ABC/Craig Sjodin Back in 1992, Eddie Vedder attempted what might be the most ambitious stage dive in history when he jumped from a camera crane into the crowd during Pearl Jam‘s set at the Pinkpop festival in The Netherlands. This past Friday, Pearl Jam returned to Pinkpop, and Vedder revealed that he had reunited with the cameraman who operated the crane.
As Vedder explained, he always felt like the cameraman, named Rob, was angry at him for attempting such a dangerous stunt.
“The cameraman, his face, he’s looking at me like he’s gonna f***ing kill me,” Vedder remembered. “And I realized that he probably had every right to do so.”
Haunted by the idea that Rob might still be mad at him, Vedder asked a few locals while Pearl Jam was in Amsterdam last week if there was a way he could find him. Turns out there was, and Vedder met up with the now-retired cameraman. Not only that, but Rob revealed that he was never angry at the musician.
“He told me a completely different story than I what I’ve had in my head all these years,” Vedder said. “I thought he was so angry at me, and what he was doing was, if I were to jump on that thing, he had to get other guys to hold the back, the ballast, otherwise I would’ve I jumped on and we just would’ve gone down. So…he’s not yelling at me, he’s yelling to get other guys to hold us up.”
“So the whole time…we were working in tandem but we had no clue whatsoever,” Vedder continued. “He hasn’t been angry at me this whole time, and I just feel so f***ing forgiven!”
You can watch fan-recorded footage of Vedder’s story now on YouTube.
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