Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [51]
HIRO YAMAMOTO It bugged me a lot. “Do you have to take off the shirt? Do you have to break a mic stand every show?” It was one of those things that kind of made me quit eventually, to tell you the truth. “Could you not take off your shirt tonight?” He wouldn’t even answer. Or he’d walk out of the room. That became this real tense thing.
SUSAN SILVER The shirtlessness? I never even thought about it. Honest to God, it’s just what he does. Love is blind, I suppose.
The female attention never ruffled me. I felt we had such security in our relationship then that it never occurred to me. I remember a show in Philadelphia in the early ’90s, some girl got on her boyfriend’s shoulders and was screaming, “Chris, I wanna fuck you!” or some other equally poetic phrase. Come on. You’re embarrassing our entire sisterhood here.
So when the show was over, I found her and was like, “Excuse me, can I talk to you for a second? I have a message for you from Chris.”
Her eyes light up. “Really? What?”
“He heard you in the audience, and he was wondering if you would stop embarrassing yourself that way.”
KIM THAYIL Competition with Skin Yard? There was only one person really participating in that, and it was Daniel House. It’s the strangest thing. We thought they were our buddies, and they’d run ads for Skin Yard like, FAR LESS DOOM AND GLOOM THAN SOUNDGARDEN.
Ever see those old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons? Bugs Bunny never really advanced the competition. It was Daffy who was advancing it. He was the one who was more competitive, bitter, jealous. We never had to compete with Skin Yard—we always drew far more than they did, were far more successful, both critically and commercially.
They were our friends. I was very close with Jack. Matt Cameron ended up quitting their band to join us when he found out that we were looking for a drummer.
SCOTT SUNDQUIST When it became time to have to tour, it was hard for me, with my son, who was seven. My wife and I had an on-again, off-again relationship, so single parenting was sometimes a part of it. I was older than them and was unsure about money. In the end, I stepped aside so that those guys could tour. It was very emotional for all of us. We were really close, and to this day still are. I think of them as younger brothers.
SCOTT MCCULLUM I was in the band 64 Spiders when Chris asked me to try out for Soundgarden. I actually got the gig. Everybody was excited. I remember sitting on the front porch and Chris sat down next to me and went, “Hey dude, you’re in the band! We got a show in two weeks, so you gotta start fittin’ in our practice schedule!”
So two days pass, and I don’t hear from anybody, right? And somehow I found out that Matt Cameron had tried out for Soundgarden. He was the preeminent drummer in Seattle at that time, and, of course, they’re like, “Shit!” So Chris reluctantly called me up and told me that they decided to go with Matt. It totally sucked. I loved Soundgarden.
MATT CAMERON I was in Skin Yard for about a year and a half. I quit because I was ready for something new. I told the Skin Yard guys I wanted to pursue jazz, which wasn’t totally untrue. But it turned out that I was just searching for that right rock band to play in. It was a coincidence that, once word got out that I was out of Skin Yard, I called Kim or Kim called me, and they were at a crossroads with Scott Sundquist. My first practice with Soundgarden, in Chris’s living room up in Capitol Hill, it was pretty instantaneous. I remember after I played like one song, Chris said, “Hey, man, you’re playing it perfect.”
JONATHAN PONEMAN I wanted to do a record with Soundgarden. But the thing is, I didn’t really know anything about record-making. I had like $15,000—savings bonds from when I was a little kid—which at the time was a lot of money.
Soundgarden had a meeting with Bruce at