Kim Thayil on Soundgarden: ‘I Don’t See the Dignity in Pursuing That Course’
Story by Charles Ken, photo by Anne Erickson
Kim Thayil of Soundgarden says he can’t imagine continuing the band without late frontman Chris Cornell
It’s looking less and less likely that Soundgarden will ever reconvene following the death of vocalist Chris Cornell. Guitarist Kim Thayil has yet again shunned the idea of the surviving band members getting together and releasing new music or doing a tour.
“It’s not likely that we could ever do Soundgarden without a missing piece,” Thayil said in a new interview with Billboard.
That said, Thayil would like to still work with Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd in some way.
“I’d like to do more with Matt in the future. I’d like to do something with Ben in the future,” Thayil said. “It’s likely Matt and Ben and I will do something in the future — it just probably won’t be Soundgarden. I don’t see the dignity in pursuing that course.”
At the time of Cornell’s death, Thayil says, “We were working on an album and there’s material there that we demoed that we can flesh out when we can access some of the basic, multi(-track) recordings, sure. That’s being discussed.”
The guitarist says when it comes to Soundgarden’s legacy, he’s “completely satisfied, but it needs to be maintained.”
“That’s why I’m overseeing the catalog and the merchandise, and I’ve been doing that all along because it’s important that the legacy is understood,” he added. “There’s an ever-expanding demographic of potential Soundgarden fans amidst a shrinking demographic of consumers, so it’s important that they there are good ways for them to hear what we did.
A special, career-spanning Chris Cornell box set arrived this past Friday (Nov. 16), which Thayil helped put together. The set features a variety of different Cornell tracks that he crafted throughout his career.
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