A day before the eighth anniversary of Chris Cornell’s suicide, Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd has written a lengthy Instagram post saluting the vocalist’s enduring influence and also referencing the unfinished album the imminent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees were working on at the time.
The message calls out “The Road Less Traveled,” a song written by Cornell and drummer Matt Cameron “for our album that has yet to be named. Just hearing Chris’ voice helps. I know he did that for everyone he knew. He did for me, filled with self-doubt and indebtedness. In just his tone, [he] knew what I was going through and forgave me like he always did, even when he was older. It’s at this point of recording all of our previous albums I’d get this overwhelming hit of awe, camaraderie, power of creativity — majesty even — and love, from the music, and my bandmates, and I guess just pure life force.”
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“I am very blessed by my loved ones and very honored to have known or worked with each of my brothers Kim [Thayil], Matt and Chris in this path of music and life, of loves and losses, righteousness and folly, but I can tell you, it feels good and invigorating to hear Chris singing from over that horizon and hear the mighty, mighty life of souls sharing,” Shepherd continued. “To hear, as a fan and band member, a song or two Chris brought in a few years ago turn before my very ears and finger blisters into a full blown Soundgarden tune is like feeling a glacier fall away off your chest.”
Soundgarden was active from 1984-1997 but did not play again until 2010 while Cornell focused on a solo career. Following their reunion, the group toured regularly for the next seven years during breaks in Cameron’s schedule with Pearl Jam and released a comeback album, King Animal, in 2012.
After years of unpleasant legal wrangling, Cornell’s widow Vicky and the surviving members “reached an amicable out of court resolution” in April 2023, allowing for the release of “the final songs that the band and Chris were working on” before his passing. The parties had been in litigation in federal court for four years, with numerous high-level music industry managers and executives having attempted to help them broker a settlement. In 2019, Vicky Cornell sued the musicians for wrongfully withholding royalty money owed to the Cornell estate, in what she claimed was an attempt to force her to turn over seven unreleased recordings Chris made before he died.
Vicky Cornell filed another suit in 2021, claiming the surviving members offered her “the villainously low figure of less than $300,000″ for the estate’s stake in the Soundgarden catalog despite it having been valued at $16 million.
Longtime Soundgarden/Cornell producer Brendan O’Brien was rumored to be involved in the unreleased recordings that were at issue, but he denied having participated in them in a December 2021 interview with SPIN. Asked about the unfinished material, he said, “I’ve never heard it. In spite of what may have been said or written, Chris and I never talked about it. We were focused on [the covers collection No One Sings Like You Anymore, which was recorded in 2016 but not released until 2021]. Soundgarden seemed like a separate thing, which was great by me. I felt good about that. But I’d love to hear it at some point — I really would. I hope they get it figured out.”
Shepherd closed his post by saying, “we all have a lot of work to go through in this life, but we are all to a man trying our best and to do each and every one of us proud. You, Chris, are right here with us. We all miss you brother. See you when we do.” He signed off by writing, “PS, please say hey to Mark,” apparently a reference to friend and late Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, who died in 2022.
As previously reported, Soundgarden will join Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Outkast and the White Stripes as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2025 induction class during a Nov. 8 ceremony in Los Angeles.
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