- After his concert in Tivoli, Utrecht in 1992, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder got a lift back to his hotel from a Dutch woman, who borrowed her brother’s bicycle as the form of transportation.
- Vedder recounted the story while on tour in Amsterdam on June 9, as reported in the NL Times. Dutch media spread the word to help Vedder reconnect with the woman.
- It was successful: The woman was identified as Valeska Custers. Vedder was able to thank her again, and even gave her and her husband tickets to his June 12 concert, according to Het Parool.
After performing at a concert in Tivoli, Utrecht in the Netherlands, 27 years ago, Eddie Vedder caught a lift back to his hotel from a Dutch woman on a bicycle—and he’s remembered that moment fondly ever since.
Vedder has been on a solo European tour since June 9, and he was finally able to reconnect with that very same woman.
During his first sold-out show in Amsterdam, Vedder thought about the experience, and shared his thoughts with the audience.
“Is the woman who gave me a lift to my hotel in 1992 maybe here tonight?” he asked them, as reported by the NL Times.
No one responded—afterwards, Vedder noted his appreciation for the crowd’s honesty—and he went on to recount the story about how the woman borrowed her brother’s bicycle in order to help him get back to his hotel.
“I remember her hair kept flinging against my face,” he said during the concert. “It was ice cold, and I got a red flannel shirt that might have also belonged to her brother.”
Following the concert, Dutch media picked up on the story. Hearing that Vedder remembered her and was looking for her, Custers decided to come forward and reached out to Het Parool.
Het Parool interviewed Custers after being contacted by her husband, and she recounted her memory from that night.
Pearl Jam was still relatively unheard of back in 1992, she said, and Custers had actually gone to their concert in Tivoli, Utrecht, that night to see her friends perform in the opening act, City Pig Unit. Custers stayed after the show to help them load up their equipment, when she noticed Vedder lingering nearby.
They ended up talking well into the night, and around 3 a.m., Vedder decided he should probably get to bed.
“I offered to call him a taxi,” Custers told Het Parool. “But he asked, ‘Do you have a bike?’ He wanted to ride on the back.”
So she borrowed her brother’s bicycle and handed her backpack over to Vedder to carry, as he jumped on the bike behind her. Inside the backpack was her brother’s red flannel shirt, which Vedder ended up wearing because of the cold, nighttime air.
Custers described their farewell as a bit awkward, if not endearing. She gave him her address, so he could return the flannel, then they shook hands. Vedder waved goodbye until she rode out of sight, forgetting that he was still wearing her backpack.
“He was so shy and modest,” she said. “That also made him so nice.”
Custers tried a few times over the years to reconnect, including attending two more of his concerts, though nothing ever came of it. This time around, Vedder caught wind of the Het Parool article where she shared her story, and his management reached out to Custers to give her and her husband tickets and backstage passes for the Pearl Jam concert in Brussels on June 19.
Vedder and Custers reunited after the concert, and he thanked her again for taking him back to his hotel, noting that he didn’t have any money on him at the time to pay for a cab.
“You still have the same smile,” he told her, as reported by Het Parool in a follow-up story on their reunion.
As for the flannel, Vedder forget to return it: “I made you write down your address in order to do so,” he told Custers. “I’m not sure if I still have it now, but I kept it for years at least.”
“My brother says that you can keep it,” she replied with a smile.
When she’s not out riding her mountain bike, Jessica is an editor for Popular Mechanics. She was previously an editor for Bicycling magazine.
