This, to me, is the takeaway:
BOB said about SBM wrote:Eddie sent me his record before it came out to see if I liked it. I said: “There’s one song on here that we’re gonna steal, because it’s a Pearl Jam song as far as I’m concerned. And there are gonna be the fans who know that record. I don’t know that the rest of the world’s gonna know that song that much.” His record actually ended up doing much better than I thought it would… but I just thought a lyric like that with him singing it is so unusual, and it’s such a sweet, direct, straightforward song that I felt like we needed it very much.
I'm surprised he gave such a direct answer on this. Interesting that Ed would send him the record to get his opinion. I'm also surprised he thought only a smattering of people would listen to Uke Songs and that no one would remember SBM. He knows that almost every PJ fan, at a minimum, was going to get that record. And STILL, he went through with putting it on LB. Flattery will get you everywhere.
Also, artists are often insecure about their art, and in that sense you can see where a guy like Brendan O'Brien, with his confidence in moving forward and creating without wasting time, would be appealing.