Armed only with a bottle of wine and a handmade sign, the Chilean guitarist flew to Spain for the gig – and the Seattle icons let him live out his dreams
Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter - Barcelona Palau Sant Jordi 8 July 2024 - YouTube
Pearl Jam recently let a fan live out their dream of playing guitar on Yellow Ledbetter onstage with the band.
Superfan Carlos had traveled from his native Chile to Barcelona for the band’s July 8 show – a 7,000-mile trip.
He brought some Chilean wine with him, which he gifted to the band, along with a handmade sign that read: “Pls let me play Y.Ledbetter on guitar. PS: Hope u liked the Chilean wine.”
Video footage shows Carlos handing Eddie Vedder his sign during the concert.
Later, Vedder can be seen pointing into the audience, asking, “you really know how to play guitar?” before signaling to a guitar tech to ready a six-string for the Chilean.
The band, perhaps touched by the gift, happily obliged and both Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament can be seen watching with suitably impressed looks across their faces as Carlos (who is not phased by the occasion), smoothly weaves through the clean open passages of the song.
Watching Carlos – on a black Telecaster – trading chords with Mike McCready makes for heart-warming viewing and no doubt proved a ‘pinch me’ moment for the fan.
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One man who might relate to Carlos’ dream is Andrew Watt, who produced Pearl Jam's latest album, Dark Matter.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
