Kim Anand Thayil[1] (born September 4, 1960)[2][3] is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he co-founded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984. Cornell and Thayil remained as the original members of the band until Cornell's death in 2017, and the band's subsequent split in 2018. Thayil was named the 100th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2010,[4] and the 67th greatest guitarist of all time by SPIN in 2012.[5] Thayil has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Soundgarden.[6]
Biography
Childhood and early life
Born in Seattle in 1960, Thayil grew up in the Chicago suburb of Park Forest.[3] His parents came from Bombay, India to the United States, and initially settled in Seattle where Thayil was born.[3] His mother was a music teacher who studied to be a concert pianist at the Royal Academy of Music.[7] His father earned a degree in chemical engineering, received employment in Chicago and moved there with his family.[8]
Thayil started writing lyrics at 12 years old.[9] In 1977, he formed his first band in Chicago, Bozo and the Pinheads,[10] a punk rock band.[9] They did both original songs (written by Thayil and inspired by his punk music tastes) and cover tunes (mostly Sex Pistols, Devo, and Ramones).[11][9] Their first gig was at a school talent show for an audience of about 500 people.[11]
He played guitar in a post-punk band called Identity Crisis in 1980, and released a 7" inch EP called "Pretty Feet".[12]
Soundgarden became the first of Seattle's grunge bands to sign with a major label (A&M Records). They went on to release five albums, including three which went platinum at least once, and won two Grammys.[6]
Thayil became acclaimed for his guitar work, which was typically characterized by heavy riffing, and was cited among other grunge guitarists as an influence and a pioneer of the "Seattle Sound." In 1994, Thayil commented, "I think Soundgarden is a pretty good band and I'm a fine guitarist. I'm not God, but I'm certainly not average. I feel very comfortable with the fact that not many other people can do what I do on guitar. I think my guitar is happy with the way I play it."[14]
Originally one of Soundgarden's main songwriters, Thayil's contributions as a writer eventually dwindled to just one song on Down on the Upside, "Never the Machine Forever", although he contributed to details in every song, as did every band member. Thayil explained that "Collaboration was paramount in our early music, especially right at the beginning when it was me on guitar, Hiro on bass and Chris on drums," but eventually all four members became songwriters of their own, "all writing guitar parts that I had to learn." This led him to do "Never the Machine Forever" all on his own, as Thayil thought "Well, if I'm going to have a song on this fucking record, I'm going to have to write lyrics."[15]
While a member of Soundgarden, he has written the following songs for the band:
Thayil was a recurring participant on the Almost Live! sketch comedy show, calling things "lame" during "The Lame List" segments.[19][20]
In 2009, Thayil played with Soundgarden's Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd at a show in Seattle on March 24, 2009, at the Crocodile Cafe that was headlined by Tom Morello's The Nightwatchman. It was the first time the three had played together in public since the band's 1997 breakup. The three were joined by Tad Doyle of fellow 1990s Seattle band TAD, and performed three Soundgarden songs. For the last song (Spoonman) they were joined by Tom Morello (Morello had played the song before with Audioslave). Thayil has also played with Greg Gilmore of Mother Love Bone and Danny Kelly of Heliotroupe in the group Set & Setting. Their debut performance was October 31, 2009 above the famed K Records warehouse now known as the Cherry Street Loft ("The Loft on Cherry") in Olympia, Washington.[citation needed]
Soundgarden reunion (2010–2018)
On January 1, 2010, it was announced through Facebook and Twitter posts by Chris Cornell that the official Soundgarden fanclub had been restarted. On April 15, 2010, it was announced that Soundgarden would play its first show since 1997 the following day at the Showbox at the Market in its Seattle hometown. The band played under the name 'Nudedragons', an anagram for Soundgarden.[citation needed]
In September 2010, the band released the compilation album Telephantasm. November 2012 saw the release of King Animal, their first studio album since 1996.[citation needed]
On May 18, 2017, Chris Cornell was found dead in his hotel room, cancelling the rest of their tour and the band was disbanded again in 2018, with the exception of their one-off show of Tribute to Chris Cornell in January 2019.[21][22]
In 2020, Thayil played guitar solos on the song "The Firebird" for the jazz fusion band, the Barret Martin Group. In 2021, Kim Thayil played lead guitar and Matt Cameron played drums for a track, "Only Love Can Save Me Now", on the new The Pretty Reckless album. The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen said that without Thayil, recording the track would have been impossible, as "Kim is a master – there's no-one else like him."[24]
In December 2020, Thayil, Krist Novoselic, Jennifer Johnson, Jillian Raye, Jeff Fielder and Ben Smith performed the song "Drone" at the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture's tribute to Alice in Chains.
In 2021, Thayil appeared on Mastodon's double album Hushed and Grim, playing lead guitar on the track "Had It All."[25]
In 2021, Thayil, along with drummer Matt Cameron, bassist Krist Novoselic, guitarist Bubba Dupree, and vocalists Jennifer Johnson and Jillian Raye, formed the group 3rd Secret. Their self-titled debut album, which they recorded at The Bait Shop in Bellevue, Washington with producer Jack Endino, was released in April 2022. The group also performed at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.[26]
^Fricke, David; Edmonds, Ben; Eliscu, Jenny; Kemp, Rob; Kot, Greg; Levy, Joe; Moon, Tom; Puterbaugh, Parke; Randall, Mac; Sheffield, Rob (18 September 2003) "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" Rolling Stone Issue 931, pp. 46-61. The list was posted to the Internet on 27 August 2003
