During a recent Pearl Jam show in London, Eddie Vedder discussed the deaths of his friends before covering Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” Vedder has also been dealing with the loss of his close friend Chris Cornell.
“This is a song by a friend of mine, I feel very fortunate that we could all call him a friend of ours. He’s been gone for a little bit now, we’ve lost a few folks, it’s just life. You are lucky to live a long time, but you will get beat up and surprised in horrible ways. But maybe you will learn to live with those people and their memory in your life, and make sure that their energy is still with us in the form of us doing good things and being better people.
This is one that I’ve always thought of in a political way, about having strength and not surrendering, and it’s by Tom Petty. Jeff heard a story about a woman who was at the first couple of shows, and then she didn’t think she could get to any more because she had some health issues that it was imperative that she took care of them.
Every once in awhile you hear great news, and the great news is that this woman Andrea Oaks has powered through, and she’s with us tonight.”
Watch video of the touching speech and performance below.
