Soundgarden, an iconic grunge band with Seattle and Kitsap County roots that helped shape the sound of the Pacific Northwest, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame April 27.
Fans around the world celebrated on social media.
“It should’ve happened earlier, but I’m hyped it’s happening now! Congratulations!” wrote Aka Egwu on Soundgarden’s Instagram page.
Despite being one of the pioneers of the genre, Soundgarden is only the latest of other grunge-aligned bands inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, following Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. Alice In Chains, another well-known Seattle-area grunge band from the 1990s, has yet to be inducted.
“About damn time, next up’s Alice [In Chains],” wrote Damian McCarroll. “After that, then all will be well.”
Known for songs like “Black Hole Sun,” “Spoonman,” and “Fell on Black Days”, Soundgarden’s slow, bass-heavy music is linked to the foundations of grunge and alternative metal genres that emerged from the fusion of Seattle’s punk and hardcore scenes in the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s.
Nearly all of Soundgarden’s members were raised in Seattle, but bassist and two-time Grammy award winner Ben Shepherd grew up a little farther west. His father’s military career took the family from Okinawa, Japan, where Shepherd was born in 1968, to central Texas, and then to Kingston where the family settled.
As a teenager, Shepherd played in several punk bands, eventually joining Nirvana in his early 20s on tour before their album “Nevermind” was released in 1991. He joined Soundgarden in 1989, succeeding bassist Hiro Yamamoto and contributing to a new sonic direction for the band as a bassist, vocalist and songwriter. As the band’s star rose, Shepherd relocated his home base to Bainbridge Island, where he still lives.
Shepherd cites Yamamoto, Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag and Mike Watt of Minutemen as major influences on his style of bass playing, as well as jazz musician Charles Mingus.
“I was lucky to be learning Hiro’s parts, because usually bass players are relegated to a role of following along, which I can’t stand. Who wants to be an offensive tackle?” Shepherd said in a 2013 interview, when asked about filling Yamamoto’s role in the band. “But he was always mixed so damn quietly on the recordings that I could never hear him well enough to develop a deep understanding of his fluidity or his textures. There are songs like ‘Entering’ that I really want to do and can’t figure out for the life of me.”
