SEATTLE — To hear Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil talk about it, you’d think he was planning a destination wedding.

Not surprisingly, there’s a fair amount of logistical coordinating that goes into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Nov. 8 induction ceremony in Los Angeles, where the Seattle rock titans will be enshrined among generations of music royalty, including their Seattle brethren Nirvana and Pearl Jam. There are “the little anxieties” that come with preparing a speech and a guest-laden performance to curate and rehearse for.

Not to mention details like travel and seating arrangements — stuff someone else on Soundgarden’s payroll is surely tasked with handling, not that it’s stopped the hands-on guitarist from thinking about them.

“Just as long as I sit next to my girlfriend,” Thayil said a few weeks before the big night.

They ought to be able to accommodate that request from one of the musicians of the hour, a co-founder of the adventurously heavy band that helped change the direction of rock ‘n’ roll (not to mention the city of Seattle). Since Soundgarden’s first nomination in 2019, it’s felt like a matter of when, not if, the band would get the thumbs-up from the roughly 1,200 artists, industry pros and historians who make up the Rock Hall’s voting body.

In their third nomination, Soundgarden joins a 2025 class that includes voted-in performers Outkast, the White Stripes, Cyndi Lauper, Chubby Checker, Bad Company and Joe Cocker, plus Washington-born studio musician Carol Kaye and producer, arranger and songwriter Thom Bell — a longtime Bellingham resident who died in 2022.

Thayil might be feeling those “little anxieties” leading up to the ceremony, which will stream live on Disney+ (and Hulu the next day) before airing on ABC at a later date. But he wasn’t stressing over whether or not Soundgarden would eventually get the nod — appreciative for the nominations, but never expecting anything.

“I'm definitely proud,” Thayil said. “The emotive appraisals are somewhat dynamic. … It'll probably feel different an hour after it's concluded or the next week than it does upon initially hearing the announcement or now as we're preparing.”

“What changes now,” Thayil continued, “is the appreciation of that shared pride that you see with your friends, family and the fans. … I might have an understanding of the band's accomplishments. But to see the enthusiasm with family — and certainly with the fans — and the pride, that changes the understanding entirely.”

That perspective was something imparted on Thayil by his bandmate, the late Chris Cornell, after the Soundgarden front man inducted Heart in 2013. Being handed some subjective, unquantifiable award from a self-appointed body is something the band might have had a “dismissive attitude towards” when they were younger, having come up in an underground alternative rock scene with punk rock ethos. But Cornell helped show Thayil what it meant for the fans, who champion these bands and whose music becomes part of their identity — the same way bands like the Stooges and Ramones, both of whom are Rock Hall inductees, did for Thayil.

There isn’t a soul in Seattle who needs to hear a recitation of Soundgarden’s hall of fame credentials, but for the record, here’s how the Rock Hall described their worthiness: “Soundgarden ignited the grunge movement that radically changed rock & roll in the 1980s and 1990s. The band’s raw power came out of the Northwest and flew in the face of a disconnected world, giving fans what they had long desired: a voice and a sense of belonging. A unique combination of alternative, metal, and punk, Soundgarden’s compelling sound cemented their place in music history.”

Soundgarden’s induction also cements drummer Matt Cameron into an exclusive club as a two-time member, after being inducted with Pearl Jam in 2017. “Oh, it’s amazing,” Cameron said. “I just have to pinch myself. I would have never expected this to have happened. It’s an incredible honor.”

As much as he enjoyed his first Rock Hall go-round — hanging out with Rush’s Geddy Lee and meeting “one of my drumming heroes,” Bill Bruford of Yes — this one hits different for Cameron, who joined Pearl Jam in 1998. (Cameron announced his departure from the band this summer.)

While Cameron’s 27-year run with Pearl Jam didn’t start until the band already had five essential albums under its belt, he helped Soundgarden form its sound almost from the very beginning, after taking over the drum throne two years after Thayil, Cornell and original bassist Hiro Yamamoto started jamming in a Roosevelt neighborhood house Yamamoto and Cornell (who initially played drums) shared. Cameron solidified the band’s lineup before recording their debut “Screaming Life” and “Fopp” EPs for a nascent Sub Pop.

“Soundgarden, it was a band that was super special to me in my music career and I felt so fortunate to have been able to have been a part of it,” Cameron said. “I felt like my contribution as a drummer and also as a songwriter was significant. … When I first joined the band, the guys were aware that I wrote music and had little solo cassettes that I put out, and I was playing in a lot of weird, avant-type groups around Seattle at that time — definitely not only rock bands. I felt like they accepted my diversity in the band when I first joined in 1986. … They always encouraged me to cultivate my creative side.”

While Yamamoto will join Cameron, Thayil and mainstay bassist Ben Shepherd — who joined Soundgarden ahead of 1991’s commercial breakthrough “Badmotorfinger” — at the induction ceremony, Cornell’s absence will undoubtedly be felt that night, eight years after the archetypal front man died following a Detroit concert. “Obviously, it’s bittersweet that he’s not here with us,” Cameron said.

“I think Chris would have really enjoyed this moment of recognition, because he was always moving as an artist,” Cameron said when asked what Cornell might think of the Rock Hall honor. “He was always seeking that next phase of his writing career, performing career. … Maybe down the line he will get recognized as a solo artist or (for) Temple of the Dog or something like that because his contribution to music has been absolutely massive.

Filling the sizable boots of Cornell — one of the most singular voices in modern rock history — during the ceremony will be no short order. But Soundgarden will have a little help from some hometown friends, including Brandi Carlile, who performed at a star-studded Cornell tribute concert in L.A. She later recorded two Soundgarden songs with the band’s surviving members for a 2020 Record Store Day release and invited Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron to join her at the Gorge Amphitheatre the following year.

“We wanted to keep it as Seattle-centric as possible and include some people that were there with us in the beginning,” Cameron said before the list of special guests had been revealed.

Other confirmed Seattleites include Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains — who ought to get their crack at the Rock Hall in the next few years — and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready. Friend of the band Taylor Momsen, lead singer of New York rockers the Pretty Reckless, is also slated to perform with Soundgarden.

For Thayil, having a strong Seattle contingent join Soundgarden on the momentous occasion “is a big deal and a tip of the hat” to the band’s roots and “what we grew with together.”

“To have our peers, friends and creative collaborators from here share that with us is very important,” Thayil said. “It's very important because it's part of our identity. We're not simply ‘rock guys’ in this band Soundgarden. We're rock guys in this band Soundgarden that helped establish the Seattle scene and the sound. The geography is very important to our identity. It's where we are, it's where we came from. It's who we are.”

Here’s what else Thayil and Cameron had to say about finishing Soundgarden’s last studio album, reuniting at the Showbox last year and Asian American representation in the rock world — an often understated aspect of the band’s rise. These conversations have been edited for length and clarity.

On performing at last year’s SMooCH concert benefiting Seattle Children’s hospital’s uncompensated care fund …

Thayil: “It always warms my heart to be onstage with Matt and Ben. It's always been important, and it's taken on new significance in recent years. It's an emotional homecoming and a reaffirmation of the affection that we have for each other and for the work that we've created together. It's always significant to me, emotionally and fraternally, to do things with Matt and Ben, and it will always be that way.”

On working to finish Soundgarden’s final album after a protracted legal dispute with Cornell’s estate …

Cameron: “It's a massive emotional roller coaster. A lot of highs, a lot of lows. The highs are based on the fact that the music is seeing its light of day, it's coming to life. Some of it feels like it could have been a new chapter in songwriting for the group, so that's super bittersweet. But it's been challenging to work on some of this music, soloing up Chris' vocals and hearing that beautiful voice come through the speakers all on its own.”

Thayil: “The delay in the process was damaging in some ways to the emotive nature of the experience. Certainly, it's great that we're doing it now. I'm wondering — because you can't help but wonder — how that emotive and creative journey might have been undertaken six, seven, eight years ago. You will never know that, and there's something unfortunate (and) damaging about that. But there's something also beneficial about that because we're doing it now, and it's beautiful. It's a way to post tribute to our beloved brother. All of it just has that much more weight emotionally and creatively, and we don't take that lightly.”

On if the band could perform the new songs live one day …

Cameron: “We haven't really gotten there yet. We're just trying to get the music together. But I think there might be some situations where it would be really cool to do that. It's just a matter of getting the right people together, and we've got some amazing people that we've been working with, some singers that have expressed interest. So, we're really, really excited about what that could potentially look like.”

On Yamamoto’s contributions in the band’s formative years, beyond the music …

Cameron: “His role was massive. He had a big philosophical influence on the group in terms of not necessarily living within the corporate parameters of the music industry — always striving to be individual and being fearless in choices that we made.”

On Asian representation in the Rock Hall …

Thayil: “That’s a significant source of pride. In the young part of our career, we were often asked (about the gender disparity and our underground roots), coming out of a hard rock genre. I’d often point out to interviewers that it's not just young and male, it's young, white and male. It's like, why don't you ask me about what it is to be East Indian and a child of immigrants in this genre, or what it's like to have my bandmate be a Japanese son of immigrants in the genre? That was often overlooked because the focus was so much on us being underground. They kind of skipped the part that the band at one point was two-thirds Asian.

“I'm super proud of that. The No. 1 thing of my identity is not necessarily being a rock guitarist (or) being Indian American. I might define myself by my general interests and my relationships. But being American and being descended from South Asian parents and grandparents is something I would recognize and come to understand (since) I was a toddler, and it'll be with me for my entire life. So, I think that's really important.”

On Seattle’s next Hall of Famers …

Thayil: “Start the Alice in Chains campaign right now. I'll be waving that flag and championing that all the way until they're inducted, that's for sure.”

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