Pearl Jam released Riot Act in the United States on November 12, 2002, through Epic Records. Their seventh studio album brought together songs shaped by loss, a wider division of songwriting and the arrival of keyboardist Boom Gaspar.
Nine fans had died during the band’s performance at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival in 2000, leaving its members questioning whether they could continue performing. The first single, “I Am Mine,” grew out of that uncertainty. In his 2021 Audible Original of the same name, Eddie Vedder recalled writing it as Pearl Jam prepared to return to the stage in Virginia Beach in August 2000. With nerves running high, he used a small tape recorder to work through the song. “It was all about getting ready for that first show,” he said in an excerpt reported by Rolling Stone. His hope was that everyone would be safe when they returned.
The recording sessions gave the band a different kind of reassurance: playing together could still feel natural. Adam Kasper co-produced the album with Pearl Jam, and Brendan O’Brien mixed it. Drummer Matt Cameron told Seattle Weekly that the group arrived prepared and finished tracking in about four weeks. He described the result as “the sound of a band playing together in a room.” Vedder also explained that bandmates were bringing in complete songs and lyrics, easing the pressure on him as the principal lyricist. Once someone handed a song over, its direction became a group decision.
Cameron’s contributions show how far that approach could reach. He wrote the music for “You Are” and shared its lyric credit with Vedder, while “Get Right” carried Cameron’s music and lyrics. Billboard’s reporting on the sessions described the guitar on “You Are” being fed through a drum machine, an unusual route to one of the album’s most distinctive arrangements. The drummer was helping determine the writing and the guitar sound as well as the rhythm.
The lyrics covered different ground, too. “Bu$hleaguer” aimed its political satire at George W. Bush, while “Love Boat Captain” acknowledged the nine people who died at Roskilde. The latter also grew from a friendship that began outside the band.
Gaspar initially knew Vedder simply as a surfing friend in Hawaii. In a 2006 interview with The Honolulu Advertiser, he recalled discovering only months into their friendship that Vedder played in Pearl Jam. When they eventually sat down with a guitar and keyboard, they wrote the music that became “Love Boat Captain.” Vedder then invited him to Seattle. Gaspar’s Hammond B3 added another voice to the arrangements, and the song connected that musical opening with the grief running through the record. It was his first appearance on a Pearl Jam album.
The sessions also changed Gaspar’s working life. After hearing him on “Love Boat Captain,” the band asked him to contribute keyboards to more of the album. Then, once he was home in Hawaii, Vedder called with another invitation: the group wanted him on the road. Gaspar joined Pearl Jam’s 2003 tour, carrying the collaboration that began with a small guitar-and-keyboard setup onto the stage.
