SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil spoke to Billboard about the announcement that the band will join the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame class of 2025 in the Performer category. The Seattle grunge legends were first nominated for the Rock Hall in 2020, and were on the ballot again in 2023 before finally being chosen for induction this year.
“I kinda came from a subculture of rock that didn’t quite get what all the fuss is about,” Thayil told Billboard. “Back in the ’80s, ’90s, when the Hall started, I probably was not alone in being part of a punk rock or indie metal scene that had an aversion to the idea. It was kind of hard to wrap my head around both a qualitative appraisal and a quantitative assessment.”
After SOUNDGARDEN singer Chris Cornell inducted HEART into the Rock Hall in 2013, and SOUNDGARDEN drummer Matt Cameron was inducted as a member of PEARL JAM, Thayil said: “Chris lived the experience and said the enthusiasm of the fans was eye-opening for him, and understanding how important that was — and Matt seconded it. In so many ways the fans got some kind of validation by having a band that was important to their heart and that they championed get (the honor). I know I felt that way about bands I believed in, whether the MC5 or the RAMONES or KISS. Chris explained that to me, and that kind of changed things. Plus I heard this from the NIRVANA guys, the PEARL JAM guys, other friends and other bands. So it really changed my perspective.”
Thayil, Cameron, Cornell and bassist Ben Shepherd are being included in the induction, as is original bassist Hiro Yamamoto, who was with SOUNDGARDEN from 1984 to 1989 and played on the band’s first two EPs and first two albums.
As for who might handle lead vocals for SOUNDGARDEN‘s performance at the Rock Hall induction, Thayil said: “It’s a high bar, not just technically, but emotionally. There has to be a reverence for the missing brother and founder, and there also has to be reverence for the legacy — both for Chris‘s work and Chris‘s creativity, as well as the regard and reverence we have for ourselves collectively and for each other. Some suggestions have come out; I’m not prepared to share that, but I’ll just say it’s a higher bar than the usual composite of guitarists and drummers or singers.”
The induction ceremony will be held on November 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will once again stream live on Disney+, and an edited version will air on ABC at a later date.
Chris was found hanged in his room at the MGM Grand Detroit hotel on May 18, 2017. The death was ruled a suicide.
SOUNDGARDEN was working on a new studio album — the follow-up to 2012’s “King Animal” — when Cornell died.
In 2018, Thayil dismissed conspiracy theories that has surfaced since Chris committed suicide following a show in Detroit.
Thayil told the Detroit Free Press that he and other SOUNDGARDEN members were already en route to Columbus for the band’s next date when they got word that Cornell had died back in his Detroit hotel room.
On Sunday, Chris‘s widow Vicky Cornell shared her reaction to the band’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, writing on Instagram: “Thank you @rockhall. And huge thanks to all the fans who voted who’s [sic] constant love and support keep his legacy alive. It’s always bittersweet but Chris would be so honored and it is well past due and beyond well deserved! On behalf of Chris and our family -thank you!! Loud love”.
Source: blabbermouth.net
