Lawyers for the legendary rock band and grunge icons Pearl Jam have issued a cease or desist letter to the UK Pearl Jam tribute band, creatively called Pearl Jamm. After seemingly going viral on the internet this week after the news made its rounds on the internet, the band officially announced they have changed their name accordingly and will now be known as LEGAL JAM.

The cease or desist letter from the rock icons legal team ultimately stated that the tribute band’s “Pearl Jamm” moniker could lead to confusion with Pearl Jam. Earlier today, the tribute group released a statement explaining their name change. “A name doesn’t define us. We do what we do out of love and respect for Pearl Jam,” the band states. “We have always been clear that we will ‘Yield’ to Pearl Jam’s demands and equally clear that our disappointment was only ever of the timing and manner in which those demands were made.”

The band continues, “We are proud to announce our new name: ‘LEGAL JAM’ which we thought would be fitting and under which we will continue to perform the music of Pearl Jam in the most heartfelt and authentic way. We look forward to reconnecting with our own fans (and other tributes) who have been so supportive through this as well welcoming the new fans who have joined us over the last week, as soon as we are back on the road.”

Speaking to Louder, LEGAL JAM bassist Richard Gaya said the band was mostly surprised by the news as Pearl Jam has been aware of the group for years. “Pearl Jam has known about us for years,” says Gaya. “Pearl Jam battled against Ticketmaster, they battled against Trump, if you look at the lyrics of their songs, they’re anti-suicide, they’ve spoken about domestic violence, they’ve spoken about police brutality, all these social issues and now suddenly it’s all — ‘oh by the way, here’s a legal letter.’ It’s so out of keeping with Pearl Jam, and I think that’s where the outrage comes from.”

Pearl Jam released their critically-lauded 11th full-length studio album Gigaton on March 27th of last year. The album debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, marking the group’s twelfth top 10 album. The record also sold 14,000 vinyl units in its first week of sales, making it the second-largest weekly vinyl sales of an album in 2020.

Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz