Neil Young, Eddie Vedder, Nightwatchman & More Inspired Iraq War Veteran Tom Young

Neil Young, Eddie Vedder, Bright Eyes, Serj Tankian and Tom Morello are among the artists who inspired an Iraq War veteran named Tomas Young. Young is the subject of a documentary film and the curator of its soundtrack, both named Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran. Young describes his selections to Billboard:

"The songs collected here are the sounds that have helped to inspire me and keep me going as I struggle to find the strength to deal with my new physical limitations while trying to find the energy to fight when many parts of my body and brain are telling me to stop," Young says. "Each song you hear you're hearing because I found a meaning in it that helped focus a number of emotions and turn them into something that I hope will ultimately be positive."

The documentary film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and now the soundtrack will be released as a double disc collection on March 18th. A vinyl version will be released April 15th. According to Billboard:

"Body of War" chronicles the travails of Tomas Young, who was paralyzed by a bullet during his first week of military service in Iraq. Vedder was inspired to write new material for the film, which was co-directed by talk show legend Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, after meeting Young in recent months.The first single from the album, which was curated by the injured Young, will be a version of Vedder's "No More" performed with guest Ben Harper during Pearl Jam's set at the 2007 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago.

Vedder dedicated the song that proclaims No More War to Tomas just before performing it with Ben Harper at Lolla 2007. Here is video of that performance (great audio, okay visual):Also included in this collection is Bright Eyes' "When the President Talks To God," Nightwatchman's "Battle Hymns" and a song by Michael Franti as well as others, but a full tracklist has not been finalized yet.Read the full story at Billboard.com