Pearl Jam gave a free concert in Seattle’s Magnuson Park in 1992.
SEATTLE — The concert, Drop in the Park, was to inspire young people to get out and vote.
“People listen to music. People care about music. Especially nowadays – when you need to get strength from things like music and art,” Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder said at the 1992 concert.
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Pearl Jam played at Magnuson in late September that year. Around 3,000 people registered to vote on the spot.
Pearl Jam originally wanted to perform in Gas Works Park, but city officials canceled the show because of the massive crowd expected.
“The fact that it’s being done at all today is because people raised their voices,” Vedder said of the Sept. concert happening despite challenges. “So it’s a perfect example of what they can do."
"It’s really easy to become apathetic and feel like you can’t make a difference," Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder said. "So this is just proof that you can. And (voters) can do the same thing in November.”
Vedder spoke from under a black helmet with the number 29 loosely scrawled on it in white. He wore an olive-colored shirt under a mustard-yellow sweatshirt and smiled uncomfortably when a reporter asked him about Seattle’s “adoring” fans of Pearl Jam.
“Oh, adoring,” Vedder repeated back shyly, hair easy at his shoulders. “They talk about the Seattle scene. I mean, what that is boils down to, is that people go out and see music and are responsive to it. Some friends of mine came up from San Diego last night and played and they were just thrilled at the reaction. I mean, people … care about music here.”
Pearl Jam was trying to inspire young people to vote.
“The election’s coming up,” Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament said. “And it just seems like it’s something to kind of help kids get informed. Or to get them kind of started on actually caring about things that are happening in the world. And happening more-so even in their community and within their neighborhoods.”
In 1992, voters were deciding between presidential candidates Bill Clinton, H. Ross Perot and George H. W. Bush. Democratic Clinton won. Also that year, Patty Murray, a self-dubbed "mom in tennis shoes," became a U.S. senator.
“I think if you can just kind of plant a little bit of a seed and show them that there’s, there’s things that can actually change. I mean, even the fact that we pulled this thing off," Ament said. "Actually shows that there are some people that are ready to listen to young people.”
About 29,000 people attended the concert.
Krist Novoselic from Nirvana was at the event.
“I’ve been really keeping my eye on youth culture," Novoselic said. "And I think it’s good that young people get together for something positive like voter registration, which is the most basic thing. But in our real apathetic country, you got to start somewhere."
“It’s up to everybody. ... Change starts with yourself," Nirvana's Krist Novoselic said at the 1992 concert.
The concert was attended by Seattle residents of all ages.
One attendee gave an interview while lying happily on his shirtless back.
When asked if Pearl Jam's fans would really keep rocking all the way to the polls, he said he knew people the effort affected.
"I think it's actually working," he said, grinning up at a blue sky. "A lot of drives for political things don't really work, but I think they're getting something done with this."
Another attendee was a Washington state high school teacher in light-catching silver earrings and a floppy hat.
She called the concert "the greatest gift for the kids of Seattle."
As she spoke, a group of her young students gathered near, joking with her and asking about homework for the week.
“I think things like this could happen everywhere if people just organized themselves,” Vedder said.
To close, Pearl Jam aptly played a rendition of Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World.'
“There's a man of the people, says, 'Keep hope alive,’” Vedder sang. “Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive. Keep on rockin' in the free world.”
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FULL INTERVIEWS EMBEDDED BELOW:
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