YouTube Comment on Eddie Vedder
Posted: Thu August 20, 2020 2:30 am
Was watching this generic YT video on Eddie, and found this really interesting comment by Koi Shooter. See below
Koi Shooter post:
"Eddie didn't "land in California in 84." I went to school with him from middle school through HS in Encinitas. He just came back from Chicago after HS. We were friendly but not really close as I was into running and he was into acting. We both surfed but we must have preferred different breaks because I never bumped into him, which sounds crazy, but the Encinitas area has so many breaks that it's actually possible. I would say he was melancholy, like a lot of us, but I did not know about the depression or moving out at 15. We lived in the same upper middle class neighborhood. I just know he was suddenly missing his senior year so I figured he moved over the summer. In the mid 80's, I bumped into him a couple times in the neighborhood and at the gas station he worked in Cardiff (next to Encinitas). We chatted briefly; it was always nice to bump into him... Just another chill dude from North County. A year or two later, he was in a local band because my girlfriend at the time, who also went to San Dieguito with us, said, "Hey Eddie Muller is doing an album release tonight (I forget where) and we should go." But I wanted to stay home and rent a foreign film (I was studying film in college). I figured he was in some generic local garage band. WOW, do I regret that!!! Then a couple years later my little brother says to me, "Did you go to school with Eddie Vedder!?!?" I said, "No, Eddie Muller..." Then he showed me 10, and my jaw hit the ground. He was really good looking as a kid and was sort of a "rock star" before he was a rock star, but he was not arrogant about it, like other good looking/popular kids, nor did he run with that crowd. Nor, do I remember him trying to bang every pretty girl in school, trying to exploit those looks. He had an "old soul" vibe to him and was probably a little more mature than the rest of us. About 25 years later, I would discover the hobo/artist Leonard Knight, creator of Salvation Mountain, in the desert... around the time INTO THE WILD came out... not even knowing that Eddie did the sound track for the film at the time. Leonard has a major cameo in the film. And that scene is the most youtubed from the whole film. I ended up spending a lot of time with Leonard (it was the recession years, my business was dead) wanting to unlock his uncanny relationship with God and the paradox of why this hobo was becoming the "most visited man on earth." Was it the film? Was is Leonard? So, I obtained his life rights and produced an award winning feature documentary about Leonard that has won film festivals all over the world and is one of the highest rated films currently on Amazon (search Amazon for "The love story or Leonard Knight"). INTO THE WILD would have been great without Eddie's music, but that music definitely made it even more special, and certainly contributed to the positive reviews, which inspired me to travel 35 miles down to San Diego to see it in an art house theater. I do remember though, sitting in the theater thinking "that kind of sounds like Eddie, but it can't be because it's not Pearl Jam" and then just forgetting to check the credits at the end. So God only knows, but wow... CRAZY CRAZY SMALL WORLD." [/YouTube]
