Glen Hansard recently spoke about his powerful friendship with Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder, shortly before his death after a motorcycle crash earlier today (Wednesday July 29).
The Oscar-winning Irish singer and actor tragically died in the early hours of this morning, following a collision as he rode his motorcycle in Lucan, Dublin.
Since his passing was announced, there have been countless tributes paid from fans and fellow artists, including from Warren Ellis, Rachel Zegler, Bruce Springsteen.
For over 15years now, Hansard was a close friend of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, and joined him on the road for his solo tour dates in 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2019.
In an interview with Track Star last month, The Frames frontman identified a number of different songs that he had connections to, including the sombre song ‘Rise’ which featured on Vedder’s 2007 solo album ‘Into The Wild’.
“I know this record inside out. We’ve toured so much together, I know all the songs,” he told the host, before going on to say that he first got to know Vedder in 2010 after the Pearl Jam star reached out to him during a difficult time.
“I was in a really really shitty spot. Someone had killed themselves on my stage. A young man commits suicide because he was trying to make a point to his girlfriend,” Hansard shared. “It couldn’t be more horrible, the situation. There were young kids in the crowd… The guy was dead next to me and it was just the most traumatic time”.
He went on to share that while he was debating whether to cancel the tour, he got a call from an unknown number, and it was Vedder reaching out to see how he was coping after the incident.
“It was so kind. We spoke for an hour on the phone and he said ‘Do you mind if I call you tomorrow?’,” the singer added. “For five days, he called me, and at the end of the five days he said ‘This is my number, if you’re ever in Seattle, I’d love to hang out with you. I’m really sorry for what happened’.”
When The Frames went on to play in Seattle later that year, he reached out to Vedder, who then invited him to the studio to work with him on a cover of The Everly Brothers’s ‘Sleepless Nights’.
The collaboration, Hansard shared, was something that Vedder hoped would be cathartic for him given the incident at his live show, and also cathartic for himself – following Pearl Jam’s 2000 set at the Danish festival Roskilde, where nine fans were killed in a crowd crush.
“That was the beginning of a now-15-year, very close friendship with this beautiful man,” Hansard shared, adding that the two kept in touch regularly and toured together multiple times from then on. “That is the well of human kindness and human decency. He is all heart. He’s a strong man, he doesn’t suffer fools. He just understands when it’s important.”
As well as collaborating on the Everly Brothers cover and supporting Vedder on his solo tours, Hansard also joined the grunge icon and his daughter Olivia for a Teenage Cancer Trust set in 2024.
Hansard also helped form the ‘Earthlings’ backing band that Vedder put together to tour in support of his 2022 solo album ‘Earthling’. As part of the supergroup, Hansard provided rhythm guitar and backing vocals, and the rest of the group was formed of Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and drummer Chad Smith, and producer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Watt.
As well as Bruce Springsteen, Rachel Zegler and Warren Ellis, others to have paid tribute to Hansard so far include Irish radio broadcaster Dave Fanning who described Hansard as “one our best ever songwriters and the nicest guy you’ll ever meet”, and former President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, who described him as a “wonderful musician and performer, a troubadour whose gift for storytelling brought so much joy to audiences across the world.”
Dublin rock band Aslan also paid tribute, writing: “Glen was a remarkable artist whose music touched so many lives, and his loss will be felt far and wide”, and actor Chris O’Dowd praised the late artist for his “energising melodies and soulful, searching voice [that] made the tough times more manageable, the stagnant times more beautiful, and the joyful times even more memorable”.
Fans have also been remembering him for his touching performance in the film Once, and in the BAFTA-winning movie The Commitments.
