The Metal Bands Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil Listened to in the ‘80s

During a new interview, Soundgarden‘s Kim Thayil named the metal bands he listened to in the ’80s when his band was first starting out.

The guitarist appeared as a guest on the Turned Out a Punk podcast to discuss his upcoming new memoir A Screaming Life: Into The Superunknown With Soundgarden and Beyond. 

Because Soundgarden formed in 1984 before the term “grunge” had been used to describe the sound of the bands in the Pacific Northwest — and because their music was more eccentric and progressive than the rock that was popular at the time — they were sometimes referred to as a metal band, which wasn’t something they particularly agreed with themselves.

“Well we liked Metallica but that was different. The thrash scene kind of had — they crossed over with the punk scene very much so and it was independent and it wasn’t as radio friendly or MTV-oriented or pop-oriented. We were already into Metal Church and I was acquainted with Trouble and Exodus, so we had those records,” Thayil recalled.

The rocker said that it was Mark Arm of Green River (and later Mudhoney) who turned him onto Metallica’s debut album Kill ‘Em All and Exodus’ Bonded by Blood. Arm pointed out to Thayil how fast Kirk Hammett‘s guitar-playing was.

“So that aspect of metal was perfectly fine. On one hand you got this band that’s definitely on the metal scene like Trouble, then you got this band coming out of the punk rock indie scene like Saint Vitus. And they’re both kind of doom oriented. And there’s that element in what we’re doing. There’s definitely some stoner rock doom stuff that we impacted with that scene. We did a lot of different kinds of stuff,” he continued.

Thayil explained that what was frustrating about Soundgarden being categorized at the time was that the record labels didn’t realize that they were part of a group that created a different sound from rock and from metal.

“And really it was Nirvana‘s success that got that shit off of our back. Thank you, Nirvana,” the rocker acknowledged.

The guitarist further revealed that he tried to convince Soundgarden’s label A&M to sign Nirvana when they were coming up, but the label apparently didn’t think it was necessary to have two bands from the Seattle scene so they passed.

READ MORE: Kim Thayil Opens Up on Final Moments With Chris Cornell

“And we did have — Chris [Cornell] is very good-looking, statuesque and he could easily be marketed that way. ‘If he’d only do the spandex and heels and maybe put some blonde streaks in his hair and use some hairspray.’ But it wasn’t gonna happen. That wasn’t what Chris was about and it wasn’t what the band was about. I think there probably was an interest in maybe doing that to help sell Soundgarden and break it,” Thayil shared.

Fortunately, Soundgarden were able to find massive success by staying true to themselves — even if it took a few years. See the full interview below.

A Screaming Life: Into The Superunknown With Soundgarden and Beyond will be out next Tuesday (June 9) and can be pre-ordered through the band’s website.

Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil Names the Metal Bands He Listened to in the ’80s

To see what else was happening in metal during the ’80s, see the best metal album of each year since 1970 below.