Watch tennis legend John McEnroe jam with Pearl Jam in front of 65,000 fans

(Image credit: GotSomePearlJam YouTube)

Tennis legend John McEnroe delighted Pearl Jam fans at the weekend by joining the Seattle grunge superstars onstage to play guitar on a cover of Neil Young's Rockin' In The Free World.

Sporting a Who t-shirt, McEnroe took to the stage on the first of the band's two nights at the American Express presents BST festival, which took place in London's Hyde Park on July 8.

The tennis ace's appearance came at the climax of the rapturously-received show, the band's first London outdoor summertime show since 2010. Louder's man on the scene, Stephen Hill, noted: "Of all the superstar artists doing the rounds these days, none appear to have kept such obvious joie de vivre about playing live and creating as Pearl Jam do."

Watch McEnroe's cameo appearance below, in footage uploaded by YouTube user GetSomePearlJam.

McEnroe, married to former Scandal vocalist Patty Smyth, a one-time candidate to replace David Lee Roth in Van Halen, is friends with a number of top rock acts. He and fellow tennis pro Pat Cash used to jam and play tennis with Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith and Dave Murray, and the three-times Wimbledon champion recently joined the Eagles on stage for their June 26 BST performance at Hyde Park, jamming on Already Gone.

Pearl Jam also had a special guest for their show-closing song on night two of their Hyde Park residency, with former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr joining the quintet on a cover of The Who's Baba O'Riley.

Pearl Jam's European tour resumes in Budapest, Hungary, tomorrow night, July 12.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.