Bill Burr has revealed that he told Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder that he once hated his band at Saturday Night Live‘s recent 50th anniversary show.
Burr was the latest guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers to promote his Broadway debut in a stage production of Glengarry Glen Ross, where he stars alongside Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean.
Burr – whose recent music-related news involved the revelation that he might be half-brothers with Billy Corgan – told Meyers that, whenever he’s not needed on stage during each showtime, he retreats to his dressing room to practice AC/DC and Led Zeppelin songs on an electronic drum kit.
Meyers, who was also present at SNL50, asked Burr if he “mended fences” with Vedder over a “one-sided issue” he had towards the grunge band.
As a hair metal fan in his teens, the arrival of Pearl Jam was admittedly not welcomed by the comedian: “Pearl Jam, that was the band that made me realize my youth was over,” Burr told Meyers.
Josh Klinghoffer, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, Eddie Vedder, Matt Cameron, Stone Gossard and Boom Gaspar of Pearl Jam at Climate Pledge Arena on May 28, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Jim Bennett/Getty Images)
“And then Nirvana came in, and I was like, ‘What’s this?’ They always say, like, Nirvana knocked [the hair metal] out. It was Pearl Jam. When Pearl Jam came, that was another one of those grunge Seattle bands. And that’s when I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This isn’t ending.’ Like, this is just gonna keep coming.”
“And then all my bands, Skid Row and all of them, were gone. And it was just these sad guys singing about being under a bridge and not being happy. And I’m like, ‘What happened to nothing but a good time and ignoring all your problems with cocaine, right?’ Like, that was all over.”
So it was Burr’s attendance at SNL50 that he got to sit next to Vedder and settle the score. “I did it in good nature,” Burr said. “I was like, ‘Man, I hated your band. You ended my thing.’”
“And he was cracking up. I go, ‘Do you know how long it took me to admit how great a band Pearl Jam is?’ Because now I love ’em. But it was like 20 years where I just, like, ‘I’m not listening to those guys.’” Watch the full Late Night segment below.
Burr’s change-of-heart anecdote comes at a time when the comedian – whose past stand-up work often involved misanthropic jokes – had recently released his newest special Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years, which features the 56-year-old Burr opening up about past regrets and growth in both personal behaviours and perspectives.
Burr has also made headlines with his outspoken views on Luigi Mangione, billionaires and specifically, Elon Musk, whom he called an “idiot” and a “Nazi” last month.
As for Burr’s connection to Corgan, a surprise meeting orchestrated by Howie Mandel between the two took place in January – Burr wasn’t a fan of the surprise meeting orchestrated by Howie Mandel, with the presenter eventually apologising for the stunt.
In Pearl Jam news, the band recently announced their 2025 US tour dates in support of new album ‘Dark Matter’. The shows kick off in Florida on April 24. Find out more here.
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