Soundgarden to release final album with late frontman Chris Cornell: ‘It's a gift to Chris'
Soundgarden will rise —and rock — again.
And, yes, with Chris Cornell.
Indeed, the black hole that was left when the grunge god died by suicide in 2017 will be filled with some sun again: The band plans to release the final album made with its frontman.
'It would be a great gift to the fans,' Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil told Rolling Stone. 'And I do think about this, and I don't know how strange this sounds, but I feel like it's a gift to Chris too.'
5 Seattle grunge band Soundgarden is among the 2025 class of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
Redferns
5 Chris Cornell, who died by suicide in 2017, will posthumously rock again on a final Soundgarden album.
Redferns
The group, which was just announced as inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, plans to finish the LP that they never completed before Cornell's death at 52.
'Our objective and goal was always to complete that [album],' Thayil said.
'I probably have OCD enough to not want to leave something unfinished or incomplete like that,' he continued.
5 'We want to do it proud,' said Soungarden guitarist Kim Thayil of the band's final album with late frontman Chris Cornell.
Thayil noted a desire to 'attend to our body of work and our catalog.'
'I think everyone in the band feels that way,' he said. 'I don't just to attend to my work, but the collective work, and in this case specifically, the work of Chris.'
It continues the pride that Thayil has always taken in Soundgarden since the 'Spoonman' band formed in 1984 and became a part of the Seattle grunge movement with Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
5 Chris Cornell peformd in Atlanta just days before his death by suicide in May 2017.
Getty Images
'I have pride for what I did and I want to see that come out,' he said. 'It doesn't exist in the vacuum. It exists as a collaboration with Matt [Cameron, drummer] and Ben [Shepherd, bassist] and Chris, but it takes on an entirely different weight when you think about what it is you're honoring, and the work that you're paying tribute to.
'It is us collectively. We want to do it proud. And that part of us is certainly one of the most intimate components of what Soundgarden has been since 1984.'
On April 27, Soundgarden — including original bassist Hiro Yamamoto — was announced as part of the class of 2025 in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with Cyndi Lauper, Chubby Checker, OutKast, Bad Company, the White Stripes and Joe Cocker.
Thayil told Billboard that Cornell would 'definitely be stoked' about the induction for the band, which was previously nominated in 2020 and 2023.
5 Soundgarden's Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Chis Cornell and Ben Shepherd appeared at the 2014 SXSW Music Festival.
Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP
'He's the one who convinced me how appreciative the fans and our peers and the Soundgarden community — that includes the people that we work with and work for us — would be about it,' Thayil said. 'He realized how important that was, and he understood that would be important to us because it's important to people who cared about us and helped us and supported us all along.
'That's how I believe Chris would respond to this. I think he'd be very appreciative and thankful to all the people who have believed in him and believed in the work he did and the work that we all did, collectively.'
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