Though the entire world has seemingly taken the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins pretty hard, it’s had an especially profound impact on Pearl Jam and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron. During the opening night of their Gigaton tour, Eddie Vedder paid tribute to the late drummer.
The long-awaited Pearl Jam tour, which has been delayed since March of 2020, kicked off Tuesday, May 3 in San Diego, Calif., and the rockers played a whopping 24-song set that spanned around three hours long [via Setlist.fm]. During the first half of the show, prior to playing the track “Quick Escape,” Vedder made it a point to mention Hawkins, and send his condolences to Cameron once again.
“… lights together, and they still wouldn’t match up to the light that poured from within that guy. He emitted something very incredibly, very special, and we all miss him. So Matt, I’m sorry for your loss,” the vocalist said as he turned to his bandmate. “But it just gives us another chance to say how much we appreciate you as well.”
See fan-filmed footage below.
Hawkins and several other musicians joined Pearl Jam onstage back in October of 2021 at the Ohana festival. In addition to performing live together on several occasions, Cameron and Hawkins had collaborated on a project in 2020 called Nighttime Boogie Association, which they formed after performing together at the 2019 “I Am the Highway” tribute concert for Chris Cornell. They released two tracks, “The Path We’re On” and “Long in the Tooth.”
“He’s in my top 10 all-time drummers. He’s a fucking legend,” Hawkins told Rolling Stone of Cameron. “[Dave] Grohl and me will both sit there and go, ‘He is the Neil Peart of our generation.’ He is that guy who does shit where you’re like, ‘There’s no way I could ever do that.’ He’s so precise, yet still such a rock drummer. It’s hard to do that. I just wanna gush on Matt for awhile.”
Hawkins died in Bogota, Colombia on March 25, just ahead of Foo Fighters’ headlining performance at a festival that was scheduled for later that night. He was 50 years old.
“I love Taylor Hawkins. He brought so much joy and happiness to my life. I can’t believe he’s gone,” Cameron wrote in a post on Instagram following the drummer’s death. “I miss him already damn. My deepest love and condolences to the entire Foo Fighters organization and to the beautiful Hawkins family.”
“He always spoke so highly of you Matt… he was so happy to make music with you,” Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan commented on the post.
Pearl Jam’s Gigaton tour continues tomorrow night (May 6) in Los Angeles. See the rest of the dates here.
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