Eddie Vedder says he "reluctantly" took the role of leader in Pearl Jam

Eddie Vedder may be Pearl Jam's frontman, but he says he "reluctantly" took the role of leader. During a new interview (via Spin), he gushed about his bandmates Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, crediting their long musical partnership in former bands Green River and Mother Love Bone for the success Pearl Jam has today.

“I think at some point we functioned without a leader,” he confessed. “If I ended up in that situation, I think it was reluctantly. It was by no means a hostile takeover. It was their world that started all this. It was Green River. And it was Mother Love Bone. To be friends with all the great humans in Green River to this day [and] to be carrying on still with this ... this is a great relationship of Stone and Jeff.”

“I’ve never stopped admiring it and I’m just so glad to be part of it," Vedder continued. "I might be some kind of de-facto leader in that I do setlists, or they trust me to present an idea on how [Gigaton] might be sequenced or something like that. But there’s so much that we work on that’s on complete equal footing, and that’s probably why we’re as proud of this record as any, because the music was made using a completely democratic process.”

Pearl Jam released their 11th album Gigaton back in March and recently played its single, "Dance of the Clairvoyants," live for the first time to benefit COVID-19 relief.

This article was first published on iheart.com and is republished here with permission