Soundgarden performed on Saturday Night Live hosted by Jim Carey on May 18, 1996, 21 years to the day before Chris Cornell died by suicide. Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis died by suicide on May 18, 1980. Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd recently wrote about the significance of May 18th in a new Instagram post, also mentioning it was the last time Chris Cornell saw Jeff Buckley.
“This happened on this date, Saturday Night Live. I wanted to have a projection of Mt. St Helens erupting behind us. In ode to the Northwest and to where were are from, and the marking of history and nature. That day I kept my inner sadness about Ian Curtis to myself, 15 or 16 years earlier he died on that day the day of Mt. St Helens erupting, actually first time I cried about someone I didn’t know.
On a cool aside though, I remember looking at Don Pardo’s tea steeping next to his reading glasses and newspaper in his vocal booth. If I could paint, it’s one I would do for sure. The history and the professionalism, talk about steeped!!! That booth was so exact to the second even the steam rising was on time and welcomed into the light shining down. Such a nightly ritual.
He wasn’t in there, but his stuff was. We actually had a skit that was cut from the show too, hahaha. That night was the last time we saw Jeff Buckley. At the end of the show you can see me lift my arms over my head and if you do that with your shadow it makes an eye. That was a code to my friend Andy I grew up playing music with – saying ‘check it out! We’re on Saturday Night Live whoa hahahaha!'”
