See Eddie Vedder, Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover Prince, Hendrix at Benefit Gig
Pearl Jam singer joins band for renditions of “Purple Rain” and “All Along the Watchtower” at Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s annual fundraising concert
Eddie Vedder. Photo: Amy Harris/Invision/AP/Shutterstock
Eddie Vedder and Red Hot Chili Peppers teamed up to cover Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “All Along the Watchtower” during the encore portion of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music‘s annual fundraising concert Saturday in Los Angeles. Watch both performances at the 45-minute mark of the above video.
Both the Pearl Jam singer and the Chili Peppers – bassist Flea co-founded the non-profit music school nearly two decades ago – played mini-sets in Silverlake Conservatory of Music’s parking lot to a small audience as part of the benefit, which was hosted by Marc Maron.
The Chili Peppers’ eight-song performance featured hits like “Soul to Squeeze,” “Suck My Kiss” and “By the Way,” while Vedder performed a solo set of Pearl Jam favorites along with his now-standard cover of Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers.” During both sets, students from the Silverlake Conservatory occasionally appeared onstage to perform with the rockers. To close out the evening, Vedder joined the Chili Peppers for the two covers; the two Rock Hall inductees recently performed together to pay tribute to Ric Ocasek at the 2019 Ohana Festival.
Perhaps in anticipation of the “Purple Rain” performance, the Red Hot Chili Peppers also played Californication‘s “Purple Stain” live for the first time since 2015:
Flea initially co-founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music in response to cutbacks in arts education programming throughout Los Angeles area public schools. The 2018 benefit concert raised over $1 million for the non-profit music school.
