“He’s never playing the same thing once”: Eddie Vedder shares what he learned about Keith Richards “liquid” guitar playing by sharing a stage with him
Back in November 1997, Pearl Jam had the opportunity to open for the Rolling Stones across four shows at California’s Oakland Stadium. And on the final gig of the run, frontman Eddie Vedder was invited to actually play with the Stones for one song only.
And in a new interview with Howard Stern, Vedder recalls choosing which song he wanted to play with the band. After initially being sceptical about performing Let’s Spend the Night Together for fear he wouldn’t be able to “keep up” with frontman Mick Jagger, he opted for the band’s 1981 ballad, Waiting on a Friend.
READ MORE: Gibson uses 3D scanning and period correct materials to create an “exact replica” of Keith Richards’ prized 1960 ES-355
Describing the “interesting experience” of performing with the rock legends, Vedder recounts the daunting experience of playing on a stage so big, and performing the song with minimal prior rehearsal.
“There was no introduction or anything,” Vedder says [via American Songwriter] , adding that when he asked whether he should go out on stage when the band started performing the song, “everyone turned their head, like, ‘I have nothing to do with this.’”
“Mick looked like a football field away … and he’s singing it already, and I’m coming in for the second verse. So I just kind of tucked my head down… and then just walked to the middle and started singing. It was okay.”
Vedder recalls later telling guitarist Keith Richards: “Hey, sorry, man – your man [Mick] left me hanging a bit there,” to which Richards replied: “Don’t you worry about it, me boy. He’s been doing that to me for 35 years.”
Vedder also remembers being struck by the “liquidity” of Keef’s playing: “You’re standing on the side of the stage, and it’s a big stage. It’s a stadium in Oakland, and Mick’s in the middle and then Keith, and you’re standing right next to Keith’s amp, like behind it. And then you’re listening to the liquidity of what he plays. It’s like he’s never playing the same thing once.”
You can listen to audio from the performance below:
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
