Pearl Jam transformed Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” into an anti-gun anthem while briefly covering the 1975 single during their concert in Baltimore on Thursday (September 12th).
Halfway through the latest show on Pearl Jam’s North American tour (get tickets here), guitarist Mike McCready launched into the instantly recognizable opening riff of “Stranglehold.” Eddie Vedder joined in shortly afterward to repeatedly sing, “I don’t own a gun, I don’t ever want to own a gun/ I don’t own a gun, never want to own a gun.”
Once they were done, Vedder didn’t comment any further on the song, and the band launched into their own classic “Even Flow.” Watch fan-shot footage below.
As an outspoken gun rights advocate, Nugent was unsurprisingly displeased with Pearl Jam’s take on the song. In a tweet responding to the cover, he invited Vedder to “join me on my RAV spirit campfire to discuss how your insane liberal policies have created an explosion in engineered violent recidivism while you fight to disarm helpless innocent citizens.”
In stark contrast to Nugent — who briefly hosted a Discovery Channel show called Ted Nugent’s Gun Country and defended the NRA after the Parkland school shooting — Pearl Jam have spoken out against gun violence and publicly supported the non-profit organization Everytown for Gun Safety on multiple occasions.
During Vedder’s own Ohana Music Festival in 2019, he dedicated a performance of Pearl Jam’s “Hard to Imagine” to Everytown, whom he praised for “working so hard for common sense gun laws.” He added that we should “respect the right of ownership, but also preserve our right to feel safe in our towns, our communities, our schools, and our homes.”
More recently, Pearl Jam directed fans to the Everytown website in 2023 for National Gun Violence Awareness Day. “[We] stand with the communities fighting against increasing gun violence,” the band wrote in a statement. “No one should live in fear of gun violence — in their schools, neighborhoods, or anywhere.”
Pearl Jam are currently touring behind their latest album, Dark Matter. See the remaining schedule, and grab your seats here.
hey Eddie join me on my RAV spirit campfire to discuss how your insane liberal policies have created an explosion in engineered violent recidivism while you fight to disarm helpless innocent citizens.
— Ted Nugent (@TedNugent) September 13, 2024
