Eddie Vedder

hynesie08 wrote: »

Why the **** would you ruin an Eddie Vedder gig with that twat.

Their friendship was forged in the wake of unbelievable horror.

The Swell Season were playing a winery gig in California in front of 4000 people when a man jumped from the roof and landed on the stage at Hansard’s feet.

Investigations revealed the dead man was facing domestic violence charges and his girlfriend was a fan of the band.

Vedder was in a position to understand the shock and unbelievable sadness of someone dying at a concert, as he suffered his own nightmares after nine people were killed in a crush during their set at the Roskilde Festival in 2000.

“That particular night we were having such a great gig, such a great laugh on stage that night. And I started joking with this metal song and suddenly there is a person dead next to me, right there,” Hansard recalls.

“That was all very heavy and the day after it happened I get a phone call.

‘Hi Glen, this is Eddie Vedder, I sing in a band called Pearl Jam, I just want to check in on you. Are you OK?’

“It meant the world to me that he called. He talked about Roskilde, about how far down he went for months and months and we spoke for maybe more than an hour.

“It was a weird blessing out of such a tragedy and then he called me the next day, the next day, four days in a row, just hanging out on the phone to find out how I was feeling.”

A couple of months later, Hansard and his band were in Seattle and he looked up Vedder as the Pearl Jam frontman had insisted he do should he come to town.

It coincided with Vedder recording his solo Ukelele Songs album and the visit turned into a session, with Hansard contributing to the rendition of the Everly Brothers track Sleepless Nights.

They have toured together regularly for the past seven years.