8. Record Industry Job Opportunities: Eddie was always 100% committed to becoming a professional musician. A job where he could focus on his music full time. Only towards the end of Bad Radio era did Eddie ever express some doubt that his musical dream would become reality; at least in the near future. I once asked him what he would want to do if he never made it as a musician. He looked to the ground with his finger on his chin, paused for a few moments, and then said, "Ya know, I don't know exactly what I would want to do, but I do know I would like to work for maybe a record company, something involving promoting other bands. There's a lot of good fucking music out there that never gets heard. It's a fucking shame. I would want to do something along those lines." The possibility of eventually working in the music business was another motivation for him to inquire about the different job opportunities in record companies and what the responsibilities of the many different positions entailed. Beth eventually ended up working with Virgin Records in Hollywood in 1989 involving promotional responsibilities. Of course, this was Eddie's forte, and he visited there regularly learning all he possibly could.
The learning process of songwriting for Eddie was a long, continuos, enjoyable journey for Eddie Vedder. Throughout this process of learning, he engaged in an almost daily ritual of reading interviews of artists discussing their recording and songwriting techniques in the numerous available music publications. Eddie regularly had a music magazine in his possession. In fact, the first time I met him, he noticed the music magazine in my hand. We immediately established a strong common ground for the vast intricacies of music which led to our solid friendship. Although I didn't have as much time for music as Eddie did because of my endeavors in school, we both shared the idea that 'music was the inspiration in our lives'.
When Eddie didn't have a notepad in his hand, he had his mini-cassette recorder handy to document ideas to be later transcribed to paper. He was like a traveling reporter waiting and ready for the late breaking story. If it wasn't music related, which it usually was, it would be a documentation of his everyday life, similar to an audio diary. These messages were a combination of work and play. Any music related notations were considered to be serious. It was all business.