Danny Clinch couldn’t get backstage, but the burgeoning photographer still ended up with the shot of a lifetime.
And in the process, Clinch started a lifelong relationship with one of the most enduring rock bands in history.
In August 1992, Clinch’s friend, writer Tim Donnelly, asked if he wanted to tag along for an interview with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.
Less than a year after the release of the band’s debut album, “Ten,” Pearl Jam was playing the Lollapalooza festival in Stanhope, New Jersey, and Donnelly, who was working on a story for the Surfrider Foundation, asked if Clinch wanted to accompany him and take some photos.
There was just one problem: When Clinch and Donnelly showed up at Waterloo Village, they were told no one was allowed backstage.
Vedder spotted Donnelly through a fence — and true to his reputation back then, the 27-year-old singer used an unconventional route to connect with the interviewer.
“Maybe it was because of where we were at the time, but he didn't use the gate. He climbed over the fence to meet Tim,” Clinch said.
“And we just wandered over by some trailers ... and we sat down and started to talk. And, you know, he was very, very humble and very relaxed. His voice is so rich and interesting, and (we were) like, ‘This is the guy behind all these songs?’”
Clinch asked to grab some photos after the interview, and Vedder obliged in a “serendipitous” opportunity the photographer said he wouldn’t have had otherwise.
"It just seemed like such great timing to capture someone at the beginning of their career, and who had just made such a great record and had an interesting story,” said Clinch, who added that one of the photos eventually ended up on the cover of Spin magazine.
But “serendipitous” doesn’t begin to describe the circumstances that led to the most memorable photo Clinch took later that night during Pearl Jam’s eight-song set.
“We were just in the middle of kind of a mosh pit in a way and getting knocked around, and all the energy was incredible,” Clinch said of the band’s first performance in the state of New Jersey. “And then, next thing, you know, Ed's climbing up on the scaffolding there. And we're like, ‘Is this just the same guy that we were just sitting and chilling out with? Like, this guy is an animal.’”
As Clinch readied his camera for the perfect shot, he realized there was a major problem: The batteries in the motor drive of his camera had “crapped out.”
So, when Vedder leaped from the top of the fence into the crowd — "He literally jumped on top of us,” Clinch recalled — the photographer had to rely on his instincts without the aid of technology.
“I just basically had to focus, and I had one shot,” Clinch said. “I was stoked to capture that sort of energy that he was putting out at that time in his career.”
Clinch, 60, has been there to capture many subsequent moments in Pearl Jam’s 33-year career, serving as the band’s longtime collaborator and photographer of record. He doesn’t know how many times he has photographed Vedder and bandmates Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard and Matt Cameron, but he said it’s “in the hundreds.”
He will add to the total in 2024 as Pearl Jam is currently on the road in support of its 12th studio album, “Dark Matter.” The band plays two stops in Los Angeles this week before May 28 and May 30 dates in its hometown of Seattle.
Clinch took the promotional photos for the tour and also recently showcased much of his historic work with the band at the Dark Matter-Verse Pop-Up Experience in London.
Clinch said he hopes to shoot a few shows in the band’s second North American leg of the tour this fall, targeting the concerts in Philadelphia and New York.
“I have much better access now,” said Clinch, who lives in Tom Rivers, New Jersey, and showcases his work in the “Transparent Clinch Gallery” a little further north in Asbury Park.
The band trusts Clinch to roam into spots where few cameras are allowed, and his favorites are behind Cameron’s drum kit or Ament’s amplifier.
“They said to me, at some point, go wherever you want, just don't get in the way,” he said.
That trust has not only led to access, it has allowed Clinch to capture more than just still photographs. He directed Pearl Jam’s concert films, “Let’s Play Two,” and “Immagine in Corniche” and the music video for “Mind Your Manners.”
Clinch’s work has become a key element in the community of Pearl Jam collectors, which ranks as one of the most active in rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia circles — whether it’s buying show-specific posters from the band’s history, stickers, buttons, T- shirts, duffel bags, or even basketballs and hockey jerseys.
For those looking to grab a photo or T-shirt from Clinch’s gallery or his website, cllct asked the photographer to list his favorite Pearl Jam photographs and venues, and what details he remembers about them.
Among those he mentioned:
Verona, Italy, in June 2020: Vedder and McCready at the top of the venue
“We're just sitting up on top, looking down at the fans who are walking and running in the streets. And it was just like, a really great, great moment. ... I'm a music fan. I'm a Pearl Jam fan. Like, I know what people want to see.”
Wrigley Field in August 2016: Vedder leaping over monitor
“If you look at my photograph from 'Let's Play Two’ that I took with Eddie Vedder, jumping over the monitor with the whole of Wrigley Field underneath him, sailing through the sky. That's a great example of a big story caught in one moment.”
"Sea Hear Now” Festival in Asbury Park in September 2021: Rehearsal on the beach
“They hadn't played in three years due to the pandemic. This was a very special moment.”
Hyde Park in London in July 2022: At sunset
“The sunsets just all over the audience” made for a perfect canvas.
Waldbühne in Berlin, Germany, in July 2018: A sky full of fans
“The seats go, like, straight up, which was great, because then your whole sort of wallpaper we call it, you know, behind the band was just fans, no sky ... (just) fans.”
Clinch also mentioned the photo of McCready’s guitar solo with the confetti falling during the final show at Philadelphia’s Spectrum on Halloween 2009, a shot of the band with the Madison Square Garden crowd behind it in 2003, and an all-access photo of the group rehearsing atop the rooftop of Murphy’s Bleachers in Wrigleyville before the “Let’s Play Two” shows.
In that documentary, Clinch explored the band’s connection to sports, following Vedder throughout the Cubs’ run to the franchise’s first World Series title in 108 years. He had great seats with Vedder and Cubs GM Theo Epstein for the historic Game 7 win in Cleveland -- "Bill Murray was sitting behind me,” he joked.
Vedder is more than just a die-hard Cubs fan, he’s a collector of sports memorabilia. Recently, the singer gave The Ringer a tour of the batting cage and warehouse at the band’s headquarters in Seattle, where he keeps a mind-blowing collection of signed 8x10 photographs (many of which he got from the late rocker Johnny Ramone), a game-used batting helmet from every major-league team (including several Hall of Famers) and countless game-used jerseys.
"Every rock star wants to be like a pro athlete, and every pro athlete wants to be a rock star,” Clinch said of Vedder’s passion for baseball collectibles. “Pearl Jam, really, they are sports fans, especially Ed and Jeff.”
Clinch, who interned for famed photographer Annie Leibowitz early in his career, said he’s most at home in a concert venue. Beyond Pearl Jam, he also has photographed Bruce Springsteen countless times, along with the Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band, Phish, Tupac Shakur and many others.
“When I became a photographer, I could have (gone) in so many different directions and really concentrated on, whether it was fashion or celebrity photography,” Clinch said. “I just fell in with music because musicians are my people. I have done fashion, and I have done celebrities. I've done sports ... but just really the music is where it's at for me.”
Clinch says he collects is backstage passes and guitar picks, and he has robust collections of both from his three decades of shooting concerts.
A musician himself — he plays the harmonica in The Tangiers Blues Band and also has played with Pearl Jam a few times — Clinch feels that helps him understand the bond Pearl Jam fans have with the group. When he sees fans traveling through airports with their Pearl Jam shirts and poster tubes, it makes him take his role very seriously.
“I feel like I'm participating in a way,” he said. “I have my own instrument, which is my camera. ... You get swept up in the energy and in the moment and stuff like that. And I think, ‘How fortunate am I that I get to do what I love, with the passion that I have for the music ... Sometimes, I catch myself (and) I'm in the pit, and I'm singing and dancing. ...
“It's medicine for people, whether you're listening to Pearl Jam, or classical music or whatever.”
Kevin Jackson is the Chief Content Officer for cllct. He spent 25 years at ESPN Digital Media, where he was the founding editor of Page 2, and nearly four years as the Executive Director for Digital Content at FOX Sports. He is a longtime Pearl Jam fan and has seen the band in concert more than 40 times.