50 facts about Eddie Vedder: known as a member of the rock band Pearl Jam

Eddie Vedder's 50 facts.

1. Eddie Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson.

2. He is a musician, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Pearl Jam, with whom he performs lead vocals and is one of three guitarists.

3. He is known for his powerful baritone vocals.

4. He is also involved in making music and contributes to albums by other artists.

5. In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album as a soundtrack for the film Into the Wild.

6. His second album Ukulele Songs and a live DVD titled Water on the Road were 2011.

7. Vedder was born in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, on December 23, 1964.

8. His parents divorced in 1965, when Vedder was an infant.

9. His mother remarried, to a man named Peter Mueller.

10. Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father, and he went by the name Edward Mueller for a time.

11. Vedder's ancestry includes German and Danish.

12. While living in Evanston, Vedder's family fostered seven younger children in a group home.

13. In the mid-1970s, the family, including Vedder's three younger half-brothers, moved to San Diego County, California.

14. Vedder received a guitar from his mother on his twelfth birthday, began turning to music (as well as surfing) as a source of comfort.

15. He particularly found solace in The Who's 1973 album, Quadrophenia. He said, "When I was around 15 or 16... I felt all alone... I was all alone-except for music."

16. His mother and Mueller divorced when Vedder was in his late teens.

17. His mother and brothers moved back to the Chicago area, but Vedder remained with his stepfather in California so he would not have to change high schools.

18. After the divorce, Vedder learned the truth about his parentage: Mueller was really his stepfather. Vedder had met his biological father briefly as a child, but had believed that Severson was merely an old friend of his parents. By the time Vedder learned the truth, Severson had died of multiple sclerosis.

19. By his senior year at San Dieguito High School, Vedder was on his own, living in an apartment and supporting himself with a nightly job at a drug store in Encinitas.

20. He eventually dropped out of high school in his senior year due to the pressures of balancing school with working. He joined the rest of his family in Chicago, and it was at this time that he changed his name to Eddie Vedder, Vedder being his mother's maiden name.

21. In the early 1980s, while working as a waiter, Eddie earned his high school GED, and briefly attended a community college near Chicago.

22. Pearl Jam was formed in 1990 by Ament, Gossard, and McCready, who then recruited Vedder and three different drummers in sequence. The band originally took the name Mookie Blaylock, but was forced to change it when the band signed to Epic Records in 1991, instead calling their debut album Ten, after Blaylock's jersey number.

23. Vedder has contributed solo material to several soundtracks and compilations, including the soundtracks for the films Dead Man Walking, I Am Sam, A Brokedown Melody, Body of War, and Reign Over Me.

24. Vedder collaborated with Pakistani musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for his contributions to the Dead Man Walking soundtrack.

25. Vedder wrote "Man of the Hour" that Pearl Jam recorded for Tim Burton's Big Fish Soundtrack.

26. Vedder wrote two songs for the 2007 feature documentary, Body of War, produced by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue: "No More" (a song referring to the Iraq War) and "Long Nights".

27. Vedder and the supergroup The Million Dollar Bashers, which includes members from Sonic Youth, Wilco, and Bob Dylan's band, covered Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" for the biopic film, I'm Not There.

28. Vedder had a brief acting cameo in the 1992 movie, Singles, along with Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam. He appeared as himself, playing drums in lead actor Matt Dillon's backing band, Citizen Dick.

29. He was also interviewed for the 1996 grunge documentary, Hype! He appears in the 2003 Ramones documentary, End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones.

30. In 2007, he made a cameo as himself in the comedy film, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

31. He appears in the 2007 Tom Petty documentary, Runnin' Down a Dream, the 2008 political documentary, Slacker Uprising, and the 2009 Howard Zinn documentary, The People Speak, based upon "A People's History of the United States".

32. Vedder is known for his social and political views.

33. In his spare time, Vedder is a surfer and active in surf-related conservation efforts, most notably The Surfrider Foundation.

34. Vedder shows his support for environmental activism by sporting an Earth First! tattoo on his right calf. The logo is of a pipe wrench crossed with a stone hammer.

35. Vedder is vegetarian.

36. Eddie Vedder was heavily inspired by the early Jethro Tull sound, stating that: "I'm a big fan of Jethro Tull, and I listen to this record [ Stand Up ] every night before I go on stage!"

37. Vedder's lyrical topics range from personal ("Alive", from Ten; "Better Man", from Vitalogy) to social and political concerns ("Even Flow", from Ten; "World Wide Suicide", from Pearl Jam).

38. His lyrics have often invoked the use of storytelling and have included themes of freedom, individualism, and sympathy for troubled individuals.

39. Although best known as a vocalist, Vedder also plays guitar on many Pearl Jam songs, beginning with the Vs. songs "Rearviewmirror" and "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town".

40. When the band started, Gossard and McCready were clearly designated as rhythm and lead guitarists, respectively. The dynamic began to change when Vedder started to play more rhythm guitar during the Vitalogy era.

41. In 1994, Vedder married his longtime girlfriend, musician Beth Liebling.

42. The couple divorced in 2000.

43. Vedder is a friend of The Who guitarist Pete Townshend and former Audioslave and current Soundgarden frontman, Chris Cornell.

44. Vedder had shared vocal duties with the latter in Temple of The Dog.

45. Townshend discouraged Vedder from retiring in 1993.

46. In late 2007, Vedder wrote the foreword to a new Pete Townshend biography, Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend. The book was published in the UK in March 2008 and in the U.S. in October 2008.

47. Vedder was a close friend of the late Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone, with Vedder being at his side when he died.

48. Since Ramone's death, Vedder and Pearl Jam have played the Ramones' "I Believe in Miracles" regularly at live shows.

49. While driving home from Ramone's funeral, Vedder wrote the lyrics for the Pearl Jam song "Life Wasted" (from Pearl Jam).

50. He is also a friend of famed surfers Kelly Slater, Laird Hamilton, and fellow musicians Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.