Former Guns N’ Roses manager Doug Goldstein talked about Pearl Jam shooting down the idea of doing a few shows together back in the day, telling Guns N’ Roses Central during a recent interview:
“What happened was – Axl [Rose] came to me, Pearl Jam had just broken out, they had released ‘Ten’ [in 1991] and it was on fire. I was in Tel Aviv, Israel, we were playing there. Axl had come to me in the morning and said, ‘I don’t care if we open, I don’t care if we don’t get paid, I want them to do a show or a couple of shows with us, Pearl Jam, and U2 closing. Can you please call everybody?’ I said, ‘Sure.’
“So I called Paul McGuinness from U2. He was in – ‘Absolutely Doug, that would be great. We can talk about who will headline.’ I said, ‘No, no, no. Axl already said he wants you guys to close.’ We were bigger than U2 at the time, but it wasn’t about who was going to close, and it wasn’t that Axl wanted to kick their a*s, he just wanted to do this show.
“So then I called Kelly Curtis in Seattle, who manages Pearl Jam. I’ve got a finger in my ear, because the music is going on, I’m at a closet hut in Tel Aviv, and he has me on speakerphone.
“I said, ‘Kelly, can you please pick up?’ ‘No.’ ‘Kelly, I need to talk to you, it’s kind of important.’ ‘Yeah I don’t care. What do you want?’ ‘Kelly, I can’t hear, I’m in a closet.’ ‘I don’t care. What do you want, Doug?’
“So I told him [about the shows], and he goes: ‘Eh, no. We’re going to pass.’ I said, ‘Okay hang on a second. I manage Guns, and when an idea comes to me, I usually talk to the band.’ I go, ‘Are you speaking on behalf of the band?’
“He goes, ‘Yeah, we’re going to pass.’ I go, ‘Don’t you have a moral ethical responsibility to at least discuss it with the band?’ ‘Don’t f*cking tell me my f*cking job.’ ‘Okay, nice talking to you, you have a great life!'”