You could well imagine that Creed did a lot of nodding during the recent Nickelback documentary. The Florida hard rock quartet were undeniably huge at one point – they have sold an astonishing 53 million records – but they were met with a little more resistance when it came to reviews, with many pointing out that they were pretty rubbish. Total bastards, music journalists, honestly – avoid!
It was understandable, then, that they got their backs up a bit and went on the defensive after two big-selling albums and many bad reviews. It all came to a head in 2000, when Creed bassist Brian Marshall was giving an interview to Seattle radio station KNDD in Pearl Jam’s hometown and he saw an opportunity to make a declaration of war.
Marshall began by comparing frontmen. “Eddie Vedder wishes he could write songs like Scott Stapp,” he said, getting off to an electric start and throwing down the gauntlet in this thrilling battle of the baritones, before backtracking ever-so-slightly. “I love Pearl Jam but I just don’t understand the route they took, and I don’t think it all had to do with Eddie Vedder.”
With interview Andy Savage pressing him for more on the subject, Marshall continues, saying that he couldn’t understand why Pearl Jam had chosen to “write songs without hooks”. At that point, Pearl Jam were touring their sixth album Binaural and deep into their era of taking the long way round rather than trying to replicate the sound and success of Ten and Vs.. “Looking at their album sales and their fans,” reasoned Marshall, “you can just see the decline.”
With the obvious benefit of knowing that Pearl Jam went on to remain one of the world’s biggest bands, made some music to match their finest and just released one of the best records of their career, you could say Marshall was being a little short-sighted in his appreciation of how Pearl Jam were gearing up to be in it for the long haul. Scott Stapp might agree - asked about it, he said his bassist’s quotes were rooted in “arrogance and stupidity”.
