He tries and says how he loves this band, cuz he’s a Letterman….

Hey kids, do ya like the rock and roll? If, like me, you went to college in the early ’90s, odds are you watched David Letterman and listened to Pearl Jam. Like so many of today’s entertainers, they were ironic at times, socially aware at others, but always very, very human, unafraid to show their flaws because the big hearts underneath made up for it, and resonated with so many of us.

Letterman liked to play the slightly clueless goof when it came to music, and if you’d told me in 1992 that he’d be name-dropping Seattle scene pioneers Mother Love Bone at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, I’d have been astonished to hear he’d ever heard of them. And yet it’s heartwarming to see him inducting Pearl Jam rather than Neil Young, who couldn’t make it. Young, who was always dubbed the godfather of grunge, may have been musically similar, but Letterman felt very much of the same moment as the band, even though he was in his fifties and had been on TV a while.

The first three minutes of the video above takes you back to 1991, should you so wish; at minute three, Letterman’s speech begins, and while it’s as funny as any of his monologues ever were, it’s clear his fandom is true, and when he closes with an anecdote about something Eddie Vedder did for his son, you’ll know why.

YA HEAR THAT, PAUL? You’ll…know…why.

Letterman’s favorite Pearl Jam song is “Yellow Ledbetter.” What’s yours? You don’t have to speak in class today; just tell us in comments.

Image: YouTube/mfc172