He wasn’t a friend in the literal sense. But with any artist or musician to whom you feel an attachment – for whatever reason – it starts to feel like a one-sided friendship, doesn’t it? They are there through all the good and bad times in your life. …Again, not in the literal sense, but their music is, and it feels like the same thing.
I first got into Soundgarden courtesy of my longtime friend Terry Gorman, who generously gave me a promo cassette of Louder Than Love shortly after its release. Terry told me he didn’t necessarily care for them, but he thought I might dig them.
It was not like anything I had heard before.
I was 15 years old. It was a musical coming of age for me. The excitement and wonder I found in Soundgarden’s music must have been like what teens in the 60’s felt when they first heard The Beatles.
Soundgarden was my Beatles. This hurts.
“I read the news today, oh boy…
About a lucky man who made the grade…”