Pearl Jam surprised fans in Nashville on Thursday night (May 8) when they brought out Peter Frampton to help perform "Black." The iconic guitarist, who was diagnosed with a rare degenerative muscular disease called Inclusion Body Myositis in recent years, walked onto the Bridgestone Arena with a cane and performed seated next to the band's guitarist Mike McCready.

“This gentleman was someone we looked up to before the Ramones,” frontman Eddie Vedder said while introducing Frampton. “Some of our first guitar heroes, [like] Jimmy Page and Pete Townsend, he was right up there. It was one of the reasons why we loved live records, and later we decided to release bootlegs because of his influence.”

“He’s such an incredible human being on top of it," Vedder continued. "It is our honor, because at this point, he’s become a good friend to the group. He’s recorded with Mike and [drummer] Matt Cameron, and we get to play with him tonight.”

Despite his health struggles, Frampton showed he's still able to wail on a guitar during an extended performance of the Ten hit.

Pearl Jam kicked off the US leg of their Dark Matters tour on April 24 and have a few more dates left on the short trek. Watch them perform "Black" with Frampton below.

The Downbeat