Eddie Vedder & Daughter Harper Vedder Perform Taylor Swift Mashup At Ohana

Pearl Jam’s second headlining performance at the 2024 Ohana Festival in Dana Point, California featured a special moment at the start of the encore. The specialness was not only because frontman Eddie Vedder was joined by his daughter Harper Vedder, but that the father/daughter duo worked up a mashup of Taylor Swift’s “The Best Day” with Wayne Cochran’s “Last Kiss.”

Eddie Vedder addressed the festival audience after Pearl Jam completed their main set and he returned with Harper by his side. After noting Andrew Watt’s guest appearance on the set-closer “Rearviewmirror,” made a remark about the diversity seen in the performances over the weekend.

“I realized it had been a while since we had a powerful young woman up on stage with us,” Vedder said. “So my pal Harper here is gonna help me out.”

Eddie then started his often-performed cover of “Last Kiss,” singing the song’s first verse and chorus. When it was Harper’s turn to sing next, she sang the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s “The Best Day,” while her dad continued strumming “Last Kiss” on acoustic guitar. The trade off between songs continued with Eddie singing the “Last Kiss” chorus among Harper singing “The Best Day” verse.

Smiles were triggered by Harper singing the lyric “I have an excellent father” from the song off Swift’s 2008 album, Fearless. Watch the family affair in the video posted below:

Harper then traded spots with Eddie Vedder’s frequent collaborator, fellow Ohana performer Glen Hansard who accompanied EV on “Song of Good Hope” (Harper also performed with Hansard during his Ohana set on Saturday). Vedder’s Pearl Jam bandmates then retook the stage to continue the encore alongside their frontman. One of Pearl Jam’s closest studio collaborators, producer Brendan O’Brien joined the band for their debut performance of the obscure surf-rock cover “Gremmie Out of Control.”

“We’re gonna play a song tonight, that we’re gonna play tonight, that we’ve never played before,” Vedder explained. “And very well may never play again. And because we’re this close to the beach, and as I told ya, I was a 12-year-old little fuck-up getting in the way out in the point break. We have a great, great friend. Somebody we’ve made many, many records with. Spent a lot, a lot of time together and he’s been so important to us. His name’s mister Brendan O’Brien and he’s on the guitar right here. Years ago along with Jane’s Addiction and a few others they made, Surfrider made a record to save and help mother ocean. This was our contribution to it. Also on lead vocal we have Stone Gossard. And the name of this song is ‘Gremmie Out of Control.’”

Many of the guests returned for the “Rockin’ In The Free World” finale that capped a weekend filled with guest-spots. On Friday at Ohana, the band was joined by Zach Irons for the live debut of “The Whale Song,” an obscurity written by his dad and former PJ drummer Jack Irons and also brought out for “Habit.”

Watch footage of “Gremmie Out Of Control” shared by a festivalgoer: