Eddie Vedder said Friday he was hit hard by COVID-19 earlier this year.
The 57-year-old Pearl Jam frontman said he tested positive “probably five, six weeks ago, and literally saw my life flash in front of my eyes.”
During his solo show at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California, Vedder told the crowd he didn’t know how his body would deal with the virus.
“You know, because I’ve done some very good things for my body, and I’ve also had a lot of fun,” he said. “I’ve done some things that could be termed some kind of abuse, I mean, nothing really clinical or… yeah, you know. I won’t get into the details. Just use your imagination.”
But, Vedder added, his illness was nothing to joke about.
“It was… it felt pretty serious,” he recalled, “and to get through that and then be back in a room like this, facing this many people facing this way, listening to us play music for you is really, truly… it’s been a gift and an honour.”
The Inglewood show, as well as one in San Diego, had been postponed earlier in February due to positive COVID-19 tests “in our touring party,” according to a statement on Vedder’s Facebook.
Pearl Jam is set to kick off a tour of Europe on June 18 in the Netherlands. The band will soon announce rescheduled dates for the North American leg of the tour, which was originally included stops in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Hamilton.