Eddie Vedder Says Trump’s Desperation Inspired Pearl Jam’s ‘Wreckage’

Eddie Vedder is revealing the meaning behind “Wreckage” from Pearl Jam’s newest album Dark Matter.

In an interview with The Times UK, the musician spoke about how Pearl Jam has evolved throughout the past three decades. When it comes to their current record, he said the group found inspiration from an unexpected figure — former President Donald Trump.

“There is a guy in the United States who is still saying he didn’t lose an election, and people are reverberating and amplifying that message as if it is true,” Vedder, 59, said. “Trump is desperate. I don’t think there has ever been a candidate more desperate to win, just to keep himself out of prison and to avoid bankruptcy.”

The song — by Vedder and his bandmates Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready — is about not allowing the idea of winning to cloud your judgement, Fedder revealed.

In the lyrics, “This game of winner takes all / And all means nothing left / Spoils go the victor / And the other left for dead,” the band is singing about how being the last one standing doesn’t always mean there is a reward waiting.

The songwriter compared the track to Americans who root for Trump without thinking about the harm of the division he causes in the country.

“It is all on the line, and he’s out there playing the victim — ‘at least they’re doing this to me, because if not they would be doing it to you’ — but you haven’t falsified your tax records,” Vedder explained. “You don’t have classified information in your basement.”

He added: “So the song is saying, let’s not be driven apart by one person, especially not a person without any worthy causes.”

In the end, Fedder admitted he hopes Trump will not reemerge as president again, and people will not “comb through the wreckage / holding on / holding out,” as the song goes, for him to win.

“Most thoughtful people are going through a bit of PTSD about it now,” he said of election season coming up.

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Vedder also said he just wants to express himself through music and hope it helps listeners understand him more.

“I knew I wanted to express myself in music, whether anyone heard it or not,” he concludes. “You think, if someone were to hear this, maybe they would know me better. Maybe that is the power of any art form, actually: to get to know someone.”