Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder recently shared an anecdote involving Chris Cornell.

On September 17th Pearl Jam brought its sprawling Dark Matter World Tour to a close with the second in a pair of performances at Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway. They closed the band’s 22-stop stateside sprint with a banger, adding two further sets lined with certified classics and rarities to an unforgettable summer of touring.

However, during their thrilling set opener on Sunday, September 15th frontman Eddie Vedder got emotional talking about the late legendary member of Soundgarden and Audioslave Chris Cornell, who passed away in 2017.

Eddie Vedder talks about Chris Cornell

In a video clip during their show, Vedder recalled how he and Chris Cornell used to climb up trees back in the day. They liked hanging out together. He revealed that he recently climbed up a tree alone but it wasn’t as fun like before. However, he felt as if Cornell was right next to him. Vedder said:

“I had a friend who used to climb trees. I mean I had friends and I was a little kid. I went to climb trees. Chicago suburbs, that kind of thing. But no, this was not even that long ago. Two grown men climbing 200 foot trees. Because we make the feeling of being up there and we like hanging out together. And it was a good place to be. Left alone, we could have a chat. It’s not like we carried coffee or anything. We just climbed these trees and hang out in the wind. There’s a park called Lincoln Park in Seattle. The name of my friend was Chris Cornell. We climbed these. Sometimes by the time I got to the top with the wind started going, it looked like a metronome because it was a big way on the end. It was getting pretty thin where we were. Go back and forth and back and forth. I don’t know whether to say this or not. It was recently, it’s been five years since some stuff happened.
And so I went by myself and I climbed the tree a few weeks ago. And it wasn’t as fun by yourself. But it brought back a lot of memories. And to be honest, it started to tear up a bit and then… And then, as if he were on the branch next to me, I heard it’s okay.”

Pearl Jam then played ‘In My Tree’ in memory of Chris Cornell. Check out the video below:

The band will perform again on November 8th in New Zealand, then run through a final trio in Australia on November 13th, 16th and 21th to round out its year on the road.