Soundgarden are seen as a quintessential Nineties band, but they actually formed in 1984, and started releasing music three years later. That means they’ve been eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2012. Fans started giving up hope after they appeared on two ballots prior to this year, and failed to get in. That made it even more joyous when the Seattle group finally made the cut this year alongside the White Stripes, OutKast, Chubby Checker, Bad Company, Joe Cocker, Salt-n-Pepa, Warren Zevon, and Cyndi Lauper.
“I don’t know if I had given up on it,” Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil tells Rolling Stone from his home in Seattle. “It just wasn’t something that was on my radar as a goal. So I didn’t allow myself that much disappointment because whatever came of that would just be exciting and bonus.”
We spoke with Thayil about the unexpected honor, his expectations for the evening, the possibility that the surviving members — Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron, bassist Ben Shepherd — will perform with guest filling in for Chris Cornell, who died in 2017, and the status of the group’s long-awaited final record with the singer, which was tied up for years in litigation.
What does this induction mean to you?
I’m still trying to process it. But the people who worked alongside us all those years responded with ear-to-ear grins. And that gave me this context to appraise this induction in ways that I had only understood intellectually from people telling me, “Well, this is why this is important.”
A friend or a peer or very specifically, Chris Cornell, would attend an induction, and then tell me how they read the enthusiasm from the audience or from their peers. He said that changed everything, seeing how important it was to fans to be validated. Someone they had championed and believed in and who moved them for many years is now being recognized. And in a way, it’s an affirmation of their judgment, their taste, and of their fandom.
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Chris’s words hit me. And then I started learning from other peers and other friends the same thing. I started to think, “That makes sense, and this is the way in which I can regard and revere that.”
This is important for the people in our crew, at the record label, and in management. You didn’t just do this with three or four other guys. You did this with dozens of people who were part of the same team and orbit and committed to doing the same thing to advance the shared work.
It’s a pretty diverse class this year with you guys, Chubby Checker, Bad Company, Cyndi Lauper, Joe Cocker, OutKast, Salt-N-Pepa, the White Stripes.
Yeah. I think we fit nicely between Bad Company and the White Stripes. You could probably draw a nice little line from one to the other.
I bet you never thought you’d be honored alongside Chubby Checker.
No. That’s pretty trippy. “The Twist” was certainly a soundtrack of my childhood. File it next to the Beatles. That song was ubiquitous.
Do you think the three of you will perform that night?
I think so, if they want us to. It seems that that invitation is there. It’s up to the Hall to how they develop their program, but we would love to play there. Our discussions haven’t gone that deep yet, but you could probably look at the people that Matt, Ben, and I have played with over the past handful of years, going back to the Chris Cornell Tribute Concert in 2019, there’s a few people we’ve performed with who on top of our head would be the first ones for the call.
Shaina Shepherd did a great job with you guys a few months back.
Yeah, great, and she’s local. I think everyone we’ve played with is super talented. We have a trust in their ability and an affection for their love of our work, and our love of their work. I think the best I can say is look at the people we’ve worked with over the past five years, and then I take a note from what Nirvana did when they went in and they had three or four different singers performed with them. I think it’s going to be something like that. We haven’t had the opportunity to discuss it because Matt’s been on tour with Pearl Jam. A name might turn up on a text, “You should give this person a call,” but we’ll figure it out. You can probably infer where we’re leaning, though.
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How do you think Chris would have felt about this?
I think he would’ve been really proud and happy. And the reason why I’m saying that is because he’s the one who imparted that understanding to the rest of us after he inducted Heart. He came away from that with a different understanding of the event and of the accolade, and he shared that with us. We had conversations about it a few times. And since he had a better understanding of what to expect, and to prepare for it, than the rest of us. I think for that reason he would’ve been very happy and very proud.
Neal Peart said for years it wasn’t a big deal. But when he actually got up to the podium that night, he said it was indeed a big deal. He didn’t get it until he was there.
I will share that contrition. I think for decades, that’s what I thought. It wasn’t on our radar. It wasn’t part of where we came from or where we thought we were going, so it wasn’t really a consideration.
Right. Then you suddenly realize you’re entering the same club as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Buddy Holly.
Wow. No, I don’t think realistically I would see myself in the same club as the Beatles or the Stones or Zeppelin because…Jeez, they were already somewhere up here when I was like 5 years old.
You’re a link in that same chain. When kids learn guitar today, they’ll learn Jimmy Page parts and Kim Thayil parts on the same day.
Now you’re just making it all heavy. It is something I haven’t gotten too deep into evaluating emotionally because I still see a distinction from what we did or were doing from what informed the kind of person and the kind of musician I am.
I have great reverence for those cultural and artistic components of who I am. And maybe I need to appraise that and understand that there are people out there who might see what we’ve done or what our peers have done in the way that I see what Pink Floyd or the Ramones or the Beatles did for us.
There’s often an all-star jam at the end of the night. Are you able to imagine a scenario where you’d play with Jack White and the guys in Bad Company or whoever?
I could see that. Might be a little bit harder to imagine jamming with Cyndi Lauper. I think it could work though. She’s a strong enough singer that she can hold her own in whatever context she’s in.
A lot of fans Joy Division were upset that this wasn’t their year. Their year will come though.
I’m a huge fan of Joy Division. And yeah, I’m disappointed, but exactly that, their year will come. The fact that they’re nominated is an acknowledgement of the impact and influence they had on so many of the bands that have been getting in there in recent years, and many bands that will get in the future. Joy Division is unique and distinct in their style and sound to be framed as a specific influence on many other artists and songwriters.
Have you given much thought to other acts you hope to see make it in? I’d love to see the New York Dolls, the Replacements, the Pixies, Sonic Youth, the Smiths, Motörhead, Iron Maiden.
You just said almost all of them. I did an interview last week ,and the first thing I said was Alice in Chains, and next thing I said was Iron Maiden. The third thing I said was Sonic Youth. And yes, the next thing I said was the New York Dolls. That’s because when the Stooges went in, I thought, “Why are the Stooges going in before the MC5?” And the MC5 were the big brothers of that scene. And even though they weren’t from Detroit, I always put the New York Dolls in with them because they recorded around the same time.
They’re all basically proto-metal/proto-punk bands. Both of them informed metal and punk. And the attitude and look of the New York Dolls attitude informed L.A. glam a decade and a half later, which is ironic, probably more ironic than the Brooklyn Dodgers moving to L.A. And the Pixies, I 100 percent agree. And Motörhead, I, what, 200 percent agree?
King Crimson not being in drives me insane too.
Oh my God. King Crimson isn’t in?
No.
What? Robert Fripp? And then later, Adrian Belew? What?
Moving on, are you working on anything new at the moment?
Just bopping in the studio now and then to throw down some ideas. I always make sure that I’m keeping fresh with demos. And as always, people solicit me to play on a record of theirs, and my first answer is often no. Then my next answer is, “I like this song and I like your work. Yes, I’ll do that.”
That’s not to say I don’t like the work or the material of other people who I decline. It’s simply that I start with, I want to focus on stuff I do and not what someone else does. But sometimes stuff comes across your desk that’s like, “Wow, I got some time. I’ll go do that. I like this.”
Many fans are fascinated by the Soundgarden record that Chris was working on with you guys when he died. Do you think that’s going to be released?
I think so. Our objective and goal was always to complete that. I probably have OCD enough to not want to leave something unfinished or incomplete like that, so I think the more we can attend to our body of work and our catalog…I think everyone in the band feels that way. I don’t just to attend to my work, but the collective work, and in this case specifically, the work of Chris.
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I have pride for what I did and I want to see that come out. It doesn’t exist in the vacuum. It exists as a collaboration with Matt and Ben and Chris, but it takes on an entirely different weight when you think about what it is you’re honoring, and the work that you’re paying tribute to. It is us collectively. We want to do it proud. And that part of us is certainly one of the most intimate components of what Soundgarden has been since 1984.
It would be a great gift to the fans to finally get it out there.
It would be a great gift to the fans. And I do think about this, and I don’t know how strange this sounds, but I feel like it’s a gift to Chris too.
