Over the weekend a brand new, life-sized bronze statue of Chris Cornell was unveiled outside of the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. The ceremony was attended by Cornell’s wife and children, as well as the surviving members of his iconic band Seattle, who spoke to the media after the event and stirred hope that they might reunite at some point. Today, however, in a new interview with the Seattle Times, guitarist Kim Thayil has thrown cold water all over that idea.
“No, I don’t think that’s anything we’d give reasonable consideration to at this point,” Thayil said when asked directly about a reunion. “When I say ‘at this point,’ I mean perhaps ever.” He added, “I don’t know really what kind of thing is possible or what we would consider in the future. It’s likely nothing. The four of us were that. There were four of us and now there’s three of us, so it’s just not likely that there’s much to be pursued other than the catalog work at this point.”
After the statue unveiling, drummer Matt Cameron made some comments to Rolling Stone that stoked Soundgarden fans’ optimism. “We’re just still taking our time and giving ourselves space to process everything,” he said. “We would certainly love to try to continue to do something, figure out something to do together.” Bassist Ben Shepherd added, “On a personal level, we haven’t even gotten a chance to hang out, just us three, yet… we’re going through natural healing, then thinking about the natural next step.”
It seems like, for now, and maybe forever, that natural next step won’t be onto a stage under the name Soundgarden.
