Would A Long-Term Soundgarden Reunion Work? If So, How?
On September 9th during halftime of the Patriots-Seahawks game, Soundgarden performed the halftime show at Lumen Field in Seattle, WA. Longtime members Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, and Matt Cameron reunited on stage and were joined by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and The Pretty Reckless singer Taylor Momsen.
The performance was the fifth time since Chris Cornell’s death in 2017 that Soundgarden’s surviving members performed together. They reunited once at Cornell’s tribute concert in 2019, Taylor Hawkins’ second tribute concert in 2022 (without Ben Shepherd), a concert for Seattle Children’s Hospital in 2024 billed as Nudedragons (seriously, that was their name that one time), their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2025 (with original bassist Hiro Yamamoto), and at their halftime show in 2026.
Some bands will end up breaking up after a key member dies such as Van Halen after the death of Eddie Van Halen in 2020. Others will replace the deceased member pretty much immediately such as Metallica after Cliff Burton’s death in 1986. Yet some will be on hiatus for a while such as Linkin Park after Chester Bennington, a close friend of Cornell, also died in 2017. The band reunited in 2024 with Emily Armstrong as their new singer.
And then there are the bands like Led Zeppelin who will occasionally reunite for a few one off performances and that’s all they’ll do, having done so in 1985, 1988, and 2007 after John Bonham’s death in 1980. As for which category Soundgarden fits among the four methods exemplified by Van Halen, Metallica, Linkin Park, and Led Zeppelin, they fit the last one, the Led Zeppelin category.
If say, Soundgarden ended up going into a fifth category, at first a one-off performer but later reunited long term, how could it work if at all? For reference, Momsen has appeared at four of the five reunions, all except in 2024. That last one saw Shaina Shepherd sing the entire six song set with the band. So if they were to pick the most familiar vocalist, it would be Momsen, known to be a major Soundgarden fan.
There is one problem though. Momsen may/would have to balance her commitment to The Pretty Reckless. Momsen founded the band in 2009 and is the only founding member left, as the other three left in 2010, just a year in to the band’s history. Fortunately, all of their original replacements are still in the band today. And as Metallica fans may know, when then-bassist Jason Newsted wanted to do Echobrain side project, and tension over side projects led to his departure on January 15th, 2001 as part of what was a dark time for Metallica.
So the question I have is, “Would the other three members be okay with Momsen balancing the two bands?” I’m just not sure how they would feel about it. Part of that is, I’m not in the room when many of decisions like this are made. Frankly, many people are not in the room when these decisions are made. Perhaps they know what happened with Newsted and don’t want the same to happen, or maybe they have reservations. But again, we don’t know for sure how they feel, and likely never will unless Momsen were to join Soundgarden.
