Soundgarden were welcomed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Saturday with an all-star induction that included a performance by the band’s surviving members, a group composed of fellow Seattle musicians, and the daughter of the late Chris Cornell.
Jim Carrey, who once hosted a 1996 episode of Saturday Night Live where Soundgarden was the musical guest, inducted the band. “Spank you kindly, spank you all,” the actor-comedian told the crowd. “You might ask why would Soundgarden — the heaviest of rock & roll royalty — want Jim Carrey to induct them into the Hall of Fame? Is there some deep, cosmic connection between them, or was the ‘Spoonman’ not available?”
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Carrey revealed that when he hosted SNL, he insisted that Soundgarden be the musical guest, and was gifted Cornell’s Fender Telecaster after the show, his most prized possession. “When the Seattle music scene exploded, it resurrected rock & roll for me,” he said. “When I heard Soundgarden for the first time, I wasn’t just excited. I wanted to put a flannel shirt on and run into the streets screaming, ‘My mother smoked during pregnancy!’”
Following Carrey’s speech, Cornell’s daughter, Lily, joined the stage. “I am just really, really happy that he got to make music with his friends,” she said of her dad. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. I know how much purpose that gave him, and how much it’s meant to people who have heard that music. That’s what I’ll be holding in my heart tonight.”
Then came the “Seattle-centric” performance drummer Matt Cameron promised in the run-up to the ceremony. Friends like Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, Brandi Carlile (who previously teamed with Soundgarden’s surviving members for a Record Store Day single), and Taylor Momsen of the Pretty Reckless (who served as opening act on Soundgarden’s final tour prior to Cornell’s 2017 death), joined the band for “Rusty Cage” and “Black Hole Sun.”
Each member of the band — guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron, bassists Ben Shepherd and Hiro Yamomoto, who left the group in 1989 — delivered induction speeches. “Chris Cornell, we are so missing you tonight on this stage,” Yamomoto said. “We’ve heard so many stories of how the music we created became your own, and that is the greatest recognition of all. To everyone else out there — especially all you brown kids — let’s rock!”
After the all-star Seattle team-up, Cornell’s daughter Toni and Heart’s Nancy Wilson teamed up for an acoustic rendition of “Fell on Black Days.”
“I think Chris would have really enjoyed this moment of recognition, because he was always moving as an artist,” Cameron said in an interview prior to the Rock Hall induction. “He was always seeking that next phase of his writing career, performing career. … Maybe down the line he will get recognized as a solo artist or [for] Temple of the Dog or something like that because his contribution to music has been absolutely massive.”
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