Chris Barron of The Spin Doctors Admits: “I Still Can’t Stand Pearl Jam” Following 90s Label Rivalry.

The Divide Between Bands

The Doctors frontman Chris Barron admitted that Pearl Jam could not address issues with two groups that were both under the same label in the 1990s.

Speaking in the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Barron expressed that he felt a sense of offense from his early days alongside fellow artists at Epic Records, as they did not receive the same level of promotion as Eddie Vedder’s group.

The Rise of Pearl Jam

He noted that the label had already endorsed the Seattle band even before his group’s debut album, *Pocket Full of Kryptonite*, was released in 1991, which led to their hit “Two Princes.”

In the same year, Pearl Jam released *Ten*, which became one of the most iconic records of the grunge era, selling over 13 million copies in the United States.

“I still can’t listen to Pearl Jam,” Barron stated. “It does not insult anyone who loves Pearl Jam, but I just can’t do it.”

“When we arrived in the city, we would find these small local newspapers where there would be a complete page dedicated to Pearl Jam’s gig advertisements and recordings, while there was barely a mention of The Doctors,” he added.

Reflections on Change

This revelation comes after Bill Berr recently shared that he told Eddie Vedder he once hated his band during *Saturday Night Live’s* 50th anniversary special.

“As a fan of hair metal in my youth, I couldn’t accept that ‘Pearl Jam’ was the band that signaled the end of my era,” Barr remarked to Seth Meyers. “When Nirvana came along, I thought, ‘What is happening?’ They always say that Nirvana knocked hair metal out of the picture, but I believed it would just keep coming.”

“And then all my favorite bands, like Skid Row, disappeared. Suddenly, there were these sad guys singing about living under bridges instead of partying. I wondered: ‘What happened to the good times when you ignored all your problems with cocaine?’ It felt like it was all over.”

Barron also mentioned that he sat next to Vedder during the *SNL50* episode and decided to clear the air. “I approached him kindly and said, ‘Dude, I hated your band. You ended my thing.’”

“He laughed because now I genuinely love them.”