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Rolling Stone/Eddie Vedder interview



Lurker here.......
I found this in a Rolling Stone interview with Eddie Vedder.

The questions are in bold.

   Given the media mauling you got for the Bush mask in Denver, how do you
feel about the way Pete Townshend, a friend, was treated in the press after
he was arrested for downloading child porn?

   He had written a piece called "A Different Bomb" on his website; I read it
last November.  I was so upset by what he described: the access to child
pornography, what kind of images are there.  The second I heard [of his
arrest], I knew what his stand was.

   The hard thing was to see the press pin that scarlet letter on him:
"rock-star pedophile."  So many of the benefits we have worked on together
had to do with children: orphanages in Chicago, teenage cancer units in
London.  He doesn't just show up and play.  He does research.  To see that
turned around-it was sickening.  Then he was let off with a caution.  Someone
gave me a printed fax of it.  I didn't read it in any paper.

   Have you talked to Pete about this?  Do you think this will be a blot on
his legacy?

   I checked in through friends and people he works with.  If anybody in the
world can take this and turn into a positive, with his eloquence, he can. 
Because Pete Townshend could tell everyone to fuck off and live on a sailboat
in the Bahamas for the rest of his life.  He doesn't have to worry about
these issues if he doesn't want to.

Shelli