Soundgarden's Kim Thayil Talks Chris Cornell 

Imagine having chris cornell in your band and you are all like "we gotta find a singer"

I cannot imagine a world in which Chris stayed on drums and his voice was never recorded.

No “celebrity” death crushed me more than Chris.

Chris is my favorite singer and possibly songwriter too. "No one sings like you anymore!"

Seattle had so many talented musicians because it rains every other day. Being stuck indoors all the time gives people time to practice and hone their skills

Rick, you really should interview Thayil again, but focus on Thayil's guitar playing. The man has a unique, underappreciated style that was a defining element of Soundgarden's sound.

Chris sings the soundtrack of my life. Growing up in the 90s, every great memory has a Soundgarden or Alice In Chains song playing in the background. Such a better time.

Kim Thayil is such an underrated guitar player! freaking love his style

Ann Wilson was another legendary Seattle singer. She blows the doors off the place.

Room A Thousand Years Wide is still one of my favorite riffs of all time... Basic? Yes..... Intentensely effective? Yes

One regret's not seeing Soundgarden live. Incredible band.

What a voice. Amazing. I enjoyed everything Chris touched from Soundgarden, totd, audioslave etc. Great voice, he is missed. I remember his passing happened after I graduated, so I have distinct memories. Rusty cage is one of my favourite tunes of Soundgarden, it has everything going for it. Have a good day reader

I love how Chris noveselic of nirvana and kim thayil are actually friends. Huge fans of both can tell noveselic is a fan of Soundgarden and noveselic is so cool. My mom met him in a bar and he took a pic with her!

Chris was unique in how good his music got. Higher Truth was phenomenal.

6 yrs and it is still so difficult for me to hear Chris talked about in the past tense, I can only imagine that feeling for Kim. 😭

We lost such a treasure when Chris died.

Thayil is such an underrated guitarist

I watch that whole video when it came out. Man i'm glad Rick put out a clip of Kim explaining how Chris became the singer. It totally gave me chills and excitement in full interview as it does now! Chris, singer, was already there, in the band and they didn't fully realize it, even Chris! So amazing how things unfold and Chris becoming this incredible singer! Layne is also on another level! We got two incredible singers at the same time! 👍👏👏👏🎙

Awesome to see hes a fan of A Perfect Circle..... Great hat, Kim!!!! :)

I was fortunate enough to meet Kim and Chris at soundcheck in 1990 when they were opening for Danzig. Cool guys, down to earth.

Tayil looks like an Indian grunge guru with that awesome grey beard. Soundgarden was definitely one of my favourites. I still have fond memories of watching Black Hole Sun video on MTV back in the mid-90s. Recently been listening a lot to 3rd Secret as well.

Rick (to Kim Thayil): "How did you not know you had this great singer?" Novilselic (to Kim Thayil): "It's because you weren't a pot smoker."

Badmotorfinger was my introduction to Soundgarden, and I was blown away by Slaves and Bulldozers. If I had enough Jack Daniels, I could actually sing it, but my cigarette smoking made it really difficult. Then my friend Gabe introduced me to the earlier stuff on Deep Six, Screaming Life/Fopp, and Ultramega OK. Nothing to Say and Beyond the Wheel blew me away. As a matter of fact, the riff from Beyond the Wheel is very similar to Slaves and Bulldozers. All of the old school Seattle stuff that was released on cassette or CD by SubPop or C/Z records and ANYTHING engineered and produced with Jack Endino is amazing. Hearing the early sounds/germs of the developing music explosion is even better than the post-Nirvana scene. I love this interview. Rick Beato asks a question and Kim Thayil says something like "Dude. This was 30 years ago", but then he rehashes it like it was yesterday. To Layne Staley, Andy Wood, Chris Cornell, Kurt Cobain, Mark Lanagan, Kristen Pfaff (jeez - there's too many), and anyone I missed - THANK YOU for your artistry and I hope you're in a better place.

Sometimes you can’t see the forest from the trees. Thank God Kim and crew finally realized Chris could sing.

This was an awesome interview. Thank you. I've spent years developing the ability to cover Chris's vocals. Can't do everything, nor play an instrument to save my life, but have sung some of his stuff in front of people. His voice, IS the mountain. He IS the highway. Thanks again.

Saw Soundgarden from the touring with a Ryder truck, to Europe with G&R to arenas in the US to the final tour. They are a part of my life, each chapter. It’s amazing when I can refer back with clarity times triggered by different songs from different albums.

It's an excellent point about how phenomenal all the grunge singers were. One of my favorite songs is "Right Turn" featuring Chris Cornell with Mark Arm and of course Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell on that "Alice Mudgarden" track. Absolutely brilliant both separate and together.

I love how humble and real Kim is here.

Chris was the greatest to ever stand in front of a mic. Such an inspirational guy 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘love ya Chris

Kim has been one of my absolute goddamn guitar heroes since I was a kid, an absolute legend.

In my opinion, the greatest loss to the music industry ever! Rest in peace Chris, your genius will never be forgotten 🤍🙏🏼

Chris singing when he was in his prime. Quite a site to see. One of the best front men of all time.

Nobody ever mentions Candlebox out of that era from Seattle. Kevin Martin killer vocals as well

Kim Thayil did a great tribute for Alice in Chains at MoPop. Loved ya in Soundgarden and now 3rd Secret! Love your solos and riffs. World always needs good music! Great interview! Mia Zapata was a great singer, check out the band she was in THE GITS. You can find it on RU-vid. Even 7 Year Bitch did a tribute to her on one of their album covers, and they are great too.

Always wonderful to hear someone talking about Chris Cornell. Could watch these interviews forever!

I love how they just saw Chris as one of the group. He wasn't this god like, gorgeous singer, he was just Chris

They where such a huge part of my life. Seems forever ago. So good. Re Chris’s singing: heard stories about him blowing up mics he sang so loud.

Chris is so very much missed 😢

To this day, Badmotorfinger is one of my favorite albums of all time. I put it on at work, and I definitely get looks, but it's my jam and I'll never forget those days in the early 90's.

I love Kim's a perfect circle hat.👍

The dude is an absolute legend and also sporting an A Perfect Circle cap. Gotta love that.

SG was always my favorite of the “Big 4 of Grunge” mostly bc of Matt’s drumming and Chris’s voice (and i had no idea he started on drums - too cool!) R.I.P. CC 🙏🏼

Loved this convo. Important reminders to consider the hidden talents among ourselves and our collaborators, and that great vocalists don't always just come out of the ether. Consistency and experimentation are both key... So grateful for all of these musicians and for their willingness to engage in these conversations.

Love seeing Kim wearing the A Perfect Circle hat. My 2 favorite singers are Chris Cornell and Maynard James Keenan! 🤘🤘

a great singer can carry a mediocre band but a great band can't carry a mediocre singer. lucky for soundgarden they had great everything. i still think superunknown is a top 10 album all time

Been listening to a of Chris' recently I didn't know he was a drummer and I didn't know he was in a cover band playing Doors songs. Makes me appreciate him more

Oh man…I hope you have some more of this! That was gold!

IMO, Geoff Tate absolutely has to be brought up in any "the best Seattle based vocalists" conversation. GREAT interview... Chris Cornell is definitely on my favorite vocalists ever list. I am hopeful that WP is treating him well 🙏

Kim Thayil is such an interesting and incredible guitarist. Super unique. I'm convinced most still don't know what the heck he is doing to sound so singularly awesome.

I will never forget the day in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in 1992... I still have the T-shirt... When I saw Soundgarden at Lollapalooza 92...

Hands down my favorite interview of Rick’s - this one was a long time coming. Rick is the man!

I worked in a mobile recording truck, recording Lallapalossa in Seattle. I sat with Kim talking Guitars, watching him fly hamburger patties across the food tent 😂.

Chris was such a great vocalist. Every word hit you so hard especially the vocals from Superunknown.

I still haven't gotten over getting the news that day. It broke me. It's never gonna make sense. I miss Chris so much. There will never be another one like him. He was the greatest musician of our generation. I wish we'd had him longer...

I got to see Soundgarden in Memphis! May 07, 2017! Soundgarden was and is still the soundtrack of my life! ❤️❤️

I could listen to this all day, endlessly fascinating. As for "why were there so many great singers at that time in Seattle?", it made me think of Detroit and the hey day of Motown: how does all that iconic majestic talent come from the same neighborhood in Detroit? Or the British Invasion - The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, the Stones, Beck, Clapton, Page, McLaughlin, etc all born roughly between 1941 and 1945.

Thank you. RIP Chris.

This was such a great interview.

great interview. Be wonderful if you could get AIC and hear some stories like this about layne

It was so amazing how they could put out a song that was specific to them, but spoke for us all. I fuckin' love these guys.

Man last week I woke up from a nap down in my basement lair! The sun was shimmering through the window and on my radio I had going Audio Slaves “ Like a Stone” had just started! I Just layed there catching my bearings from the nap and enjoying the song! Man great song and I thought about how good Cornell really was! Heard it 1000 times but the song hit me differently that day! 🤟😎

Chris Cornell is one of the 10 greatest male singers ever. Also one of the 20 greaest songwriters ever.

We love you Kim!!!! I miss Chris so much!

Love the band. Love the music. RIP Chris. He will always be missed, but we have tons of music to last generations.

I used to live in Seattle and that guy Kim was everywhere. Coffee joints shows and the E.R. A.A. meetings on Aurora Ave, the other guy I saw at those meetings was the bass player from AIC he would leave the chair next to him vacant for Layne

7 new songs will be released soon. Man, are we going to enjoy it.

"Beyond the Wheel"... When I heard that, Down Under, sometime late 1990...I could not believe my ears.

Mentions my boy Layne at 7:12. When he talked a minute later about how the singers were developing, he didn’t mention how Chris actually suggested to Layne to start using his lower voice when recording and singing since Layne ALWAYS used only his highs in his and AIC’s early days. So without Chris, AIC probably would have become an entirely different sounding band.

Love that kim mentions Lanegan as one of the seattle greats. Hes underrated as hell.

Many years ago online someone asked me about Soundgarden.. I gave an unconventional answer that wasn't recieved as it being understood as it stood out. I said : Soundgarden has a very deep understanding of time in music. To hear why that is was soo cool for me here in this video. To just be an unoticed fly on the wall to observe that genius coming together. Would have been enough for me. That distant cautious feeling of something very special in the air somewhere. What an amazing time in music. I miss Chris so much and i didnt even know him. I did connect with him and this band on so many deep levels though. Chris and Soundgarden really touched my life. Many times expressing things and themes that noone else around had but me. The Day I tried to live. The structure of that song.. Wow. The pain in the Gutiar on the intro. Then the lyrics . that i interperate as a view of being a highly intelligent and highly compassionate soul ...enough to look at the world as it is.. And how hard that is to reconcile and rationalize when the ignorance isnt bliss any longer. That was very important for me .. a deep thinker with some intelligence and compassion.. To not feel so alone in this world. The deep lonlyness that is the curse of highly intelligent critical thinkers. When no matter how much love is around and even if some people try. To have the time it takes to explain some of your arising thoughts.. Is not always recieved.. Nor should it always be but they come just the same. I hear that in Chris's lyrics and the handful of interviews ive seen. Which i dont watch many besides Rick because its allway like a PR answer that you can tell its the 1000th time they answered. It came out in Chris's and his bandmates .. ( but im guessing alot from Chris) lyrics that even then.. He must have worried about how far down that road he could take people. That can easily be misconstrued. "Words you say never ... " I dont just hear.... if at all .. only doom and gloom in these lryics and the music. And the label most choose just pisses me off. TDITTL kind of addresses that as well within it as well. Thats just one of many great songs that touched my life.. Then all the time signatures and changes and the tones that are so rich.. It leaves new stuff to enjoy that stands the test of time. Chris never stopped searching and learning and i can see where the structure of that was cultivated too in this short interview. It explains alot. In thier short description of the foundation of all these things. I love Soundgarden. I think Superunknown kind of displays all of this very well.. Yet i like the older stuff as well. Singing during that crazy time signature in Rusty Cage and playing it. Man.. how many beers before you mess that up so royally you have to stop? I mean it was always there but you can hear and see the development. To me Soundgarden are the OGs of that whole Music Scene that im so thankful blew up so big. You can say the Mainstreaming of Nirvana was the catalyst... in that mixture. Its true... credit where do.. They were great and Kurt could pump somgs out... But to think Soundgarden PJ and AIC at least... were not destined for greatness .. Ya .. idk about that. To me .. its seems Soundgarden were the glue in many ways that held it all together to even make it possible . And yes.. Years later now people can appreciate my observations of your mastery of time. 😆 Maybe that means nothing to anyone but me .. But ive said that alot about this band and people go ya. Butt.... Thank you Soundgarden for Everything. ❤ Much ❤. And to Rick .. The best interviewer in Music.

Had no idea about alot of this , hearing them all talk is fricken rad. Cheers for doing this

Such a great interview! And yes, I WILL send links to my family and friends. Did you ever do a show on London Bridge Studios here in Seattle? Great people and awesome history. Thanks Rick! ❤️

When you saw Soundgarden live On stage it was like something out of a dream... I will never forget how I discovered Soundgarden... I was clocking out at a screen printing company in West Virginia that I worked at.. we predominately did shirts for punk rock bands and stuff like.. which went on to be a huge screen printing company called Balzout... And I was clocking out one day and there was a cassette tape waiting in the floor... I normally wouldn't have thought anything of it but I walked over and picked it up... It said Soundgarden louder than Love... And I put it in my walkman and listen to it as I walked home... I was like oh my God this is incredible!!! And I am a second-generation punk-rocker I was listening to social distortion and stuff like that at the time... But I gave this to benefit of the doubt because I was a katar player changed everything.

Hearing about the songwriting process is fantastic.

I still cry...he was the greatest....EVER!

Man I could listen to these guys for another hour. Thayil is so informative and so insightful as to what was going on. And when he mentioned we literally almost lost Chris as a singer? Like they were just going to let him stay with drums and get a singer instead, just imagine what that would have been like? No Soundgarden without Chris Cornell on vocals? How crazy different would life have been for these last 30 years listening to one of the greatest lead vocalist of all time

Kim's guitar tone and playing is unreal!

Excellent panel interview

As a child of the 80s whos music was this shit, excellent interview. Now im 45 n still listen to these dudes 🤘🏻

Timeless music that will never be re created or die.

Kim Thayil is my #1 guitarist

Great interview

These interviews are important historical documents, thank you Rick x

At 8:20, I find that fascinating about the singers developing. I recall Brian May saying Freddie was once all over the place and early on he changed into a different singer. That's a topic i would love to see a deep dive on with singers.

Chris was my mentor I will miss his songwriting and his powerful voice...

Being a Doors freak I would’ve loved to hear Chris singing Doors songs. Chris to me will always be like an old friend from back in the day, his voice such a powerful vehicle. So much wonderful memories wrapped in those somgs

Seattle bands with great singers - interesting topic. Alice In Chains and Queensryche also come to mind.

One of my biggest regrets was never seeing Soundgarden live. Such an incredible band. Chris Cornell. What can I say? Miss him so much.

Hiro's basswork was incredibly influential to alt rock and upcoming grunge acts. These were the early years before Pearl Jam. It had a newness to it was was mysterious and exciting. You could do a fluid bassline that grooved and rocked hard at the same time. It was a breakthrough. I Love Ben but Hiro laid the groundwork for the vibe of grunge rhythmically.

Amazing interview omg!! Chris Cornell lives on, his spirit is with us every day 🩵🩵 I’m so happy they brought up Andy Wood!! So many incredibly talented gorgeous men blossomed in Seattle 🩵🩵

Excellent🙌 thank you for sharing! @ 5:40 the talk is loudness, got me thinking 🤔 it would be neat to have a vocal loudness scale. Tiny Tim Vs Shirley Temple, Chris Cornell Vs ? Chris was special, cut from different cloth that was on fire...❤️

Kim got A Perfect Circle hat on, nice.

Cornell was in a class by himself. Great video!

This guy is an excellent speaker let alone an awesome guitar player

Kim Thayil is so self-deprecating - and he always is - for being such a great rock musician. I mean, he's the total package.

Superunknown: the album that captured the nineties and provided a musical direction into the 2000s.

another great interview.

Jack Endino is my hero!

4 great song writers came out of Seattle, Plenty of others who wrote a few popular songs, But Kurt, Chris Layne and Eddie set the stage,, What is even crazier is many of them was good to great friends,

Great band. If you like Chris's voice, listen to Ian Thornley of Big Wreck. Phenomenal guitarist plus he kinda sounds similar to Chris. I like both.