03/20/2023
Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder pays a subtle tribute to Kurt Cobain during their Saturday Night Live appearance on April 16th, 1994. Kurt Cobain was found dead at his Seattle home just one week earlier, on April 8th, 1994
The relationship between Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder was always complicated. Although the public saw them as peers in the rising Seattle rock scene of the 1990s, Cobain was never shy about lobbing insults towards Vedder and Pearl Jam after labelling them and Alice in Chains "corporate puppets" in a 1992 interview with Flipside Magazine.
Cobain would eventually soften his stance after meeting Vedder in person, denying the idea that there was a feud between them. "There never was one. I slagged them off because I didn't like their band," Cobain told Rolling Stone. "I hadn't met Eddie at the time. It was my fault; I should have been slagging off the record company instead of them."
For his part, Vedder always remained diplomatic about the whole thing, praising Cobain in interviews and paying tribute to the singer on several occasions, including in a few performances immediately after Cobain's 1994 death. On April 16th of that year, Pearl Jam appeared on Saturday Night Live to play three songs, one from their forthcoming third studio album, Vitalogy. Cobain had been found in his Seattle home only eight days prior, and Vedder decided to pay tribute to Cobain with two different obscure gestures throughout the night.
During the band's performances where Vedder played guitar, like on the song 'Not For You', the name "KURDT" can be read on the headstock of Vedder's guitar. Cobain had been credited as "Kurdt Kobain" in the liner notes for Bleach and the artwork in Nevermind. At the night's end, Vedder lifted his jacket to reveal a "K" written over his heart, another tribute to Cobain.
