring Europe in the summer of 2020. On January 13, 2020, the band announced that its eleventh studio album
Gigaton would be released on March 27, 2020. In conjunction with the release of the album, the band also announced tour dates in North America during March and April 2020. However, the North American leg was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim to reschedule them for a later date. In September 2020, the band confirmed that their
MTV Unplugged live set would be released on vinyl and CD for the first time the following month.
Dark Matter and Cameron's departure (2021–present) in July 2022 In May 2021, Pearl Jam announced the release of a digital collection of nearly 200 concerts dating from 2000 to 2013. The collection of 5,404 individual songs, titled
Deep, is accessible by members of the Pearl Jam Ten Club. On September 18, 2021, the band played their first show since 2018 at the
Sea.Hear.Now Festival in
Asbury Park, New Jersey, where former
Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist
Josh Klinghoffer made his debut as a touring musician with the band. In May 2022, Pearl Jam began to tour for their postponed shows, originally intended to be played in 2020. That same month, Matt Cameron was forced to miss his first shows in 24 years since joining the band after testing positive for
COVID-19. Josh Klinghoffer and
Richard Stuverud played drums for Cameron. Krusen also returned to play numerous songs during the band's show in Fresno, California. In April 2023, Pearl Jam announced a 4th leg of their Gigaton Tour, primarily focused in the
Midwestern United States. In September 2023, their show in
Noblesville, Indiana, was postponed due to illness within the band. At the private
Troubadour playback in Los Angeles, the band confirmed their twelfth album, titled
Dark Matter, produced by
Andrew Watt. The album's packaging features
light painting art by Alexandr Gnezdilov. The album was released to critical acclaim on April 19, 2024 shortly before a
2024 world tour. The album received
Grammy nominations for
Best Rock Album,
Best Rock Song ("Dark Matter"), and
Best Rock Performance ("Dark Matter"). The tour featured stage visuals by Seattle native
Rob Sheridan, known for his work with
Trent Reznor and
Nine Inch Nails; this marked the band's first use of such video visuals on tour, with Sheridan's work also appearing in their "
Wreckage" live music video. In June and July 2024, the band canceled three shows in
London and
Berlin because of significant illness in the band, which Vedder described as a "near-death experience" similar to
bronchitis. On July 7, 2025, Cameron announced his departure from Pearl Jam, with the band releasing a statement thanking him for his 27 years of service. ==Musical style and influences==