Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Inspiration for the Song Jeremy

This Friday will mark 19 years since the suicide of Jeremy Wade Delle. Delle, a student at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas, took his own life in front of his fellow students in their English class on the morning of January 8, 1991. The 15-year-old had recently relocated to Richardson from Dallas and had apparently been in counseling at the time.

Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder happened upon a news story about the incident which inspired him to write the lyrics for the song Jeremy. The song wound up being one of three hit singles from the band's debut album Ten. When interviewed by [title]Rockline[/title] in 1993, Vedder said the following about the song and its controversial music video:

"It came from a small paragraph in a paper which means you kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you're gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper. Sixty-three degrees and cloudy in a suburban neighborhood. That's the beginning of the video and that's the same thing is that in the end, it does nothing... nothing changes. The world goes on and you're gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. Be stronger than those people. And then you can come back."

Two different music videos were made for the song, with the second one being the one shown on Mtv, though in a censored version which caused some confusion and further controversy.

Click here to read more about the school, Jeremy Delle and the song that was inspired by his suicide.


- Tom G

2 comments:

Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...

Very sad. Thanks for posting those detials. Reminds me that sometimes, just being in this world from day to day can be the scariest thing for some people.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

I knew what the song was about but I never knew that it was based on a true event.