Author Explains What Kurt Cobain Thought of Soundgarden & Chris Cornell, Recalls How Band Reacted to Nirvana Frontman's Death.

-"I kind of equate Soundgarden to Led Zeppelin of Seattle rock bands."

During an appearance on the Whatever, Nevermind Podcast, Corbin Reiff, the author of the book "Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell," talked about Soundgarden, Nirvana, Kurt Cobain's relationship with the band, as well as the grunge scene in general.

Asked if he agrees that Soundgarden fits the "Big 4" of grunge alongside Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana, Corbin replied (transcribed by UG):

"You know, like most people, I love Nirvana and I love Soundgarden. My favorite of all time is Led Zeppelin, and I kind of equate Soundgarden to Led Zeppelin of Seattle rock bands.

"Nirvana's kind of The Beatles, Pearl Jam's kind of The Who, and Soundgarden is Led Zeppelin to me.

"So that was what I gravitated to - long guitar solos and loud, abrasive music, that sort of thing. That's just what I like, so absolutely, I gravitated to them."

"Yeah, I think there's an element of Kurt Cobain when he was in the media, he kind of knew what he was doing when he was talking to journalists.

"They were looking for juicy quotes and he was more than up to play the game. Fights with Guns N' Roses and all that crazy stuff...

"But I know he had a lot of admiration for Chris [Cornell] and admiration for Soundgarden. Ben Shepherd, Soundgarden's bassist, toured with Nirvana.

"He was supposed to be the second guitarist, but he just ended up working the merch table for a while, and he was really close friends with them.

"And when Kurt died [in 1994], it really impacted the band [Soundgarden] in a tremendous way. They all had tremendous respect to him.

"Soundgarden was around a lot longer than Nirvana, they were out since '84-'85, and Nirvana kind of came around '89 or so. They were kind of the big brothers in the scene in the first place, so there was definitely an element of looking up, in some respect, to what Soundgarden was, by Nirvana."

I knew Soundgarden has been around longer, but it's really detailed - '84 to '92 is a long time. They have quite a bit of history ahead of those guys.

"Yeah, they really did. It's so funny that Soundgarden ended up being the band that broke last. 'Superunknown' hit in '94, and [Nirvana's] 'Nevermind' came in '91, Pearl Jam came out in '92, I believe...

"'Superunknown' is the best, 'Badmotofinger' is my favorite, but it took them quite a bit of time to break out.

"It was a long, long haul going from independent record labels, to Subpop, to another record label, SST.

-"They wanted to make a record for the same label that made the Black Flag album, it was kind of important to them, and then they went to A&M and did a major-label thing around '89, so they had a lot of roads ahead of them before they kind of hit the major national consciousness."

One of the things in the book is [early Soundgarden bassist] Hiro Yamamoto quitting the band after the 'Louder Than Love' tour [in 1989]. I think touring was one of his reasons for not wanting to do it, yet he stayed in the music business. I always thought that was a bit conflicted

"Yeah, it's so funny, the last show I saw before the quarantine happened in February. It was Hiro's band Stereo Donkey, in Washington, and it's a fun surf-rock band that he got going on. He's still doing it and it sounded great."

The whole Temple of Dog period. It's amazing to me that that album got released and recorded when none of these people were heavy-hitters in the industry at that time.

- "Yeah, it was a passion project that Chris and the Pearl Jam members said, 'For their friend.' It wasn't intended to be an era-defining super-album that it ended up becoming.

"What basically happened is - 'Badmotofinger' drops, 'Ten' drops, Nirvana blows up, and all of a sudden the record label remember, 'Hey, they did a record together, didn't they?'

"So they actually filmed the music video before, but they re-cut more footage of Eddie involved and put it into the MTV rotation, and then the rest is history."

-Michael Beinhorn comes in to produce 'Superunknown.' We had Michael on the show, he did not shy away from stories of conflict. What did you find on that level?

"It was a long process, they were banging heads against the wall for a long time, just cutting up demos - everyone knew that Soundgarden was going to be the next big thing if they pulled it off with 'Superunknown.'

"It was expected, 'OK, everyone is waiting for this record,' so there was a lot of impetus to really get it right, and they were writing just a lot of material and sending it to Beinhorn.

"Some of it was good, some of it was bad; eventually, they get to the studio and three weeks later they need to go on tour, and then they get back, and it's just this really intense process of trial and error and trying to get drum sounds out of Matt Cameron.

"He's one of the best drummers of all time, he's basically a human metronome who solved math problems at a level that is unfathomable.

"Beinhorn put them through the paces and tried to get the best drum sound. And Chris - he ended up recording his vocals by himself, he was able to kind of direct himself that way. It wasn't always fun, but the end result speaks for itself. (by https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/).

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