{"id":724884,"date":"2026-06-09T09:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T09:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/724884\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T09:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T09:47:15","slug":"we-were-going-off-the-cliff-soundgardens-kim-thayil-on-inventing-grunge-and-losing-chris-cornell-and-kurt-cobain-soundgarden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/724884\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We were going off the cliff\u2019: Soundgarden\u2019s Kim Thayil on inventing grunge \u2013 and losing Chris Cornell and Kurt Cobain | Soundgarden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kim Thayil has always felt like an outsider. For example: the Soundgarden<\/a> guitarist has lived in Seattle, a city infamously addicted to coffee, for more than four decades, but only started drinking the stuff himself during lockdown. \u201cI was pretty against-the-grain to my Seattle friends, who always wanted to meet up at coffee shops,\u201d he grins, cradling a freshly brewed cup of java in his kitchen. \u201cMy girlfriend in the 80s and 90s even worked at the original branch of Starbucks and made coffee with a French press every morning. But I drank tea, because my parents are Indian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thayil\u2019s Indian heritage also set him apart from his peers. In his new memoir, A Screaming Life, he writes that when he and bassist Hiro Yamamoto formed Soundgarden in 1984, the group was \u201ctwo-thirds Asian\u201d, and that \u201cas liberal and accepting as the punk scene was, it was still largely white, and I was ever aware of that\u201d. Nevertheless, Soundgarden went on to become pioneers of Seattle\u2019s grunge movement, a multiplatinum-selling, critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning group whose breakthrough hit, Black Hole Sun, transcended their gnarly milieu to become an enduring anthem.<\/p>\n

Thayil and Yamamoto hailed from Park Forest, a suburb of Chicago. \u201cWe grew up as immigrants and outsiders,\u201d Thayil says. \u201cI was raised on American culture: the Monkees and the Brady Bunch and Superman comics. But there was this distance \u2013 I wasn\u2019t necessarily a member of this club.\u201d This distance wasn\u2019t entirely a bad thing, especially when he got into weird, heavy music. \u201cI had no obligations to these subcultures I was not a member of. I could explore, without expectation, with no canon I had to adhere to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thayil\u2019s gateway to heavy rock was Kiss, but the hair metal that dominated the 80s was, he says, \u201cthe Partridge Family, but with a fuzzbox: hopelessly suburban, white and milquetoast. I was a skinny, long-haired brown guy, and the idea of all that spandex and hairspray and makeup \u2026\u201d He tugs at his grey beard and grins. \u201cThis was not a fitting palette for that kind of display.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle\u2019s finest \u2026 Soundgarden in 1989, from left, Jason Everman, Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron. Photograph: Larry Marano\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

So Soundgarden embraced the might of heavy rock while rejecting the genre\u2019s retrograde sexism \u2013 a generation X approach that later defined grunge \u2013 and hair metal\u2019s machismo and misogyny was repudiated with the satirical Big Dumb Sex. Audiences, however, didn\u2019t always recognise the nuance. \u201cPeople who didn\u2019t want to like us would say, \u2018They play aggressive music, their singer doesn\u2019t wear a shirt and their song goes, \u201cI\u2019m gonna fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck you!\u201d \u2013 they\u2019re just another bunch of jerks!\u2019 But we all had long-term relationships; we had regard for our sisters, our mothers. We didn\u2019t identify with that culture, physically, intellectually or emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019d formed as a trio, Thayil, Yamamoto and drummer Chris Cornell, though that dynamic soon changed \u201cbecause of Chris\u2019s talent\u201d, Thayil says. \u201cOur friends told us, \u2018Chris sings great, he looks great! Get another drummer and put him up front.\u2019\u201d Having heard him sing in a classic rock covers band, Thayil deemed Cornell merely \u201ccompetent and workmanlike\u201d; he\u2019d wanted an immediately identifiable vocalist, \u201can Ian Curtis, a Tom Waits\u201d. But he quickly retracted his reservations, as Cornell revealed the fearsome range that would make him a legend.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris could sing whatever we wrote, and if he couldn\u2019t, he\u2019d work at it. And the material we wrote challenged him. Until I wrote Nothing to Say, we had no idea his voice could jump that high.\u201d Thayil laughs softly, but with admiration. \u201cChris developed this ability to scream in a high-pitch register, and it was unearthly. His diaphragm was very strong: he could hold a note for a long time. Swimming helped him develop those really nice abs, but was also the source of his vocal power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornell looked every inch the rock god: cheekbones, impressive mane, those abs. Temperamentally, however, he was no David Lee Roth. \u201cChris was an introvert. People were attracted to him because he was so talented, but he was more comfortable in a dark room watching a movie than at a party full of people coming up to him, spilling beer on his shoes. He would do that too, as much as he could tolerate. Then he\u2019d withdraw.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the addition of drummer Matt Cameron, Soundgarden\u2019s first classic lineup was in place. The next step would prove pivotal to Seattle, and indeed alt-rock history. They introduced Bruce Pavitt, Thayil\u2019s old friend from Park Forest who ran influential fanzine Subterranean Pop, to Jonathan Poneman, Thayil\u2019s colleague at college radio station KCMU. Pavitt \u201chad the Sub Pop brand, but no money\u201d; Poneman \u201chad great business sense\u201d. Thayil convinced them to work together and release Soundgarden\u2019s debut single, kickstarting Seattle\u2019s most important record label in the process.<\/p>\n

\u2018By the first verse the crowd would be out of sync\u2019 \u2026 at Lollapalooza in 1996. Photograph: Tim Mosenfelder\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

That single, 1987\u2019s Hunted Down, reimagined heavy rock with a post-punk sensibility, coining the sound of Seattle\u2019s then-percolating home town scene. This tight-knit community was united by their love for coffee, Black Sabbath and punk, with a disdain for rock\u2019n\u2019roll cliche. \u201cHair metal was all about sex, drugs and fast cars,\u201d Thayil says, \u201cthis Hanna-Barbera, cartoonish popular culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soundgarden, however, were heavy of riff and subject matter: covering Sabbath\u2019s doomy Into the Void at the suggestion of bassist Ben Shepherd (who replaced Yamamoto after he left in 1989), they swapped out Geezer Butler\u2019s campy apocalyptic visions for a chilling speech on mankind\u2019s destructiveness by Chief Sealth, the 19th-century leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes, and an environmentalist who gave Seattle its name. \u201cNative culture is a profound aspect of our region\u2019s identity,\u201d Thayil says. \u201cPlus, the environmental issues were dear to our heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thayil remembers the media and music industry mostly ignoring Seattle\u2019s rock scene until autumn 1991, when former Sub Pop signees Nirvana\u2019s second LP, Nevermind, and Pearl Jam\u2019s debut LP, Ten, made grunge a multiplatinum phenomenon. Released that October, Soundgarden\u2019s third LP, Badmotorfinger, offered heavy music of uncommon grace and spirituality, Thayil\u2019s darkly psychedelic guitar playing summoning the power of the elements to deliver the sublime.<\/p>\n

Soundgarden had been the first grungers to sign to a major, but were a more complex proposition than their contemporaries. Thayil remembers when the group played festivals such as Lollapalooza: \u201cWe\u2019d play our songs, with their tricky time signatures, and the kids would start jumping up and down, but by the first verse they\u2019d all be out of sync.\u201d<\/p>\n

Badmotorfinger had gone double platinum, their greatest commercial achievement to date, but the mainstream acceptance their peers enjoyed seemed likely to elude Soundgarden without a big crossover song. When that track \u2013 Cornell\u2019s radiant, Beatles-eque Black Hole Sun \u2013 arrived, Thayil was initially hesitant. \u201cWe immediately saw its strengths,\u201d he says, \u201cthis mellifluousness that lent itself to radio. But was Black Hole Sun pandering? Did it even sound like Soundgarden?\u201d Cornell sensed Thayil\u2019s resistance. \u201cHe said, \u2018Once you and Ben and Matt get to it, it\u2019s gonna sound like us. Go nuts: make it crazy and psychedelic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The song won Soundgarden their first Grammy, and helped their diverse 1994 masterpiece Superunknown sell over 7m copies worldwide. But just as Soundgarden were breaking through, the vibe turned dark. In April 1994, their friend Kurt Cobain killed himself. Thayil learned the news during a gig in Europe; in a scene movingly recreated in the memoir, the group held each other in the dressing room afterwards, sobbing.<\/p>\n

\u2018I miss that sense of duty, as a big brother, to protect him\u2019 \u2026 Thayil and Chris Cornell in 1993 . Photograph: Karjean Levine\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not supposed to be happening,\u201d Thayil says. He\u2019d believed the Seattle scene had no interest in \u201cpromoting risk as our cultural identity\u201d. Soundgarden drank beer, smoked weed, occasionally dabbled in psychedelics, but pills, powders and needles were verboten. \u201cWe knew all about Hendrix and Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison and Sid Vicious. We thought, \u2018We\u2019re not idiots like that, we\u2019re not part of that ironic narrative of celebrity.\u2019 We thought we were immune to this.\u201d He sighs. \u201cBut still, we were going off the cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disillusioned, worn down by touring and with their paymasters behaving like \u201cpimps and madams while we\u2019re out there in short skirts and heels\u201d, Soundgarden split after a fifth album, 1996\u2019s Down on the Upside. \u201cWe should have just taken a hiatus, pumped the brakes,\u201d Thayil says. Instead, Cornell pursued a solo career and formed Audioslave with three-quarters of Rage Against the Machine. The supergroup was \u201chooky, riffy, immediately catchy\u201d, says Thayil. \u201cBut they were a diminished version of Rage, who I loved, and a much-diminished version of Soundgarden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thayil began to hear rumours that Cornell was struggling with substance use (the singer would enter rehab shortly afterwards). \u201cIt was a shock,\u201d he remembers. \u201cGiven what had happened with Kurt \u2026 I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d He wanted to reach out, but Cornell no longer lived in Seattle. \u201cI\u2019d always felt protective of the other guys,\u201d he says. \u201cOur manager, Susan Silver, said, \u2018They\u2019re all little brothers. You\u2019re a big brother, and you act like it.\u2019 I\u2019d felt that same way toward my parents. I saw them as foreigners, and I wanted to protect them, as I\u2019m kind of American. That was my identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markYou can\u2019t save everything you love. Perhaps you can\u2019t even save yourself<\/p>\n

By the time Soundgarden reformed in 2010, Cornell\u2019s substance use was \u201cin the past\u201d, Thayil says. They cut a sixth album, 2012\u2019s King Animal, and, he writes in the memoir, \u201chad definitely refound our groove\u201d, their bonds of friendship renewed. Unbeknownst to his bandmates, however, Cornell, who\u2019d fought depression his whole life, was struggling. After a show at Detroit\u2019s Fox theatre in May 2017, he took his life in his hotel room.<\/p>\n

The news devastated Thayil, and still does. \u201cI could never have anticipated the vacuum, the absence, and how profound it is,\u201d he says. \u201cThe loss is not just in missing the companionship, the creative partnership, and everything I learned from him. I also miss that sense of duty, as a big brother, to protect him. I still feel that sense of \u2018What could I have done?\u2019\u201d He pauses. \u201cI\u2019ve had to recognise my own mortality, my vulnerability and my impotence. You can\u2019t save everything you love. Perhaps you can\u2019t even save yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salvation for Thayil came through playing in the final incarnation of MC5 for their 50th anniversary tour in 2018, guesting on records by Mastodon and the Pretty Reckless, and forming supergroup 3rd Secret with Matt Cameron and Nirvana\u2019s Krist Novoselic. He remains deeply involved in Soundgarden\u2019s unfinished business, including their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last November, with Taylor Momsen and Brandi Carlile singing in Cornell\u2019s absence, and Shepherd and Yamamoto sharing bass duties. He also has possession of nine unfinished Soundgarden tracks the group had cowritten, with vocals Cornell completed before his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still working on them,\u201d he says, explaining that the group don\u2019t have a record label to finance their completion, and saying there are \u201ca lot of other factors at play\u201d. But while revisiting the tracks will doubtless prove a painful experience, Thayil says he\u2019s up to the job. \u201cI always take responsibility for the things I love,\u201d he says finally, switching the kettle back on. \u201cAnd I can\u2019t imagine ever not loving Soundgarden.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Screaming Life by Kim Thayil is published by William Morrow on 9 June in the US. UK publication will follow later this year<\/p>\n

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kim Thayil has always felt like an outsider. For example: the Soundgarden guitarist has lived in Seattle, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-724884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}