"Jeremy" is a song by American rock band Pearl Jam, with lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music composed by bassist Jeff Ament.

The song was inspired by a newspaper article Vedder read about Jeremy Wade Delle, a high school student who shot himself in front of his English class on January 8, 1991.

[7] The song gained popularity for its music video, directed by Mark Pellington and released in 1992, which received heavy rotation by MTV and became a hit.

The song takes its main inspiration from a newspaper article about a 15-year-old boy named Jeremy Wade Delle from Richardson, Texas, who shot himself in front of his teacher and his second-period English class of 30 students on the morning of January 8, 1991.

[3] After coming into class late that morning, Delle was ordered to report to the principal's office to go fill out a tardy slip.

Delle walked to the front of the classroom, announced "Miss, I got what I really went for", put the barrel of the gun in his mouth, and pulled the trigger before his teacher or classmates could react.

[3] Lisa Moore, a schoolmate, knew Jeremy from the in-school suspension program: "He and I would pass notes back and forth and he would talk about life and stuff," she said.

"[3] When asked about the song, Vedder explained: It came from a small paragraph in a paper which means you kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge.

He elaborated further in a 1991 interview: I actually knew somebody in junior high school, in San Diego, California, that did the same thing, just about, didn't take his life but ended up shooting up an oceanography room.

I think it goes somewhere …and a lot of people interpret it different ways and it's just been recently that I've been talking about the true meaning behind it and I hope no one's offended and believe me, I think of Jeremy when I sing it.

[13] Ament on the song: I already had two pieces of music that I wrote on acoustic guitar ... with the idea that I would play them on a Hamer 12-string bass I had just ordered.

[14]In another interview, Ament stated: We knew it was a good song, but it was tough getting it to feel right—for the chorus to sit back and the outro to push over the top.

[18] Chris True of AllMusic said that "Jeremy" "is where Pearl Jam mania galvanized and propelled the band past the 'Seattle sound' and into rock royalty."

He described it as a "classic buildup tune" and proclaimed it as "arguably Pearl Jam's most earnest work and one of their most successful singles.

[23] Cuffaro and his crew spent a day filming several scenes of a young actor, Eric Schubert, playing the part of Jeremy.

[citation needed] By the time Cuffaro finished his music video, Epic had warmed up to the idea of releasing "Jeremy" as a single.

"[25] Pellington and Pearl Jam convened in Kings Cross, London, England, in June 1992 to film a new version of the "Jeremy" music video.

[26] Working with veteran editor Bruce Ashley, Pellington's high-budget video incorporated rapid-fire editing and juxtaposition of sound, still images, graphics and text elements with live action sequences to create a collage effect.

[27] The video also featured many close-ups of Vedder performing the song, with the other members of Pearl Jam shown only briefly.

She stated that "when Eddie Vedder yowls the lyric 'Jeremy spoke in class today,' a chill frosts your cranium to the point of queasy enjoyment.

[28][31] Jeremy is shown at school being alienated from, and taunted by, his classmates, running shirtless through a forest, and screaming at his parents at a dinner table.

Included are three biblical allusions: "the serpent was subtil", from Genesis 3:1, "the unclean spirit entered", from Mark 5:13, and 3:6, referencing the concept of original sin.

Jeremy is shown standing, arms raised in a V (as described in the lyrics at the beginning of the song), in front of a wall of billowing flames.

The final scene of the video shows Jeremy striding into class shirtless, tossing an apple to the teacher, and standing before his classmates.

The edited version cuts to an extreme close-up of Jeremy's face as he puts the barrel of the gun in his mouth, closes his eyes, and pulls the trigger.

[30] In 1997, Rolling Stone described the song and video as depicting an unpopular student bringing a gun to class and shooting people.

[citation needed] In 1996, a shooting occurred at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake, Washington, that left three dead and a fourth injured.

The uncensored version of the video was remastered in high definition and released on Pearl Jam's official YouTube channel on June 5, 2020, to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

[38] This version was shown as part of VH1 Classic's retrospective Pearl Jam Ten Revisited, which coincided with the album's rerelease.

At the end of the intense performance, however, Vedder managed to sneak in a reference to "Sonic Reducer" by singing that song's first line: "I don't need no ...