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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Soundgarden | History Defined

The Soundgarden memoir that fans needed

Rich with perspective, the band's lead guitarist revisits Seattle's music scene and the loss of Chris Cornell

Salon

"You can’t save everything you love." Soundgarden's Kim Thayil on the loss of his friend and bandmate Chris Cornell

"I could never have anticipated the vacuum, the absence, and how profound it is"

Metal Hammer

‘We were going off the cliff’: Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil on inventing grunge – and losing Chris Cornell and Kurt Cobain

As he publishes a memoir, the pioneering guitarist talks about rejecting spandex and hair metal, his fears for breakthrough hit Black Hole Sun – and completing nine unfinished Soundgarden songs

The Guardian - UK

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“I snapped, flipped him off, grabbed my coat, and stormed out of the studio. I told him to ‘get Steve Vai’”: Kim Thayil reveals his battles over Soundgarden’s Superunknown and Black Hole Sun

The Seattle guitar icon recalls the tensions behind the making of Soundgarden’s masterpiece in this exclusive excerpt from his memoir A Screaming Life

Guitar World

"Kim, I’m reading a lot of weird s**t on the internet. Somebody posted ‘RIP: Chris Cornell’ on my Facebook page.” Soundgarden's Kim Thayil reveals how he learned the devastating news of Chris Cornell's death

"I didn’t see it coming... I feel like I let Chris down"

Metal Hammer

"It's important for the legacy of Chris Cornell. It is doing right by our partner and friend." Kim Thayil says the surviving members of Soundgarden are putting the finishing touches to unreleased material featuring the late vocalist

The Soundgarden guitarist says some of the demos have been around for 15 years

Metal Hammer

From Cream and Velvet Revolver to Them Crooked Vultures and Temple Of The Dog, these are the best supergroups in rock history

Some supergroups just aren't worth the sum of their parts. These are the exceptions

Louder

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"If people didn’t like us, they’d say it was because we sounded too much like Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin." How Soundgarden went from superunknowns to grunge godfathers, a band who captured the sound and spirit of Seattle like no other

“There was no internet or YouTube so we had to prove it every night on stage.”

Metal Hammer

"I think people who were fans of grunge like Soundgarden would be floored by Swervedriver." Sugar and Hüsker Dü man Bob Mould picks the soundtrack of his life

Hüsker Dü, Sugar and solo songwriter and musician Bob Mould picks his records,artists and gigs of lasting significance

Louder

“They were trying to figure out who to get to sing the high harmony stuff for Gene Simmons’ band. They said, ‘What about the guy who opened for us?’”Jason Walker on touring with the Kiss star – who’s a fellow Beatles freak

His professional career started at 14, but it was a chance booking in Las Vegas that really changed the Gibson fan’s life

Guitar World

“One of the few times Axl and I ever went out in public was to see Nirvana in Hollywood. And then people say grunge killed Guns N’ Roses”: Slash on the alternative rock revolution – and the groundbreaking album that blew Axl Rose’s mind

“I was never a big Pearl Jam fan, but Soundgarden was great”

MusicRadar

“I got to play with Layne and Chris and Lanegan. Now they’re gone. What would they be doing now? That haunts me to this day”: Mike McCready opens up on his new rock opera, the Seattle jams that changed him, and the future of Pearl Jam

Farewell to Seasons documents McCready’s path through the Seattle grunge explosion of the ’90s. He reflects on the singers he’s loved and lost, the guitarists who left the biggest mark on his playing and why going digital has made him a better player

Guitar World

"We're honouring a legend." Inside King Ultramega, the star-studded tribute to Chris Cornell featuring members of Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Mastodon, Anthrax and more

How a spur-of-the-moment pandemic jam turned into a special tribute to a much-missed legend

Metal Hammer

"We jokingly called the album Commercial Suicide while we were making it." Why one of the world's biggest rock bands had to go back to "ground zero" on their riskiest and darkest record

"Some reports said that it was a great record, but we should consider changing our name"

Louder

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Guitar World

“We played it at CBGB’s. The label guy said, ‘That’s a single.’ We said, ‘Oh, no... That’s not going on the album. That’s a joke song!’” It was nothing more than a throwaway jam – then they were playing it at the Grammys in tuxedos

In the annals of ’90s alt-rock one-off hits, few were more improbable than Liar, the snarky funk-metal jam that brought hardcore heavyweight Henry Rollins and his band onto mainstream radio, and to music's biggest stage

Guitar World

“He did ask, ‘Are you planning to replicate this live?’ He’d done a guest guitar part for a band who had trouble doing it”: Karnivool explain the 13-year wait for their new album – and why we have Guthrie Govan to thank for two of its standout sonics

Guitarists Drew Goddard and Mark “Hoss” Hosking break down In Verses’ long gestation period, reveal their Soundgarden-level tunings, and share Govan’s unexpected bagpipe connection

Guitar World

“My tech said, ‘This bass looks tiny on you.’ I lowered the strap so it would look cooler. You have to throw your whole body into it”: Bought from grunge icons and stolen before Soundgarden reunited – the story of Ben Shepherd’s 1972 Fender Jazz Bass

Shepherd was robbed of all his music gear in 2008 just as he was about to mix his first solo album

Metal Hammer

"There was a lot of tension throughout. I’m surprised they didn‘t fire me early on!" Producer Michael Beinhorn reflects on the "difficult" challenges he faced recording Soundgarden masterpiece Superunknown, and how Frank Sinatra helped

The making of Soundgarden's fourth album was no picnic for the Seattle band

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What Hi-Fi?

Kick off your 2026 in style with our list of the 7 best test tracks getting us through January

New year, new tunes

Metal Hammer

“What came out of a tragedy gave birth to something that was hugely positive in my life.” How the legendary Chris Cornell channelled his grief over a dear friend's death into making one of the 90s' most underrated classics

Members of Soundgarden and a fledgling Pearl Jam came together in 1990 to record a tribute to their late friend and emerged with a grunge classic

Metal Hammer

"You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly you feel uncomfortable?" How a grunge legend alienated his entire fanbase with a curveball solo record, and why he had zero regrets about doing so

Not everyone wants to get on board when artists take a creative left turn

Louder

One of the greatest 'lost' grunge supergroups of the '90s are returning in 2026 with new music and a worldwide tour

Soundgarden and Screaming Trees alumni resurrect cult Seattle rockers Truly

MusicRadar

“It’s bittersweet, of course”: Soundgarden’s final album is “pretty close” to completion

But Morello says don’t expect unreleased Audioslave music any time soon

Metal Hammer

“Wherever there is an end, there is also a beginning”: Arch Enemy split with singer Alissa White-Gluz

White-Gluz leaves Arch Enemy and announces a solo album

Metal Hammer

Watch Brandi Carlile and Taylor Momsen's triumphant Hall of Fame performance of Black Hole Sun with Soundgarden

The Hall Of Fame have also released official footage of Toni Cornell's emotional Fell On Black Days tribute to her late father

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