Eight years ago today Chris Cornell died at 52 following a Soundgarden show in Detroit. Since then, the band's surviving members -- who reunited in Seattle not too long ago -- have been involved in some legal disputes with the frontman's widow Vicky Cornell, including issues with unpaid royalties and the rights to some unfinished songs. But the two parties have been reconciling some of those issues recently, and now it looks like we might get to hear some of that unfinished music sometime soon.
Earlier this month, upon the news the Soundgarden will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame this year, guitarist Kim Thayil told Rolling Stone that he wants to eventually complete and release the album the band was working on when Cornell died: "It would be a great gift to the fans," he said, though he acknowledged it's a decision that also involves bandmates Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd. "I feel like it’s a gift to Chris too." On Soundgarden's official Instagram account Saturday, Shepherd chimed in with a tribute to Cornell, saying he'd been listening to "The Road Less Traveled," a song Cornell and Cameron wrote "for our album that has yet to be named." The post continues in part:
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.
I am very blessed by my loved ones and very honored to have known or worked with each of my brothers Kim, 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... 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.
Either way, it sounds like the surviving Soundgarden members are down to perform at the Rock Hall induction ceremony come November. See Shepherd's post below.
