Eddie Vedder Discusses Chris Cornell & Welcomes Dhani Harrison At Concert In London

Yesterday, Eddie Vedder held the first of two solo shows at the Eventim Apollo in London. The performance at the historic venue saw the Pearl Jam frontman pause for a lengthy reflection on his “older brother” Chris Cornell as well as welcome several special guests including Dhani Harrison.

Vedder addressed the audience at the theater formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon toward the end of the show. According to a transcript posted on a Pearl Jam fan forum, Vedder recognized the significance of the venue before sharing his thoughts on Cornell, the Soundgarden frontman who just weeks ago passed away at age 52. Here’s what Eddie reportedly had to say:

Sometimes it’s hard to concentrate these days. I was thinking about the history of this building and the Bowie history. So I started to think about that and my mind began to wander. It’s not a good.

So I haven’t really been talking about some things and I kind of … now it feels like it’s conspicuous because I lost a really close friend of mine, somebody who …

I’ll say this too, I grew up as four boys, four brothers and I lost my brother two years ago tragically like that in an accident and after that and losing a few other people, I’m not good at it, meaning I’m not…I have not been willing to accept the reality and that’s just how I’m dealing with it.

No, no, no, no …

So I want to be there for the family, be there for the community, be there for my brothers in my band, certainly the brothers in his band. But these things will take time but my friend is going to be gone forever and I will just have to …

These things take time and I just want to send this out to everyone who was affected by it and they all back home and here appreciate it so deeply the support and the good thoughts of a man who was a … you know he wasn’t just a friend he was someone I looked up to like my older brother.

About two days after the news, I think it was the second night we were sleeping in this little cabin near the water, a place he would’ve loved. And all these memories started coming in about 1:30 a.m. like woke me up. Like big memories, memories I would think about all the time. Like the memories were big muscles.

And then I couldn’t stop the memories. And trying to sleep it was like if the neighbors had the music playing and you couldn’t stop it. But then it was fine because then it got into little memories. It just kept going and going and going. And I realized how lucky I was to have hours worth of … you know if each of these memories was quick and I had hours of them. How fortunate was I? And I didn’t want to be sad, wanted to be grateful not sad.

I’m still thinking about those memories and I will live with those memories in my heart and I will love him forever.

Vedder was later joined by Harrison and Glen Hansard for a rendition of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World.” Hansard guested on a number of additional songs including his standard “Hard Sun” collaboration that also featured Harrison. The evening’s guests also included Red Limo String Quartet and Vedder brought Dhani’s mother and George Harrison’s widow Olivia Harrison to the stage to serenade during the “Dream A Little Dream” finale.

View the first audience-shot videos of “Rockin’ In The Free World” to surface as well as other clips from London below:

[Rockin’ In The Free World | Captured by Sabinero29 ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azZ2GMrtlW0

[Rockin’ In The Free World | Captured by robinshobin]

[Rockin’ In The Free World | Captured by tabr4d]

[Dream A Little Dream Of Me | Captured by MrBrainSmasher]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqWlhD1elvI

[Dream A Little Dream Of Me | Captured by fantochechem]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVCD_gcgu9C/?taken-by=fantochechem