Soundgarden Guitarist says a New Album with Chris Cornell is ‘Entirely Possible’
Apparently, the surviving members of Soundgarden aren’t about to let a little thing like the death of their lead singer stop them from recording a new album with him.
Guitarist Kim Thayil says a new album featuring vocals by the late Chris Cornell is “entirely possible,” thanks to the band’s backlog of demos and unfinished songs. “We definitely have another record in us,” Thayil says. “All it would need is to take the audio files that are available. I’d tighten up the guitar stuff that’s on there, add other stuff. Ben [Shepherd] does the bass. Matt [Cameron] is able to get the drums he wants. We can get the producers we want to make it sound like a Soundgarden record. It’s entirely possible.”
However, Thayil’s not so enthusiastic about the possibility of touring without Cornell, who committed suicide in May 2017. “I do not see — given the commitments that other band members have, given our sentiments and love for Chris — I do not see us reconfiguring a tour or anything, as other bands have done in the past, without him.”
If Soundgarden did tour with a new singer, would you be interested in seeing them? When bands drop previously unreleased material, is it usually obvious why the material wasn’t released in the first place?