Soundgarden Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction was emotional tribute

Leave it to the Seattle guys to bring a little rain to Los Angeles.

It might have been 78 degrees and sunny in the land of palm trees when Soundgarden was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday. But it didn’t seem like there were many dry eyes inside the Peacock Theater (or on sofas watching back home), where a sizable Seattle contingent helped the homegrown rock legends take their place among music’s most revered with a performance that was an emotional tribute to Soundgarden’s late frontman, Chris Cornell.

It also felt like a testament to the power of friends making music together on a night when regional scenes took the spotlight among the Rock Hall’s 2025 class, between Iggy Pop inducting his Detroit garage rock disciples The White Stripes, Outkast bringing half of Atlanta on stage and a video tribute to late R&B producer Thom Bell — a longtime Bellingham resident and architect of Philadelphia soul. (In other Washington connections, Everett-born session bassist Carol Kaye also was inducted.)

When drummer Matt Cameron said a few weeks ago that it was going to be a “Seattle-centric” affair, he wasn’t lying. At least four generations of Seattle music were on hand to honor the band’s place in music history, including Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic (who was spotted dancing in the crowd) and Lily Cornell Silver — daughter of Cornell and Soundgarden’s longtime manager Susan Silver.

Before Soundgarden’s surviving members Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, Cameron and original bassist Hiro Yamamoto hit the stage for a star-studded performance, the younger Silver came out to join Jim Carrey, who inducted the band. “Was the spoon man not available?” the Canadian actor joked of the seemingly random pairing, before explaining how the Seattle scene “resurrected rock ‘n’ roll for me.”

While Carrey spoke of Soundgarden’s rise from the “gritty bars of Seattle” to astonishing commercial heights “without fear or compromise,” it was Cornell Silver’s words that carried more weight back home.

“The band’s impact is of course massive,” she began after helping ensure that mom got a well-deserved round of applause. “But growing up within the Seattle music community, what’s always been the most special part to me is that it comes from friends making music together and then being able to turn that into a life.

“Seeing my dad not as a public figure but as a person, a father and someone who faced his struggles out loud, I am just really, really happy that he got to make music with his friends.”

A few of those friends would help Soundgarden revisit a pair of their classic songs during the Rock Hall ceremony, leading off their two-song performance with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and Taylor Momsen (lead singer of The Pretty Reckless) on a motoring “Rusty Cage” — a sludgy freight train that was nearly derailed by sound issues (at least on the livestream) out of the gate. It was harder to tell who was having more fun, Cameron authoritatively slugging it out behind the kit or the knees-bent, headbanging McCready.

With the unbridled rocker out of the way, Soundgarden and friends moved into emotionally weightier territory with what Carrey called their “magnum opus,” “Black Hole Sun,” accompanied by Brandi Carlile and Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains. Carlile’s shivering vibrato moved like a snake through the shadows, while Cantrell joined Thayil’s haunting guitar licks. The crater-making rhythm section of Cameron, Shepherd and Yamamoto built grooves as deep as volcanoes on the chorus, as the camera panned tearful faces in the audience.

“No one sings like you anymore,” Carlile wailed, the signature Cornell lyric having become eerily resonant after his 2017 death. After the band’s acceptance speeches, Cornell’s other daughter, Toni Cornell, from the singer’s second marriage, sang a beautifully chilling chamber-folk rendition of “Fell on Black Days,” with Wilson on guitar. (Wilson pulled double duty on Saturday, also performing during a tribute to Bad Company alongside Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, Bryan Adams and others.)

The world already knew Chris Cornell was on everyone’s minds, but being the first to give his acceptance speech, Yamamoto made sure to acknowledge their friend’s absence.

“Chris Cornell, we are so missing you tonight on this stage,” he said. “We all love you. … We would not be here without you.”

One aspect of Soundgarden’s legacy that has often gone understated is the fact that in its early days, the band was co-founded by two Asian Americans in a predominantly white rock scene. Both Yamamoto and Thayil referenced being the children of immigrants during their speeches.

“Thanks to my parents, whose story is American citizens who were rounded up and placed into prison camps just for being Japanese during World War II,” Yamamoto said. “That affected my life greatly, and it really echoes strongly today. Let’s not add another story like this to our history.”

Among the laundry list of thank yous Cameron and Thayil delivered, there were plenty of Seattle names: Sub Pop founders Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman (who released Soundgarden’s first EPs), producer Jack Endino, and short-term Soundgarden members Scott Sundquist and Jason Everman. But naturally, it kept coming back to the memory of Cornell.

“I accept this honor on behalf of the fans of our music,” Cameron said. “And also the misfits, the loners and the introverts who found comfort and solace in the lyrics and music of my hero and bandmate Chris Cornell. I love you, Chris.”

“Together, we built a culture of encouragement and creative risk that would nurture our curiosity and creative spirit collectively and individually,” Thayil said in his speech. “And if anyone would ever hesitate in sharing an idea, Chris would be the first to say, ‘Let’s just try it out and see.’

“I miss him, and I love him,” Thayil continued, growing emotional. “And I love all of my Soundgarden brothers.”