Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Soundgarden pay tribute to Chris Cornell after being inducted by Jim Carrey
Seattle grunge band Soundgarden was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2025 by comedian Jim Carrey and the daughter of the late singer Chris Cornell, who passed away in 2017, followed by a series of performances featuring the remaining members.
Carrey, who had hosted the 1996 Saturday Night Live episode featuring Soundgarden as the live guest, inducted the band’s entry. “Spank you kindly, spank you all,” the actor-comedian addressed the audience.
“You might ask why would Soundgarden — the heaviest of rock and roll royalty — want Jim Carrey to induct them into the Hall of Fame? Is there some deep, cosmic connection between them, or was the ‘Spoonman’ not available?”
Carrey would then reveal that it was down to his insistence that Soundgarden be booked for SNL, and was gifted Cornell’s Fender Telecaster after the show. “When the Seattle music scene exploded, it resurrected rock and roll for me,” he said. “When I heard Soundgarden for the first time, I wasn’t just excited. I wanted to put a flannel shirt on and run into the streets screaming, ‘My mother smoked during pregnancy!’”
Afterwards, Cornell’s daughter Lily joined the stage to share a brief statement. “I am just really, really happy that he got to make music with his friends,” she said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. I know how much purpose that gave him, and how much it’s meant to people who have heard that music. That’s what I’ll be holding in my heart tonight”.
A celebratory run of gigs followed, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, with various former collaborators, took to the stage for renditions of ‘Rusty Cage’ and Soundgarden’s defining ‘Black Hole Sun’.
Each remaining member of Soundgarden—guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron, bassists Ben Shepherd and Hiro Yamamoto, who left the group in 1989—took turns to offer speeches and honour their late frontman. “Chris Cornell, we are so missing you tonight on this stage,” Yamomoto said. “We’ve heard so many stories of how the music we created became your own, and that is the greatest recognition of all. To everyone else out there — especially all you brown kids — let’s rock!”
After the Seattle-centred show, Cornell’s other daughter, Toni, teamed up with Heart’s Nancy Wilson for an acoustic version of ‘Fell on Black Days’.
“I think Chris would have really enjoyed this moment of recognition, because he was always moving as an artist,” Cameron stated during the run-up to the event. “He was always seeking that next phase of his writing career, performing career. … Maybe down the line he will get recognised as a solo artist or [for] Temple of the Dog or something like that because his contribution to music has been absolutely massive”.
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