Pearl Jam's lead vocalist Eddie Vedder once thought the rock band would not make it to the stage again following the Roskilde tragedy in 2000.
In Vedder's recent Audible Original, "I Am Mine," he bravely recalled the tragedy that occurred two decades ago. According to the guitarist, he once thought they should never play again after the fatal incident.
"There was at least one person in the band, I remember, that thought that maybe we should never play again," Vedder said. "And if that's something the rest of us didn't feel, it still was not something that could be easily dismissed."
But two months after, they began touring again and launched their US leg. Vedder and the other members reportedly "disappeared into Europe" after the tragedy and took his time to take Spanish guitar lessons.
Instead of giving up, they started processing what happened as individuals and helped one another learn something from it.
How Pearl Jam's First Show After Tragedy Went
Vedder also touched on the events that happened during their Virginia Beach tour in August 2000. He revealed that he and the members' nerves "were heightened" the night before the event. When they did their soundcheck, they reportedly saw empty seats that seemingly gave them negative feelings.
"There was so much emotion going on, I thought, 'I can harness this, I gotta do something.' I had a small tape recorder, and that's when I recorded and figured out the song 'I Am Mine.' It was all about getting ready for that first show, and hoping we'd all be safe the next night," he went on.
The Roskilde tragedy left nine people - all men -- dead and 26 people injured.
At that time, Pearl Jam had an approximately 50,000 audience. Thirty minutes after the concert began, people fell into one another as the crowd made wave-like motions. People also started to push forward in pursuit of getting near the stage.
Unfortunately, the crowd led people to miss the hole in the venue, with several concertgoers falling on it.
All nine people died due to asphyxiation after less than five minutes of lack of oxygen. The heavy rainfall also made the concert ground more slippery.
Ten years after the incident, Patti Smith held a pre-concert ceremony and paid tribute to the victims.
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