SOUNDGARDEN Guitarist Addresses Reunion 'Cash Grab' Accusations

January 19, 2013

During a recent interview with The Phoenix, SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil spoke about accusations from some in the media — as well as SMASHING PUMPKINS mainman Billy Corgan — that the band's reunion is nothing more than a "cash grab." "How is it a cash grab?" Thayil asked. "Since when is there money in making records anymore? [laughs] I mean, playing Lollapalooza was a one-day payday, but … and by the way, since when do we need money? We're not like the AFGHAN WHIGS or PAVEMENT. We had a fairly successful career. [SOUNDGARDEN drummer] Matt Cameron played in PEARL JAM, for God's sake! What the hell does he need to spend another, you know, 20 hours a week dedicated to writing and rehearsing SOUNDGARDEN songs and tending to SOUNDGARDEN's business? He's doing just fine, thank you."

According to Thayil, the last thing SOUNDGARDEN had on their minds was to reap fruits of success gone by doing live gigs. "There's a lot of other bands; ALICE IN CHAINS came back a few years before us, SMASHING PUMPKINS — I guess that's not really SMASHING PUMPKINS, it's just a Billy Corgan solo project with a bunch of new guys, right? But there were a lot of bands that became active again, PAVEMENT became active again," Thayil said. "I don't know what it is; maybe when we were broke up we were all younger and everyone grew up and realized there's sort of a lull as far as interesting popular music — in my opinion."

Thayil claims that talk of a SOUNDGARDEN reunion all started over a thoughts on the bands t-shirts and posters.

"It was never formally discussed, 'Hey, you guys want to be a band again?'" Thayil said. "There was a neglect in attending to our catalog; we have no web site, we have no ecommerce presence whatsoever — no Facebook or web site. We had an official and unofficial site from the '90s; the official one was run by the record company, then the record company was gone, and the unofficial, which was actually a better website, that guy kept it going for a few years, but then we broke up and he let it go. There was nothing for the past decade. There was no web site where you could just get information like discography or interviews or videos or merch — and there was no merchandise in retail. Friends of mine and friends of other guys in the band, they had kids in junior high learning how to play bass or playing in a band at school and they're kind of checking out their dad or their brother's record collection and they'd go to the record store and they wouldn't be able to find any SOUNDGARDEN t-shirts or posters. But, of course, there's plenty of stuff from our peers like NIRVANA, ALICE IN CHAINS, SMASHING PUMPKINS, etc. We just thought that we needed to correct the neglect that had gone on for a decade."

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).