Apparently, third time’s the charm for one of Seattle’s most storied rock bands.
After missing the cut in its first two nominations, Soundgarden is going into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of a 2025 class that includes hip-hop innovators Outkast, Cyndi Lauper, The White Stripes, ‘70s rockers Bad Company, Joe Cocker and Chubby Checker.
This year’s class was announced Sunday during an episode of “American Idol.” The 2025 induction ceremony will take place Nov. 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and will be livestreamed on Disney+.
Soundgarden had been knocking on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s door since the psych-laced grunge lords were first nominated for the class of 2020. Their induction means three of the grunge era’s “Big Four” bands will be enshrined, following Nirvana (2014) and Pearl Jam (2017).
The Rock Hall’s nominating committee seemed committed to thoroughly vetting Soundgarden before taking up Alice in Chains, whose eligibility window opened after Soundgarden’s. With Soundgarden’s induction, it seems likely that Alice in Chains could receive a nomination in the next few years. (If and when Alice does get the nod, someone might have to spray paint Mudhoney onto the Rock Hall’s Mount Grungemore.)
Using building blocks carved by the likes of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and The Stooges, Soundgarden helped build a new breed of metallic, punk-infused rock ‘n’ roll, echoes of which still ring through rock radio. While hardly the first band to meld elements from once-disparate genres, Soundgarden did so in a way that transcended underground heroism and infiltrated the mainstream. Credit archetypal frontman Chris Cornell howling like a demonic Robert Plant over odd time signatures and Kim Thayil’s menacing, drop-D guitar tuning with helping pull Soundgarden up from the underground by the dog tags.
From grunge’s ground floor, Soundgarden was instrumental in laying the foundation for the unlikely movement that radically altered the course of rock history, killing metal’s big-hair era and paving the way for “alternative” rock to become a dominant force in pop culture. Though Nirvana’s and Pearl Jam’s stars brightened faster in the ’90s, Soundgarden became the first grunge band to release a major-label album. The band earned a Grammy nomination before Nirvana broke out, and before Eddie Vedder and the boys had even cut their debut.
Soundgarden wouldn’t reach its commercial zenith until 1994’s chart-topping “Superunknown,” which featured Grammy-winning singles “Black Hole Sun” and “Spoonman” — MTV staples now synonymous with a generation of rock music.
In a nice salute to one of Soundgarden’s original members, bassist Hiro Yamamoto will be inducted along with the band’s classic lineup: the late Cornell, Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron, who was previously inducted with Pearl Jam.
While Soundgarden is one of the seven voted-in artists in the performer category this year, it isn’t the only Washington music great going into the hall.
Everett-born session bassist Carol Kaye — a pioneering woman in the male-dominated world of studio musicians — will also be inducted with a “musical excellence award.” During the 1960s and 1970s, Kaye was part of an elite group of Los Angeles studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. The behind-the-scenes group was closely affiliated with famed producer Phil Spector and played on seminal records from artists like Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Sonny & Cher, the Monkees and the Beach Boys.
Kaye, now 90, performed on the Beach Boys’ 1966 masterpiece “Pet Sounds,” widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time, as well as theme songs for TV shows and films including “The Addams Family,” “Hawaii 5-0,” “Mission Impossible” and “The Cosby Show.”
She was the subject of a 2004 documentary titled “The First Lady of Bass.”
