A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: Before the 1990s, record labels almost never scouted the Seattle area. In isolation, a local scene developed. The music was dark. It was loud, and for a short while, it changed rock music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SOUNDGARDEN SONG, "OUTSHINED")
MARTÍNEZ: The band that opened doors for everybody in the grunge scene was Soundgarden. They were the first to sign to a major label. And their story is told in a new memoir by founding guitarist Kim Thayil, from their indie beginnings to their peak with "Black Hole Sun" to the death of lead singer Chris Cornell.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OUTSHINED")
SOUNDGARDEN: (Singing) Well, I just looked in the mirror, and things aren't looking so good. I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota. Oh, yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: The book is called "A Screaming Life." And one note before we go on - the subject of suicide does come up later in the conversation. Thayil writes about that six-week period in 1991 when three of the pillars of grunge were released - Pearl Jam's album "Ten," Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger."
KIM THAYIL: We didn't have that initial commercial success. I mean, there's a meteoric ascension for Nirvana that overshadowed everything else, which was just fine because it must have been very stressful to have to understand the change in your status. And for us, we grew very slowly off the success of that record, and I'm sure we benefited to some degree from Nirvana's success and then Pearl Jam's success. So we were able to just hang in there under the radar and maintain our career ascension in a much more manageable way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SOUNDGARDEN SONG, "BLACK HOLE SUN")
MARTÍNEZ: Soundgarden's biggest hit - "Black Hole Sun." I mean, I think most people will agree with that. You write that you didn't like the song at first, and you almost killed it. Why? What didn't you like about the song?
THAYIL: I recognized the song as a good song, and I liked it as a creation of Chris. I didn't recognize it as a Soundgarden song. Does that make sense? It's like..
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Yeah.
THAYIL: I love songs by Johnny Cash, and I love songs by Sly and the Family Stone. And if I heard them, I might not say, let's learn that and record it. You know, it may...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
THAYIL: ...Not fit into, you know, the "Superunknown" album, which is where we did "Black Hole Sun." I didn't see it as a viable contender for that album initially.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLACK HOLE SUN")
SOUNDGARDEN: (Singing), Black hole sun, won't you come and wash away the rain? Black hole sun, won't you come? Won't you come? Won't you come?
MARTÍNEZ: In 1997, Kim, Soundgarden broke up. Band, though, did get back together - a new album in 2012, "King Animal." Five years later, though, Chris Cornell took his life. In the book you write, I didn't see it coming. The thing that hurts me the most is to be a close friend, a colleague, and not to have read things that perhaps, in retrospect, I should have read. Do you think things were clear enough for you to have read them? Were - yeah.
THAYIL: I don't know.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
THAYIL: That's one of the things that is hard to understand. I don't know what to have looked for. In retrospect, there are things that can be identified or seen, but those may not be as obvious or present. I think there is that fraternal sense of responsibility towards your friendships and duty towards each other, you know...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
THAYIL: ...In terms of managing and maintaining that. And so, of course, if something goes wrong or someone's in pain or is hurting, you feel that's your responsibility to address it and help them. And sometimes, at least in this case, whatever was happening with Chris was not on our radar, or it was something...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
THAYIL: ...That we missed. And that's not just myself. I mean, I'm - none of our bandmates or our crew, friends or family, were really aware in any way to expect this kind of outcome.
MARTÍNEZ: And then I just think about, you know, a lot of the other people involved in the Seattle rock scene - I mean, Kurt Cobain, Andrew Wood, Ben McMillan - I mean, all died pretty young. I mean, how do you keep your head straight when you see your colleagues - maybe in some cases, I'm sure, close people, friends of yours - that - you know, that this happens to?
THAYIL: You know, we often talk about this, you know, my colleagues and friends. It's very unusual. I mean, you can add Mark Lanegan and Layne Staley to that list.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
THAYIL: But yeah. I mean...
MARTÍNEZ: Stefanie Sargent.
THAYIL: Yeah. Well, there's a lot of things you kind of had to wrap your head around because it seems very strange.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. This guy that I used to argue with about this would say that - listen to the music. Listen to the lyrics. You know, you can't get out of this cycle of depression when you listen to all of these grunge acts. And I would be like, you know, OK. I mean, we'd argue about this and go back and forth. But...
THAYIL: Well, I agree there's a - there's somewhat of a paper trail. But, you know, suicide isn't the only assailant here. I mean, there's also...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Yeah.
THAYIL: ...Substance abuse. There's misadventure. But I think you're correct in pointing out the fact that there is a bit of a paper trail. The - we're not writing songs about parties and cool cars.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FELL ON BLACK DAYS")
SOUNDGARDEN: (Singing) How would I know that this could be my fate? I sure don't mind a change.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, you're working on one last Soundgarden album with Chris Cornell's voice. What can you tell us about that?
THAYIL: We were in the process of writing for an album, and we were in the process of recording material for the album when Chris passed. Chris was demoing vocals for these songs to share, you know, melodic and lyrical ideas. So we had a lot of things to work with. We didn't have a complete set, and it required that the surviving members of the band all complete their work. We're very proud. And it's easily the most evocative emotionally of anything we've ever done, and at the same time, we're very proud and very satisfied with what we're doing.
MARTÍNEZ: Well, we'll look forward to it when it comes out. That's Kim Thayil, guitarist with Soundgarden. His new memoir is called "A Screaming Life." Kim, thank you very much.
THAYIL: Thank you very much, A.
(SOUNDBITE OF SOUNDGARDEN SONG, "FLOWER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
