Pearl Jam’s ‘Lighting Bolt’ to Strike at World Series
Pearl Jam have knocked it out of the park. The rockers just signed a deal with Fox Sports that will place 48 of their songs throughout the channel’s World Series programming this month.
The baseball championship’s coverage and promotions run from October 23rd to 31st, and the band’s music will serve the dominant soundtrack. All 12 songs from their upcoming album Lightning Bolt (out October 15th) will be used, according to Billboard. Other songs will include “Even Flow,” “Animal,” “Daughter,” “Corduroy” and more. Pearl Jam will also be featured as November’s Artist of the Month on Fox Sports properties – which should be a special thrill for frontman Eddie Vedder, a lifelong Cubs fan.
Hear an Early Stream of Pearl Jam’s ‘Lightning Bolt’
“[Pearl Jam] said, ‘What songs would you want?’ I said, ‘How many can I have?'” Fox Sports Music VP Janine Kerr told Billboard. “So we gave them a wish list and they said ‘yes’ to all.”
As for Pearl Jam’s well-documented reluctance to participate in licensing agreements, band manager Kelly Curtis said the World Series was an easy choice. “For the past many years, we consider licensing requests using the same criteria we do for everything else: Do we like it? Would the fans like it? Does it provide a different forum for fans to hear the music? Is it something we can get behind?” Curtis said. “The band loves baseball, so this one was a no-brainer.”
Pearl Jam’s World Series deal is unprecedented in its volume; it licenses the largest amount of songs from any participating artist in recent years. Last year’s MLB Playoffs and World Series featured Jack White tunes during the National League Championship coverage and 30 tracks from the Who for the World Series soundtrack.