Eddie Vedder Busks on Grafton Street After Glen Hansard's Funeral
Eddie Vedder stood on Grafton Street in Dublin and sang for a friend who was not there to hear it. Hours after attending Glen Hansard's funeral on 4 August 2025, the Pearl Jam frontman performed on the very stretch of pavement where Hansard began busking at the age of thirteen. He was joined by local musicians recruited by Scottish singer Murdo Mitchell, including Irish folk singers Tom and Felix Doran and Dublin singer Dylan Harcourt. (Billboard)
The street performance included Pearl Jam's "Black" and Bruce Springsteen's "Drive All Night." Mitchell captured the busk in an Instagram post that also featured photographs by music photographer Danny Clinch.
Glen Hansard died on 29 July 2025 in a motorcycle crash. He was 56. His funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, where mourners gathered to remember a musician whose career began on those same Dublin streets before expanding to Academy Award-winning film work with the Swell Season — the duo he formed with Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová — and his long-running band the Frames. (Billboard)
Inside the cathedral, the service carried its own musical weight. Bono spoke about Hansard and performed a reworked version of U2's "Beautiful Day" with new lyrics dedicated to him. Vedder performed Hansard's "The Song of Good Hope" alongside Irglová. The service closed with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young." (Billboard)
BBC reported that mourners at the funeral included Bono, Eddie Vedder, Hozier, The Edge, Steve Coogan, Imelda May, Paddy Casey, Declan O'Rourke, and Angeline Ball. (BBC News)
Vedder and Hansard's friendship dated to 2010, when a man leaped to his death during a Swell Season concert in Saratoga, California. The two musicians bonded in the aftermath of that tragedy, and the connection endured. (Billboard)
What stayed with those who saw it was the image: one of the most recognisable voices in rock, standing on a Dublin pavement, singing beside people he had met that day, for a man who started exactly the same way — with a guitar, on a street, before anyone knew his name.
