The drummer of Rage Against the Machine recalls Eddie Vedder called him out of the blue in 1991 and asked him to consider joining his band.
- May 3, 2018
AceShowbiz - Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk has revealed he once auditioned for Pearl Jam. The former Black Sabbath and Smashing Pumpkins drummer, who currently performs with supergroup Prophets of Rage, tells the "Let There Be Talk" podcast that Eddie Vedder called him out of the blue in 1991 and asked him to consider joining his band.
"They go to England to mix (album) 'Ten', which Tim Palmer was doing, (and) I get a call from Eddie: 'We just lost our drummer, I'd love for you to come up and meet everybody. I'm going to send you the tape of the songs,' " Wilk, who was 23 at the time, recalls.
"I'm, like, s**tting my pants; I've never been out of the country," he smiles. "I've got to go get my f**king passport, I'm listening to the songs, I'm super young and thinking, 'This is my break, this is my time!' I go to Europe and we play together, me and Eddie have this history, and we're bonding over in Europe, but to the others I'm just the new guy."
His dream job didn't pan out because he didn't "click musically" with Pearl Jam bass player Jeff Ament. "He is an incredible bass player, awesome guy, and this is a classic case - it doesn't matter how good you are, chemistry is everything," he adds. "It just wasn't clicking... I just wasn't the guy."
