Craig Brewer, director for the new film “Song Sung Blue,” recently revealed to Entertainment Weekly that the movie has an unexpected connection to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.
“Song Sung Blue,” which stars Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as Mike Sardina and Claire Sardina, is a biopic about a Neil Diamond tribute duo named Lightning & Thunder.
In 1995, the couple landed a career changing opportunity when Vedder asked them to sing Neil Diamond’s “Forever in Blue Jeans” during Pearl Jam’s set at Summerfest.
“This is true. Eddie Vedder is the MVP of Lightning & Thunder,” Craig Brewer told Entertainment Weekly. John Beckwith plays Eddie Vedder in the film.
“Not only did he hear about them from a Milwaukee group, the Frogs, when Pearl Jam was coming into town and they were like, ‘Hey, what are some other bands that are good that we can maybe have be in our showcase?’ And the Frogs were like, ‘Believe it or not, there’s this Neil Diamond tribute band called Lightning & Thunder…’ So Eddie Vedder had them be in his show.”
Pearl Jam recently shared a clip of Lightning & Thunder’s performance to Facebook, which was previously used in a 2008 documentary about the duo. That documentary, however, was almost blocked by Diamond’s publishing company until Vedder personally stepped in to change their mind.
“Later when the documentary that Greg Kohs made about Mike and Claire was about to have its premiere at a festival, and he got a cease-and-desist letter from Neil Diamond’s publishing company saying, ‘You can’t use the music, so you can’t show this movie.’ Eddie Vedder called up Neil Diamond, sent him the documentary, and said, ‘You gotta watch this and you gotta let them use the music.’ Neil Diamond saw the movie, he was so touched by it, and he intervened and told his publishing company to leave Greg alone and show the movie,” Brewer said.
“So Eddie, even, even to this day, has been such a support in telling the story of Lightning & Thunder, even to the extent of — we wanted to use the song ‘Alive’ off of his first album. They have never licensed that song, ever. It’s always been an automatic no. And he gave it to us.”
