Soundgarden co-founding guitarist Kim Thayil launched his memoir, A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown With Soundgarden and Beyond, on June 11, 2026 with a discussion alongside Krist Novoselic, co-founding bassist of Nirvana, at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, Washington. The book, published on June 9 via HarperCollins’ William Morrow imprint, is now accompanied by video of that conversation.
Speaking about the way heroin had devastated the Seattle scene — claiming the lives of Alice in Chains members Layne Staley and Mike Starr, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Mother Love Bone’s Andrew Wood — Thayil said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “That is a point I make in the book a number of times, is that none of these bands had a drug culture and the scene didn’t have a drug culture. There were individuals that had their own sense of self and their own sense of adventure. And I had to explain this many times to journalists and interviewers, and I made sure it was present in the book… I explained that the bands didn’t have a drug culture. I was close friends with all these other guys, and they themselves were just as impacted and distraught, and in no way were they somehow reinforcing this risk.
“As I would tell people, you drive as fast as you want to, you climb a mountain if you want to climb it, and people make choices to make themselves feel good and to enjoy their lives, and a lot of them, a lot of the choices they make are risky, and that’s part of being alive. And the impact of this constantly had me engaging with my family and friends and record labels and tours to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t us. This isn’t even them. This is just a strange aberration with individuals that are living their own lives.’
“And that was so difficult for people to understand. So I’d meet adults, and I’d have to kind of… They would look at me kind of odd or with suspicion or, ‘Here’s this guy with hair too long and doesn’t look like he combs it and a beard, and he plays in one of these Seattle bands.’ And it became very conspicuous after losing Andy and Kurt, and I think the belief was that Seattle was somehow embracing of and reinforcing the decisions that were made.”
When Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell died in May 2017, an autopsy report showed several prescription drugs in his system, though none contributed to his death. Toxicology tests showed the presence of barbiturates, caffeine and lorazepam, as well as naloxone. Cornell was found in his hotel room after a concert in Detroit.
Soundgarden is currently working on an album of previously unreleased recordings made with Cornell before his 2017 death. Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd are collaborating with producer Terry Date, who previously helmed Louder Than Love (1989) and Badmotorfinger (1991).
In November 2025, Soundgarden joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2025 in the Performer category. The three surviving members performed at the induction ceremony alongside guest vocalists Taylor Momsen and Brandi Carlile, with appearances by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell.
A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown With Soundgarden and Beyond is available here.
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