Stephen Wilson Jr. and Eddie Vedder are a match made in heaven, and fans at Ohana Festival 2026 in California were fortunate enough to see the two stars pair up for a throwback Temple of the Dog cover.
Good lucking finding someone as talented and unique as the quickly rising country music artist Stephen Wilson Jr. He’s previously been referred to as “Death Cab for Country” since he draws inspiration from indie rock, grunge and obviously country music.
And as you’ll see in the video below, he perfectly blends all of those together, which allows him to easily cover a classic grunge song that you’ve probably heard: “Hunger Strike.”
For a little bit of background information on the song, it’s the most successful track that Temple of the Dog ever released. That’s partly because the 90s rock band – led by the late, great Chris Cornell – only ever released one album together.
And in a somewhat random occurrence that’s always useful to know for trivia night, Pearl Jame’s Eddie Vedder (prior to the actual forming of Pearl Jam) provided backing vocals for Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike.”
As the story goes, Cornell wrote the song but was having trouble singing lower portions of the chorus… specifically the “I’m going hungry” parts. A relatively unknown Vedder happened to be nearby, and stepped up to the challenge when Cornell asked for assistance.
As they say, the rest is history, and “Hunger Strike” marks first time that Vedder’s vocals were ever featured on a recording.
Vedder just so happened to be at the Ohana Festival during Stephen Wilson Jr.’s set, and once again stepped up to a microphone to lend his talent for the Temple of the Dog song.
The country music star has released his own studio version of the song (more on that later), so it’s not a surprise when it pops up in the setlist.
However, it’s not every day that the one and only Eddie Vedder is there to perform his portion of the song. That was definitely a surprise, and had everyone there to see Stephen Wilson Jr. pulling out their phones to get it on camera.
Wilson Jr. did a great job building up to the moment too… check it out:
How about that pairing, eh?
Hearing the vocals of Vedder and Wilson Jr. together just feels right. And it makes me want to revisit the country star’s Blankets EP, which features four songs that heavily impacted his childhood – one being the aforementioned “Hunger Strike.”
The others are Nirvana’s “Something In The Way,” The Postal Service’s “Clark Gable” and The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight.” But the one that stands out is definitely his take on the Temple of the Dog hit.
Could we get an Eddie Vedder-Stephen Wilson. Jr collaboration in the future? I sure hope so. Obviously, the two artists have a lot of respect for one another. And clearly, their instantly recognizable voices work incredibly well.
Getting them in the studio together sooner rather than later should be treated as a necessity.
Until they do though… I’m gonna pass the time by listening to Blankets:
“Tonight, Tonight”
“Clark Gable”
“Something In The Way”
“Hunger Strike”
