Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and The White Stripes’ Jack White make pretty different music, but man do they sound good together. The pair don’t collaborate often, but fans of both musicians in Tokyo got a treat last night during White’s No Name Tour.
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Eddie Vedder and Jack White took to the stage at Toyosu PIT to perform an energetic version of Neil Young’s 1989 hit song “Rockin’ In The Free World” yesterday. It doesn’t look like the performance was planned very far in advance. Rather, both musicians just happened to be in Tokyo at the same time, likely because both of them were interested in enjoying the Tokyo Series of the 2025 MLB season. For what it’s worth, we know White is a big baseball fan, and Eddie Vedder is a superfan of the Chicago Cubs.
We’re glad the two sports fans got together. Otherwise, this killer collaboration may have never happened. You can watch a fan recording of the performance below:
Jack White and Eddie Vedder Have a Strong Connection to “Rockin’ In The Free World”
Despite “Rockin’ In The Free World” belonging to Neil Young and not either of the above-mentioned rock stars, both Vedder and White have a deep love for the song. Pearl Jam has performed covers of the song at a number of their concerts through the years. White famously played the song during SNL50 as well.
“Rockin’ In The Free World” comes from Neil Young’s 1989 record Freedom. The country rock song was written by Young while on tour in the 1980s after discovering that he and his band would not be able to perform a planned concert in the Soviet Union. Young went on to pen the song about “all this turmoil in the world.”
The pair whipped out the cover during White’s encore, which also included White Stripes songs like “Seven Nation Army” and “Hypnotize”. Vedder had not appeared on stage prior to the encore, and fans were losing their minds over it. Vedder even inserted his own lyric into the cover: “There’s only one Jack White.”
Jack White will continue his No Name Tour with an American leg, starting in just a few weeks in April. The US leg of the tour will run through May. Pearl Jam also recently announced a 2025 US tour to support their recent album, Dark Matter. That tour is expected to start in Florida this upcoming April.
Photo via YouTube
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