quote:
Of the 3, Pearl Jam was by far the more established because it was more or less a Mother Love Bone all stars tribute band with some new guy who looked like a surfer and had a deep voice.

Tribute band isn't the way I would put it. Temple of the Dog was the tribute band.

1. Mother Love Bone was Andrew Wood, Gossard, Stone, and two other dudes.
2. Andrew Wood died.
3. Gossard and Stone decided to form a new band. They were going to call iit "Mookie Blaylock". They needed a lead singer and had brought in Eddie Vedder, who lived in San Diego, to audition to be in the band.
4. Chris Cornell was a close friend of Wood's and wanted to do a tribute album to him (called Temple of the Dog). He enlisted the services of Gossard and Stone for the tribute album, along with Soundgarden's drummer, and another guy, Mike Mccready.
5. Steps 3 and 4 were going on simultaneously, and so Vedder was in the studio when they were recording Temple of the Dog, and ended up joining Cornell on the track Hunger Strike.
6. Gossard and Stone were blown away by Vedder and so he became the lead singer of Mookie Blaylock which was changed to Pearl Jam before it ever had a chance to become Mookie Blaylock. Which is a damn shame.
7. The other Temple of the Dog member, Mike Mccready, also joined Pearl Jam.

The rest is history.

But to say that Pearl Jam was more established because of the Mother Love Bone connection isn't really accurate. Mother Love Bone was a very very big deal in Seattle, but outside of Seattle they were pretty much unknown. Most people (outside of Seattle) learned about Mother Love Bone because they were listening to Pearl Jam. Not vice versa.