Pearl Jam formed in Seattle in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder (lead vocals, guitar), Jeff Ament (bass guitar), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), and Mike McCready (lead guitar). Their current drummer is Matt Cameron, formerly of Soundgarden, who has been with them since 1998.

Formed after the demise of Ament and Gossard's previous band Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream with its debut album, Ten. One of the key bands of the grunge movement in the early 1990s, Pearl Jam was criticized early on - most notably by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain - as being a corporate cash-in on the alternative rock explosion. However, over the course of the band's career its members became noted for their refusal to adhere to traditional music industry practices, including refusing to make music videos and engaging in a much-publicized boycott of Ticketmaster. In 2006, Rolling Stone described the band as having "spent much of the past decade deliberately tearing apart their own fame".

Pearl Jam have sold an estimated sixty million albums worldwide and have outlasted many of their contemporaries from the alternative rock breakthrough of the early 1990s. They are considered one of the most influential bands of the decade. Allmusic calls Pearl Jam "the most popular American rock & roll band of the '90s".

Eddie Vedder's solo material reached a peak in 2007 with an album's worth of songs for the soundtrack for film 'Into the Wild', including a cover of Jerry Hannan's 'Society' and the Indio song 'Hard Sun'. Vedder won a 2008 Golden Globe Award for the song 'Guaranteed' from the the film and was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his contributions to the original score.
Vedder promoted the 'Into the Wild' soundtrack with his first solo tour, which began in April 2008. The April leg of the tour, dubbed the "April Fools Tour", began in Vancouver.

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