Ben Harper Stays Busy With Festivals and Pearl Jam Tour

Posted on Jul 30th 2009 2:00PM by Steve Baltin
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The US summer festival season continues in full swing over the next few weeks with All Points West hitting New Jersey this Friday and Lollapalooza taking over Chicago the following weekend. When Lolla invades Chi-town, one act who will be on hand is Ben Harper, a true festival veteran. While talking to Harper recently, Spinner put him on the spot, asking the man who's played Bonnaroo, Coachella, Austin City Limits (and many more) to name his favorite fest.

"That'd be tough. The only reason it is tough is because we do festivals abroad as well. It's an international question, really, and it's most sincere," Harper tells Spinner, giving it the thought one would expect of him. "There's Paleo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland, there's Bonnaroo in Tennessee, there's of course ACL festival. Lollalpalooza's always great," he says. "There's a reason a lot of the top festivals have built their reputation because they're just straight-up great festivals, Lolla, ACL, Bonnaroo." Harper also took the opportunity to lobby for a return invitation to one that made his list. "It's been a long time since we played Coachella," he says. "It'd be great to get back to that one."

After his run of summer festivals, Harper and the Relentless7 will be doing some dates supporting Pearl Jam. For most acts, just getting to share a stage with the Seattle rockers would be enough, but as we told you when we premiered Harper's recent 'Fly One Time' clip, Harper is an avid skateboarder, which means he'll finally get to fulfill one goal: thrashing with bassist Jeff Ament. "I'm sure Jeff and I will both have our boards and we'll go out and skate," Harper says.

Of course when not boarding Harper will be shredding on stage with his exceptional new band. While he tells us the Relentless7 is pushing him forward, he has nothing but great things to say about his longtime mates in the Innocent Criminals. "I've basically just gone from one incredible band to another. Innocent Criminals, Relentless7, they've always pushed me to find the best in myself," he says. "They're such extraordinary musicians I've had to really step up my game to be on the same stage with all these guys."