David Letterman to induct Pearl Jam at Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony

David Letterman will now be inducting Pearl Jam into the Rock & Hall of Fame at its upcoming induction ceremony, the Rock Hall announced Wednesday. Neil Young was originally scheduled to pay tribute to the band, but he had to back out due to illness.

Pearl Jam performed on The Late Show seven times throughout Letterman's reign as host of the CBS series: Their first performance was in 1996, soon after that year's No Code dropped, and their most recent appearance on the show was in 2006 when they were promoting their self-titled eighth studio album. Lead singer Eddie Vedder, meanwhile, appeared during Letterman's final week of shows in 2015, performing the band's track "Better Man."

Letterman has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since retiring from The Late Show in 2015, though he returned to the small screen in 2016 to host one episode of National Geographic's Years of Living Dangerously, an Emmy-winning documentary series about climate change. In a recent interview with Vulture, he talked about the pros and cons of leaving late night television — and his newfound chattiness.

"I'm afraid if I still had a show, it would be a lot of, 'We're spending quite a lot of money on editing, Dave. If you could just keep it to an hour, we'd all appreciate that, because we have big stars who've flown in from Hollywood to be here,'" he said.

Tupac Shakur, Joan Baez, Yes, ELO, and Journey will also be inducted at this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which takes place April 7 at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.