Pearl Jam Cancel Tour Dates, Jeff Ament Tests Positive for COVID

Pearl Jam has canceled their show tonight (May 18) in Sacramento, Calif. and this Friday (May 20) following bassist Jeff Ament testing positive for COVID-19.

The band issued the following statement via Twitter saying, "While the band battled through Oakland after drummer Matt Cameron tested positive for Covid, and Fresno where Ed and the band got through it with the help of Dave Krusen as special guest drummer, they now have to present the heartbreaking news that this morning bassist Jeff Ament has tested positive for Covid."

The band's statement continued, "This is horrible for everybody involved and we are especially sorry to those out there who have made plans to attend these shows. Our attention to staying inside the bubble has been constant. We have truly done all that we could have to remain clear of infection. Regretfully, the Sacramento and Las Vegas shows are canceled. Ticket refunds will be automatically processed to ticket holders' method of purchase. We are so very sorry. Be safe out there."

"What a time to be alive!" It's an expression that you hear often these days, but it was definitely true if you were a rock music fan in 1991. On August 12 of that year, Metallica released their self-titled album, often referred to as "The Black Album."

Over the next two months, it was followed by a mind-blowing parade of classic albums: Pearl Jam's classic debut, Ten, Guns N Roses' long-anticipated Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. And on September 24, Soundgarden released Badmotorfinger, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Nirvana unleashed Nevermind. By the way, a lot of other great albums came out during that span, including Ozzy Osbourne's No More Tears, Mr. Bungle's self-titled debut, Hole's debut Pretty On The Inside, the Pixies' Trompe Le Monde. It wasn't just rock bands who were releasing great records: country superstar Garth Brooks put out Ropin' The Wind and hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest dropped The Low End Theory and Naughty By Nature released their debut. There was something in the air, or in the water.

But for the purposes of this list, we're sticking with Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Guns N Roses and Metallica.  In honor of those incredible 44 days (they were tough if you were a student on a budget trying to buy all of these CDs!), we're ranking the 44 best songs from those seven albums. We're sure you'll tell us what we missed and what we got wrong. But something that we can all agree on is that '91 was a great and pretty much unprecedented time for rock music.