Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil hopes to release the band’s final songs with Chris Cornell.
During a recent Rolling Stone interview, Thayil, who co-founded the Seattle grunge stars in 1984, expresses pride in the last recorded works of Cornell, who died by suicide aged 52 in May 2017.
The guitarist, and fellow surviving members Matt Cameron (drums) and Ben Shepherd (bass), have previously waged legal battles with Cornell’s estate in the hopes of sharing the unreleased tracks.
He says that the band’s “objective and goal was always to complete [the album]”. “I think everyone in the band feels that way,” he adds. “I don’t just want to attend to my work, but the collective work, and in this case specifically, the work of Chris.”
Thayil continues: “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 honouring, 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.”
Soundgarden’s last album was King Animal in 2012. The release of posthumous music from Cornell became a point of legal contention between the band and the singer/guitarist’s estate following his death. In 2019, his widow Vicky sued Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd, and several business associates, claiming they hoped to release some of the musician’s solo recordings under the Soundgarden name, thus preventing her and the couple’s children from receiving royalties.
Soundgarden countersued, and Vicky sued the band again in February 2021. She alleged that she’d been handed a “villainously low” offer to purchase her stake in the band.
Soundgarden and the Cornell estate said in April 2023 that they’d reached an “amicable out-of-court resolution”. They added in their joint statement: “The reconciliation marks a new partnership between the two parties, which will allow Soundgarden fans around the world to hear the final songs that the band and Chris were working on.”
However, that November, Cameron told the Vinyl Guide podcast that tensions between the band and Cornell’s estate had resurfaced. “We’re still in the middle of a dispute with the estate,” Cameron explained. “Everything is on hold right now.”
The drummer still hoped for Cornell’s unreleased songs to see the light of day eventually, though: “As of right now, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen next year, [but] hopefully soon. I’m not giving up hope.”
The surviving members of Soundgarden have reunited onstage a handful of times since 2019 and, according to Sharon Osbourne, will play at Black Sabbath’s farewell concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park in July. The band will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in November.
