Eddie Vedder Busks ‘Black’ on Grafton Street After Glen Hansard’s Funeral

In the early hours after Glen Hansard’s funeral, Eddie Vedder stood on Dublin’s Grafton Street — the same stretch where Hansard first earned his living as a teenage busker. It was around 3am. The group included Scottish musician Murdo Mitchell, who had met Hansard at age 14 while busking and later became a friend. Mitchell had asked a few others, including Vedder, if they wanted to play at the old spot. They had one guitar, a broken string, and a quiet sense of purpose.

Vedder played Pearl Jam’s “Black” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Drive All Night,” their familiar refrains reshaped by the street and the hour. Mitchell shared brief clips, writing that “his spirit was there.” The moment was not a set — it was an extension of the mourning that had taken place earlier that day, when Vedder sang Hansard’s “The Song of Good Hope” during the funeral alongside Markéta Irglová and members of The Frames. Bono also paid tribute, reciting a musical voicemail from Patti Smith and reworking lyrics from a U2 song before a group rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young.”

Hansard died in a motorcycle crash on July 29, aged 56. The busking didn’t announce anything new. It simply reflected the bonds he had built, and the music that now had to carry on without him.