Pearl Jam released the uncensored version of its classic video for “Jeremy” on Friday (June 5th). The band shared the clip to mark National Wear Orange Day, also known as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. The uncut video, originally released in 1992, was previously unavailable in the U.S. after MTV declined to air it.
The network objected primarily to a shot of the title character standing at the front of his classroom and putting a gun into his mouth. The official U.S. version excised this shot.
The official version of the clip ended up winning four MTV Video Music Awards in 1993, including Best Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video and Best Direction.
Guitarist Stone Gossard told us a while back that current events have always informed the band's songs and singer Eddie Vedder's lyrics: “In terms of the world we live in and how we perceive it, there's certainly a variety of crazy military conflicts, famines, murders, terrorist activity, you know, everything you could possibly name that's coming at you at a thousand miles an hour. So as far as what Ed sort of portrays in his lyrics, he's seen a lot for sure.”
In conjunction with the release of the uncensored clip, the band has also shared a revised version of its 1992 “Choices” T-shirt that originally read “9 out of 10 kids prefer Crayons to guns” on the back. The shirt now reads “10 out of 10 kids prefer Crayons to guns.”
Earlier this year, Pearl Jam released its latest studio LP, Gigaton, but the band had to postpone its 2020 tour due to the COVID pandemic.