The group got its start after the tragic end of Mother Love Bone, who lost their talented singer Andrew Wood to a drug overdose in 1990, and went on to become one of the most celebrated rock bands of the '90s.

With their carefully plotted guitar sonics and Eddie Vedder's warm timbre, it's easy to see why the mainstream embraced Pearl Jam. As Pearl Jam make their way across the U.S., we look back at the band and observe The World According to�Pearl Jam.

Mike McCready on Eddie Vedder's early habit of climbing the stage scaffolding or the wings of the theaters, falling into the crowd, as told to Rolling Stone in 1993:

"I think the first time I got really worried, we were in Texas. Eddie climbed up on this girder, about 50 feet in the air. Nobody knew where he was. And all of a sudden you look up - some guy had a flashlight on him - and it was like � He's up there clinging to a girder. I'm thinking, 'This guy is insane, but I'm so totally pumped.'"

Stone Gossard on Pearl Jam getting "too big," as told to Rolling Stone in 1993:

"If somebody wants to say, 'You guys used to be my favorite band, but you got too big' - to me, the problem with getting too big is not, innately, you get too big and all of a sudden you stop playing good music. The problem is, when you get too big, you stop doing the things you used to do. Just being big doesn't mean you can't go in your basement and write a good song. I think people are capable of being a lot bigger on that rad big scale. A lot more people are capable of being big out there that just don't give themselves a chance."

Eddie Vedder on Kurt Cobain's death, as told to the crowd at a Pearl Jam concert in Fairfax, Va., on the night Cobain's body was discovered:

"Sometimes, whether you like it or not, people elevate you (and) it's real easy to fall..."