Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil hopes to launch the band’s remaining songs with Chris Cornell.
Throughout a current Rolling Stone interview, Thayil, who co-founded the Seattle grunge stars in 1984, expresses satisfaction within the final recorded works of Cornell, who died by suicide aged 52 in Could 2017.
The guitarist, and fellow surviving members Matt Cameron (drums) and Ben Shepherd (bass), have beforehand waged authorized battles with Cornell’s property within the hopes of sharing the unreleased tracks.
He says that the band’s “goal and aim was all the time to finish [the album]”. “I believe everybody within the band feels that manner,” he provides. “I don’t simply need to attend to my work, however the collective work, and on this case particularly, the work of Chris.”
Thayil continues: “I’ve satisfaction for what I did and I need to see that come out. It doesn’t exist within the vacuum. It exists as a collaboration with Matt and Ben and Chris, however it takes on a completely totally different weight when you concentrate on what it’s you’re honouring, and the work that you simply’re paying tribute to.
“It’s us collectively. We need to do it proud. And that a part of us is definitely one of the intimate parts of what Soundgarden has been since 1984.”
Soundgarden’s final album was King Animal in 2012. The discharge of posthumous music from Cornell grew to become some extent of authorized competition between the band and the singer/guitarist’s property following his loss of life. In 2019, his widow Vicky sued Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd, and a number of other enterprise associates, claiming they hoped to launch a number of the musician’s solo recordings beneath the Soundgarden title, thus stopping her and the couple’s youngsters from receiving royalties.
Soundgarden countersued, and Vicky sued the band once more in February 2021. She alleged that she’d been handed a “villainously low” provide to buy her stake within the band.
Soundgarden and the Cornell property stated in April 2023 that they’d reached an “amicable out-of-court decision”. They added of their joint assertion: “The reconciliation marks a brand new partnership between the 2 events, which is able to permit Soundgarden followers world wide to listen to the ultimate songs that the band and Chris had been engaged on.”
Nonetheless, that November, Cameron informed the Vinyl Information podcast that tensions between the band and Cornell’s property had resurfaced. “We’re nonetheless in the midst of a dispute with the property,” Cameron defined. “Every part is on maintain proper now.”
The drummer nonetheless hoped for Cornell’s unreleased songs to see the sunshine of day finally, although: “As of proper now, it doesn’t appear like it’s going to occur subsequent yr, [but] hopefully quickly. I’m not giving up hope.”
The surviving members of Soundgarden have reunited onstage a handful of occasions since 2019 and, in accordance with Sharon Osbourne, will play at Black Sabbath’s farewell live performance at Birmingham’s Villa Park in July. The band will likely be inducted into the Rock And Roll Corridor Of Fame in November.