Billboard have debuted a deleted scene from Judd Apatow’s new HBO documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling. In the clip, Apatow and Eddie Vedder debut a tribute song to Shandling based on his personal journals titled “Dear Mind.” Apatow recruited Vedder to turn some of the journals into a song.
It’s an intimate performance, prefaced by a longer meditation by Apatow on the undertaking of turning Shandling’s writings into a song. “There’s something nice and sharing our love for Gary, who was so kind to so many comedians, says Apatow onstage, his voice audibly cracking with emotion. “So, I’m going to sing this with Mr. Vedder.” The performance is intercut with Apatow cold-reading some of Shandling’s unused one-liners and bon mots, like “Some people say I have an intimacy problem. But they don’t really know me.”
By drawing on such intimate information with the utmost respect to Shandling’s legacy in TV, film and stand-up, Zen Diaries promises to tell the complete story of a complicated, brilliant figure — and “Dear Mind” encapsulates that mission.
Watch Apatow and Vedder’s performance of “Dear Mind” below, and catch Part 2 of The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling on HBO tonight at 8 p.m. ET or on demand.
