Pearl Jam Superfan Aaron Paul Writes a Beautiful Letter About His First Record, Ten

Aaron Paul was once 12, and like many 12-year-olds, he was eager for even some minor level of freedom. For the actor, that freedom came from the ability to buy his very first album, Pearl Jam’s Ten, which also came out on his 12th birthday, Aug. 27, 1991.

To celebrate the occasion, Paul took to his Instagram account to post a picture of himself with Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder. The message accompanying the post sheds even more light on why Ten was such an important album for the actor, even past the fact that it was his very first:

The very first album I bought was Ten. Pearl Jams first album. I bought it with loose change I collected around the house and it was the only record I owned. Well at least until the Nevermind album came out one month later but that’s besides the point. That month I will never forget. That was the one time I owned only one album and I cherished that damn thing. It was mine. It was my 12th birthday and I showed up to this small record store inside of our local mall with a sock full of change that I collected specifically to buy this album. I came home with my new birthday gift I had just bought myself and I was beaming. Could not wait to listen to it. I opened the door to my home and I could feel the silence in my bones. My house was empty.

Now you need to know that I come from a very large family and to walk inside of our home with nobody there was extremely rare. I mean it was my birthday after all and nobody was home. I was alone.

Where was everyone?

So then of course I took advantage of the situation and put the record on and turned it up. For hours and hours just listening to this record over and over again. But where was everyone? Seriously.

Eventually the house phone rang with this music blaring in the background and I ran to pick it up hoping it was my mother singing happy birthday to me.

It was my mother but she wasn’t singing…