Although Kurt Cobain trashed Pearl Jam when he was alive – blaming them in 1992 for "pioneering a corporate, alternative and cock-rock fusion" – singer Eddie Vedder thinks that the late Nirvana frontman would have changed his tune.

"I don't think Kurt understood us at the time, but we became friends and I'm glad we had some of the great conversations we had," Vedder told The Sun while promoting expanded reissues of the band's 1991 debut 'Ten.' "I don't talk too much about him in respect to Krist [Novoselic] and Dave [Grohl] and I know he said that early stuff about not liking us."

Nearly 20 years out from the heyday of grunge, Vedder looks back at the Nirvana-Pearl Jam rivalry with a different twist. "There's a couple of complimentary things that he said in public about me as a human being, which I'm proud exist," he explains. "If Kurt were around today, I know he'd say to me, 'Well, you turned out OK.'"

Vedder also revealed that Pearl Jam is halfway through making its ninth studio album. "It's taken two weeks to get halfway there and that's writing it from the bottom up, so we'll see how long it takes to finish it," the singer says. "We will be playing shows. One of us is having a baby next year, so there'll be no touring then, so we have to get it done this year."