where did pearl jam get their name from
Pearl Jam With the addition of Dave Krusen on drums, the band took the name Mookie Blaylock, in reference to the then-active basketball player Mookie Blaylock.[13] The band played its first official show at the Off Ramp Café in Seattle on October 22, 1990.[14] They opened for Alice in Chains at the Moore Theatre in Seattle on December 22, 1990,[15] and served as the opening act for the band's Facelift tour in 1991.[16][17] Mookie Blaylock soon signed to Epic Records and renamed themselves Pearl Jam.[6] In an early promotional interview, Vedder said that the name "Pearl Jam" was a reference to his great-grandmother Pearl, who was married to a Native American and had a special recipe for peyote-laced jam.[18] In a 2006 Rolling Stone cover story however, Vedder admitted that this story was "total bullshit", even though he indeed had a great-grandma named Pearl. Ament and McCready explained that Ament came up with "pearl", and that the band later settled on "Pearl Jam" after attending a concert by Neil Young, in which he extended his songs as improvisations of 15–20 minutes in length.[1]