CHICAGO — Growing up as a teenager in Arlington Heights, WGN’s Jarrett Payton was a hip-hop music fan, but along the way, he developed a love for alternative and the bands that everyone knew — Nirvana, Soundgarden, 311 and Pearl Jam — The latter of which helped mold him into who he is today, and it all came together neatly on stage at Wrigley Field last weekend.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Walter’s son, Jarrett,” announced Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder to a crowd of 40,000-plus people at the friendly confines Sunday night.
And so, out walked Payton onto the stage where Vedder waited, donning his father’s iconic Chicago Bears jersey. After the two exchanged a hug, they took a selfie with the crowd in the background.
According to Payton, the once-in-a-lifetime experience began with a single text message out of the blue from Vedder and developed into an in-depth conversation that was decades in the making.
“He text messaged me, and then the next thing, we texted basically for an entire day,” Payton said. “They were long texts. A lot of them were just talking about me thanking him for helping keep my dad’s legacy alive … because [he’s] a rock star of that profile [and] my dad’s not here.”
Nov. 1 of this year will represent the 25th anniversary of Walter Payton’s death, and while Jarrett says that he, his sister Brittney, and his mother do their best to keep Walter’s legacy alive, it’s heartwarming to see someone of Vedder’s stature rock the No. 34 on stage in his honor.
“To have someone that was impacted by [my dad] like that and it be Eddie Vedder?” Payton said. “And him wearing that every single night is huge because it brings people back to thinking about my pops.”
Vedder’s decision to wear Walter’s jersey every night he hits the stage comes rife with symbolism.
2024 marks the 34th year of the band’s existence, and according to Payton, Vedder will keep rocking the jersey because he doesn’t want to jinx the good vibes they’ve had on stage along the way, but the choice also pays tribute to when Vedder first met Sweetness as a teenager back in the late 70’s.
For about six-and-a-half minutes backstage before he called Jarrett on stage at Wrigley Field, Vedder told him about meeting his dad at Halas Hall in 1978.
“He tells this whole story that my dad gave him time, and he ran to the car to get this pamphlet that he wanted to get signed,” Jarrett said, recalling the conversation. “His uncle told him that my dad walked in, and he wasn’t around, but then he heard my dad’s footsteps on the gravel coming around the corner, and he sees my dad, and was kind of lost for words.
“My dad joked with him and was like, ‘You look like a surfer,’ and then asked him, ‘What’s your name kid?'”
Vedder told Jarrett his dad was walking backwards and asked if he wanted him to sign the pamphlet he ran and grabbed. After adding his signature to the piece of paper, Walter told Vedder, “Alright, be careful on them waves now, being a surfer kid.”
In all, the two spent about a half-hour shooting the breeze backstage, where they talked about each side’s favorite work from the band, and Payton also exchanged his own story of how Vedder and Co. helped set the foundation for the kind of person he wanted to be someday.
Payton said growing up, he and his father would spend nights on the weekends buying CD’s and just listening to music, whether it be at home or cruising around in the car.
It was around that time Pearl Jam’s debut studio album “Ten” came out, leading to the formation of a core memory during Payton’s childhood.
“That album just kind of changed my life,” Payton said. “It was a moment for me where I tell people the story … that changed my life and is one of the reasons why I am the way that I am.
“It’s four days before Christmas [in 1991]. My dad knocked on my door three times. I couldn’t hear him because I was listening to Jeremy, and I was jamming out. He ended up picking the lock and came in my bedroom, and there I was. On the right side of my bed was a life-sized Eddie Vedder poster and I’ll just never forget, my dad was like, ‘Let’s go.'”
Without his son understanding the context of the situation, Walter took Jarrett to Toys R Us, where the two purchased a series of gifts that Jarrett thought was coming back to the Payton household for Christmas.
But in true Walter Payton fashion, the gifts weren’t intended for his own family.
Payton said his dad learned of a family who couldn’t afford to put presents under the tree that year so, he took his son with him to drop off a carload of gifts and toys.
“It was at that moment when I figured out what my passion was — Giving back in service [to others],” Payton said. “I’ve told that story over a thousand times, and it was cool because I got a chance to meet Eddie and tell him about that story, and in return, he gave me the story about how he met my father.”