Bradley Cooper joins Pearl Jam on stage for A Star Is Born cover

Last Updated on June 3, 2024

Pearl Jam was in a state of love and trust at a recent show, inviting Bradley Cooper on stage to sing a song from A Star Is Born with the band’s lead singer, Eddie Vedder.

Pearl Jam has kept a consistent format on the Dark Matter Tour, with the majority of their first encores kicking off with covers: Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”, Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart”, Tom Waits’ “Picture In a Frame”…But with their recent gig at BottleRock Napa Valley, the band built off of “Last Kiss” with yet another cover: “Maybe It’s Time” from 2018’s A Star Is Born, bringing out Bradley Cooper to help nail the soundtrack song.

By and large, reception for Bradley Cooper joining Pearl Jam (or, at least, Eddie Vedder) has been quite receptive, especially as he helped boost the festival. It should be noted here and now that Pearl Jam doesn’t put on bad shows by any stretch, but festivals shows have a certain reputation as not exactly being the ones to see if you are going to try to get tickets. (At the same time, leading with “Lukin” shows they exceed pretty much all expectations when it comes to such shows.)

The Napa show was an appropriate reunion for both Bradley Cooper and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, who served as an inspiration for the former’s A Star Is Born character. As Cooper previously said of how he tried to get into character,  “I went up to Seattle and spent four or five days with [Vedder] and I asked him 9,000 questions. And he gave me minor, little things that only musicians know about what to do, just aesthetically and the inner workings.”

While Bradley Cooper and Pearl Jam went with “Maybe It’s Time” from A Star Is Born, it was “Shallow” that proved to be the biggest hit, winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and two Grammys – although some don’t think it deserved anything…

Pearl Jam wraps up the first North American leg of their tour this week before heading to Europe. They’ll return to the States in August.

What did you think of Bradley Cooper teaming up with Pearl Jam for a live performance? Which cover would you like to see them take on?