Pearl Jam cover “Purple Rain” in tribute to Prince, “the greatest guitar player we’ve ever seen” — watch

Pearl Jam paid tribute to Prince during their concert in Columbia, South Carolina on Thursday night.

During their main set, the band performed “Even Flow”, which Prince had previously covered live during a 2013 club gig in Minneapolis. Afterward, Eddie Vedder spoke of the musician’s immense talents and the impact he had on the band.

“The shocking news of the day was losing an incredible musician,” Vedder told the audience. “All of us on this stage can tell you: That guy loved music so damn much. He never stopped playing, never stopped writing, never stopped recording, never stopped creating.”

“He was dripping with songs. They’d go into the shower after he took a shower and there’d be three songs laying there. And of course, I’m talking about Prince. All of us up here were incredibly fortunate to see him a number of times over the years. Some of us got to meet him a bit. He was an intense cat. If there was anyone I thought would be playing when he was 80 or 85, it was gonna be Prince. So today was a real shock.”

“People know him from the ways he looked, and the different ways he looked, and different things he said – a lot of incredible things to remember him by,” Vedder added. “But I gotta tell you, and you just saw some great guitar playing. Prince was probably the greatest guitar player we’ve ever seen.”

Then, prior to the concert’s first encore, the stage lights turned purple and guitarist Mike McCready briefly covered Prince’s “Purple Rain”.