Pearl Jam has released a new single, ‘Wreckage,’ which frontman Eddie Vedder says is a critique of former President Donald Trump’s ongoing claims that he did not lose the 2020 election.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Vedder said that the song is about ‘a guy in the United States who is still saying he didn’t lose an election, and people are reverberating and amplifying that message as if it is true.’ He continued, ‘I no longer give a fuck/who is wrong and who’s right./This game of winner takes all/and all means nothing left/spoils go the victor/and the other left for dead.’
Vedder also said that Trump is ‘desperate’ and that he is ‘playing the victim’ in order to avoid prison and bankruptcy. He said, ‘It is all on the line, and he’s out there playing the victim—at least they’re doing this to me, because if not they would be doing it to you—but haven’t falsified your tax records. don’t have classified information in your basement. So the song is saying, let’s not be driven apart by one person, especially not a person without any worthy causes.’
This is not the first time Pearl Jam has taken on Trump; their 2018 track ‘Can’t Deny Me’ is also believed to be about Trump. Vedder has also been critical of Trump in the past, calling him ‘crazy like a narcissistic motherfucker.’
Vedder said that he is looking forward to Trump’s time in the spotlight passing. He said, ‘I can’t wait.’ He also said that ‘most thoughtful people are going through a bit of PTSD about it now, so maybe you’re right.’
