Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2025: Spotlight on Soundgarden

Soundgarden will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during Saturday’s ceremony in Los Angeles, streaming live on Disney+.

Formed in 1984 in Seattle, Soundgarden helped pioneer the grunge sound that dominated the rock scene in the early ’90s. 

The original Soundgarden lineup consisted of vocalist and drummer Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. When Cornell switched to guitar, drummer Matt Cameron joined. Yamamoto left in 1989 and was replaced by Ben Shepherd, who completed the classic Soundgarden lineup.

After building a following with their first two albums, Soundgarden began to reach wider audiences with their 1991 record, Badmotorfinger. As grunge exploded, Soundgarden made their true mainstream breakthrough with 1994’s Superunknown, which spawned the singles “Spoonman,” “Fell on Black Days” and their signature song, “Black Hole Sun.”

Soundgarden released one more album, Down on the Upside, in 1996, before breaking up in 1997. They reunited in 2010 and released a comeback record, King Animal, in 2012.

“I’ve looked up to Soundgarden my entire musical career,” The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen, who will take part in the induction ceremony, told ABC Audio in 2021.

Momsen recorded with Thayil and Cameron on a song off the last Pretty Reckless album, and the experience of performing with her heroes felt “surreal.”

“Even though we’re friends it still blows my mind,” she laughed.

Sadly, Soundgarden’s induction moment will be missing Cornell, who died in 2017. Momsen was among the performers at the 2019 Cornell tribute concert.

“I finally got to a place where I could listen to Soundgarden and have it bring me joy again, ’cause there was a time period where it was too much … it was too emotional,” Momsen said. “And that was a very refreshing day.”

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