Alice In Chains moved on after Layne Staley’s death with William DuVall, and Stone Temple Pilots have moved on after Scott Weiland with Jeff Gutt, but Kim Thayil told Billboard in a new interview he doesn’t see ‘dignity’ in Soundgarden replacing Chris Cornell.
After the unveiling of Chris’ statue in Seattle Matt and Ben (Shepherd) made some noises about Soundgarden resuming in some form, but you do not concur, do you?
It’s not likely that we could ever do Soundgarden without a missing piece. I’d like to do more with Matt in the future. I’d like to do something with Ben in the future. It’s likely Matt and Ben and I will do something in the future — it just probably won’t be Soundgarden. I don’t see the dignity in pursuing that course.
If Soundgarden is over, then, are you satisfied with the status of the group’s legacy?
I’m completely satisfied, but it needs to be maintained. That’s why I’m overseeing the catalog and the merchandise, and I’ve been doing that all along because it’s important that the legacy is understood. There’s an ever-expanding demographic of potential Soundgarden fans amidst a shrinking demographic of consumers, so it’s important that they there are good ways for them to hear what we did.
What about material you were working on at the time of Chris’ death?
We were working on an album and there’s material there that we demoed that we can flesh out when we can access some of the basic, multi(-track) recordings, sure. That’s being discussed.
