La storia ha voluto che nella posizione di batterista dei Pearl Jam si siano assecondati in tanti prima del definitivo ingresso di Matt Cameron. Scopriamo adesso, però, che proprio ai tempi di “Ten”, nel 1991, il nome giusto sarebbe potuto essere quello di Brad Wilk, poi finito nei Rage Against The Machine. Come riportato da Alternative Nation (a questo link), nel corso di un’intervista con il podcast Let There Be Talk Wilk ha raccontato di quando fu chiamato proprio da Eddie Vedder per provare con la band. Qualcosa andò storto in fatto di “chimica” con gli altri membri del gruppo, specie nella sinergia con il bassista Jeff Ament. Qui in basso gli estratti riportati da Alternative Nation:
They go to England to mix Ten, which Tim Palmer was doing, I get a call from Eddie: ‘We just lost our drummer, I’d love for you to come up and meet everybody. I’m going to send you the tape of the songs.’ I’m like shitting my pants, I’ve never been out of the country, I’ve got to go get my fucking passport, I’m listening to the songs, I’m super young and thinking this is my break, this is my time. I go to Europe and we play together, me and Eddie have this history, and we’re bonding over in Europe, but to the others I’m just the new guy.
“The original drummer that played on Ten had drug issues, so they needed a new drummer. So this was right after that guy, Ten wasn’t even mixed yet. They’re at this farm house in England mixing Ten, and I’m just so young, and they’re on Sony/Epic Records at the time. Long story short, I go there, and I just don’t click musically, mostly with Jeff, who is an incredible bass player, awesome guy, and this is a classic case, it doesn’t matter how good you are, chemistry is everything. It just wasn’t clicking. For me, I wanted to be blinded by that, I just want to be in a band with my buddy, what an incredible opportunity. It didn’t work out, and I remember kind of leaving Europe with my tail between my legs, driving off going fuck, there was my opportunity.
I was there about a week, we’re rehearsing, we’re playing. Some of it I thought sounded incredible. Maybe some of it just didn’t, for whatever reason, that’s the way it goes. It wasn’t exactly clicking, who knows for whatever other reasons, but I just wasn’t the guy.
Insomma, la storia del rock degli anni ’90 sarebbe potuta essere completamente diversa, ma in fondo non è andata malaccio né ai Pearl Jam né tantomeno a Brad Wilk, che altrimenti non avrebbe potuto suonare in pezzi del genere:
