Seattle’s Soundgarden were the first of the grunge giants to sign with a major label, but they were never just grunge.
They were heavy, cerebral, and gloriously strange—the closest thing to Black Sabbath that main-stage rock had until Ozzy and company reunited for Ozzfest in the late ’90s
Jim Carrey inducted Soundgarden into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday, marking a full-circle moment: Carrey famously hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1996 only on the condition that Soundgarden serve as musical guests.
Nearly 30 years later, he shared the stage once again with them—this time joined by The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen, reuniting the pair 25 years after co-starring in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Momsen, who is releasing “A Pretty Reckless Christmas” this week, helped lead a blistering version of “Rusty Cage,” while Brandi Carlile joined in for a haunting, soaring rendition “Black Hole Sun” (a redux of a Gorge performance a few years back).
Heart’s Nancy Wilson and Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell were also in the mix, a fitting nod since Chris Cornell inducted Heart into the Hall back in 2013.
The surviving members—Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, and Matt Cameron—were joined onstage by original bassist and fellow inductee Hiro Yamamoto.
Seeing them together again was emotional enough, but the news that a final Soundgarden album featuring Cornell’s unreleased vocals is roughly 75% complete made the moment even more powerful.
Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello (a bandmate in Audioslave) said Soundgarden single-handedly redeemed hard rock and called Cornell a “punk-rock Robert Plant.”
