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• 1994 Pacific Rim Tour  ( 16 )
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Soundgarden are an American rock band formed in 1984 in Seattle, Washington. They are considered pioneers of the grunge genre.

Soundgarden are a legendary name and a piece of US music history. The band who currently consist of Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd merge elements of punk rock with metal to create their unique, experimental grunge style. Taking influences from 70's juggernauts including Black Sabbath and Led Zepplin, the band began life under the name The Shemps before touring, writing and honing their sound as a group, preparing to release their debut album.

It took a while for Soungarden to achieve a commercial success to match the cult notoriety they were receiving on the live scene. They picked up an early Grammy nomination for Ultramega OK which led to a signing with to A & M Records. Their third album 'Badtomyfinger' gained them moderate UK and US chart success and another Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. However it was the following album 'Superunknown' that is considered to be their most iconic and successful record to date, it topped the charts in the US and included huge singles including 'Spoonman', 'Black Hole Sun' and 'My Wave'. Incorporating experimental sounds from across the globe, the band's dark lyrical matter and evolving style captivated fans and new listeners alike to this incredible body of work. They won their first two Grammy awards with this album and toured the world extensively.

The follow-up to this album, 'Down On The Upside' was considered to be both a commercial and critical success yet it failed to emanate the stature of its predecessor. Due to inter-band disputes, they decided to split with Cameron stating that Soundgarden was "eaten up by the business." The band all continued to work on solo projects and material before an inevitable reunion occurred in 2010 and the band released their first single since 1997 which led to a new original album entitled 'King Animal' coming out in 2012. Soundgarden has left a huge legacy as band, they are cited as inspiration to some of the most iconic performers including Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. They are hailed for their technical abilities, development of sound and pioneering qualities to the genre of grunge.

Live reviews

So. friggin'. good. This is the standard to which rock concerts should be held. Soundgarden illustrated why Chris Cornell still has one of the most powerful, rafter shaking rock voices. Nine Inch Nails however, brought it. Reznor is a man of few words, but searing intensity. He and his band did not disappoint. So much electronica/alt based fury. The lightning storm that began and continued throughout both shows simply added to the intensity. So damn good.

First and foremost, however, the set lists: SOUNDGARDEN SET LIST: Searching With My Good Eye Closed Spoonman Flower Outshined Black Hole Sun Jesus Christ Pose The Day I Tried to Live My Wave Superunknown Blow Up The Outside World Fell on Black Days A Thousand Days Before Rusty Cage Beyond the Wheel

NIN SET LIST: Copy of A Sanctified Came Back Haunted 1,000,000 March of the Pigs Piggy Terrible Lie Closer Gave Up Me, I’m Not Find My Way The Great Destroyer Eraser Wish Only The Hand That Feeds Head Like a Hole ENCORE: Hurt Soundgarden opened around 7:40 and played a sonic assault for 70 minutes afterward. Starting off with 'Searching With My Good Eye Closed' Cornell set the stage for a 90s trip down memory lane. As they were celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Superunknown", their biggest selling and arguably best album, they played no new material. This really wasn't an issue as the older material is more a bit more challenging in some respects, requiring more of a vocal work out. Cornell now 47, proved he could easily attain the vocal heights he once effortlessly hit in his 20s. Spoonman was delivered with Kim Thayil's pounding guitar vibrato and stiff drum work from Matt Cameron. "Outshined" was preceded by Cornell decrying the current state of music, namely the profligation of disco style music and the world's state of affairs not really improving in the past 20 years, before dropping into a grindy rendition of "Outshined". It is with "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Beyond the Wheel" that Cornell showered (pun intended) the audience with a true vocal onslaught that easily have come from 1994. "Black Hole Sun", "My Wave" and "Superunknown" got fans moving and singing in unison. "Rusty Cage" covered beautifully by the great American country music outlaw/icon Johnny Cash, was perfectly executed, with throbbing bass, warbling alt guitar styling and of course, stellar vocal work. I would have liked to hear a little more as really these guys have been around over two decades now, but I am also aware that it is a double bill and allowances for both acts had to be made. Overall, however, Soundgarden came, saw and conquered.

NIN was something else. Trent Reznor came out pounding on key boards with the fury of armaggdeon. He might has well have had his fists taped up as he came in fighting. As I stated earlier, the man is intense and it literally permeates through his music. Now happily married and seemingly in a good place overall, his energy while performing is undiminished. Starting off with a furious version of "Copy of A" from the fantastic, revitalizing "Hesitation Marks", Reznor showed he came to play. Smoothly flowing into "Sanctified" the fury began building. By "March of Pigs" with thunder and lightning and heavy rains bashing the place, Reznor lit the place up with "March of Pigs". Throughout his 90 minutes plus performance no one was sitting. There was just too much energy flowing.

Playing like a manic, sinister maestro, Reznor's NIN shook the stadium with a collecton of classics and newer material. "Closer" was magnificent. It is a little bit hilarious that a song with such an angry emotional core, featuring such lyrics as "I want to @#$% you like an animal" is so intensenly "singable". It is dark, scathing, intimate and amazingly danceable with its pounding beat, and "oop, oop" backing vocal tracks. "Only", "Hand That Feeds", from arguably his best album 2006's "With Teeth, rounded off the concert with powerful, energetic vibration. Everyone was up as if they had no choice in the matter. Trent Reznor is a man of few words as I have already stated, so when he thanked everyone for sticking around throughout the stormy show and for their support of over the years, it was a genuine moment.

"Head Like a Hole", one of NIN's trademark finishers closed out the show and kept everyone moving. The encore and final capper unquestionably was...and had to be... the classic "Hurt", from "Downward Spiral", covered so evocatively and beautifully by Johnny Cash. Reznor just brought so much with this final song, pouring out all he had left. That a thunder clap should strike at the end of his performance was just perfect. Simply outstanding and well, well worth one's time.

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I've followed this band since owning a cassette back in 1989 of Ultramega. I was hooked.

Listening to their music and seeing them live takes you back to when you cranked all their albums when we were younger. The band always played well together and when they play the new with the old classics like "Big Dumb Sex", "Like Suicide", "Spoon Man" especially it's a great feeling. Thayil still cranks it out. You can just close your eyes and feel the guitar.

I am disappointed however by their "Citi" show that was limited to only some fans. But for their music I guess I can forgive.

Looking forward to seeing them this summer.

Soundgarden put on a great show. Chris Cornell still has the pipes and is not afraid to show off. Kim Thayil put on a great guitar clinic as well.

In support of Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden only did about an hour-long set. Pretty much their greatest hits from Badmotorfinger and Superunknown, they also played a couple early tracks and one or two from their most recent album. For an outdoor venue, Shoreline does a great job with the mixing levels. All the instruments and vocals came through very clearly, so everyone sounded amazing for such a large venue - even in the cheap lawn seats.

I have waited years to see Chris Cornell live, he's the final act on my "bucket list" and the Tuscaloosa Amphitheatre should have been the perfect setting...

The sound crew was obviously not experienced with the acoustics of the venue and tried to blow everyone out of the arena.

There were multiple instances of uncontrolled feedback and being unable to hear Chris over the music half of the time was a profound disappointment...

Of everything they played "spoonman" was the best song of the show...

Soundgarden put on great show 7 days ago with at Rockfest it was my first time seeing them, and first time seeing Chris Cornell and I didn't know that was going to be my last time seeing him live. RIP Chris Cornell.

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"I don't like the production of that record. I don't like how it sounds. I don't like how it looks": Soundgarden look back at their breakthrough album Superunknown

Grunge‘s founding fathers, Soundgarden watched the bands they inspired shoot past them. But with their mighty fourth album, Superunknown, they would help define the 1990s

In 2014, Soundgarden celebrated the 20th anniversary of Superunknown , the album that catapulted them into the major leagues. To mark the occasion, band members Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil and Ben Shepherd spoke to Classic Rock about their memories of the album's creation, and the uncomfortable places it took them.

It begins with a simple question. On the line is Ben Shepherd, bassist with Soundgarden, and a man whose speaking voice sounds like Tom Waits were his batteries running down. With a truck driver’s abruptness and heavily creased look, ‘rustic’ would be a good word to describe him. This evening Shepherd is on the stump to talk about his band’s fourth album, the timeless Superunknown , which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. I ask him what it is he hears when he listens to the album now.

“I’ve never listened to it,” Shepherd says in a voice that sounds like a heavy door slowly creaking shut.

Right. What?

“I’ve never listened to it. I turned my back on it.”

Okay . And why did you do that?

“Because it went to number one. I thought, Oh crap, we’re now one of those bands. Fuck everything,” he says. When Shepherd says this, he sounds not like a well-cossetted rock musician who has earned significant wealth from his trade, but rather like his younger self: a man whose band were once signed to Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn’s avowedly do-it-your-fucking-self label SST , and who has never risen above this station.

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“I don’t like the production of that record,” he says. “I don’t like how it sounds. I don’t like how it looks. If people like it then I’m flattered and I’m honoured and all that ‘make people happy bullshit’. But, for me, when an album is done, it’s done, it’s time to move on to something else.”

Here – and there is a reasonable chance that he knows this – Shepherd is talking out of his hat. Even before the passage of time had enabled listeners to properly separate the wheat from the Weetabix of the rock music released in the 1990s, it was obvious that Superunknown was the most exceptional offering from a band whose overall body of work is rarely less than exceptional. 

Painted on a canvas that may as well have been hung on the side of a 15-storey apartment building, the 16-song set cruised from the impossibly claustrophobic ( Limo Wreck , 4th Of July ) to the oddly anthemic ( Superunknown, Black Hole Sun ) to the downright playful ( Kickstand ). The album – as Soundgarden themselves would never dream of putting it – exploded into the sky, debuting at No.1 on the US Billboard Hot 200 chart and going on to sell more than five million copies in the US alone.

“Musically we were ready to try on a lot of new clothes, in a sense,” says singer and occasional guitarist Chris Cornell , a man whose squeeze-my-lemon looks and captivating voice gave his band an organic, classic rock quality. “Although we had only been known internationally for a couple of years, we had been a band for quite a long time by that point. So we needed to express ourselves differently… And for me personally, I finally had the tools to take the music I heard in my head and express it in the way that I really wanted to.”

The album that would elevate its creators to much the same level as some of the bands they initially influenced shimmered into view in increments, the fragments of which can be traced back well before its release in March 1994. Four years previously the group were riding on the Santa Monica Freeway when the radio station KROQ tossed Get On The Snake on to the air. The song was from the group’s second album and major-label debut Louder Than Love , as gnarled and testing a record as Soundgarden would ever make. Cornell couldn’t believe that his band were being played on a mainstream US rock station. He was also struck by how at home the song sounded on the radio, even though “it was different from everything else that was being played”.

Of course, this was at a time when the tectonic plates beneath the very foundations of modern rock music were soon to buckle and crack. The site of all this activity was not located on the San Andreas fault, but the hitherto unheralded and charmingly rain-soaked North-Western city of Seattle. Before you could say ‘the times they are a-changing’, Soundgarden had been joined at the major label table by fellow Seattle-ites and kindred spirits Mother Love Bone, Alice In Chains , Nirvana and, later, Pearl Jam . Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic claims that it was Soundgarden’s decision to sign with A&M Records – and the advice given by the latter’s then-manager, Susan Silver – that had given his own three-piece group the confidence to sign with the Geffen label.

And then it all happened. Within four weeks of each other, Nirvana released Nevermind and Pearl Jam unveiled Ten , and suddenly scores of well-groomed hard rock and metal bands found that overnight their futures had been cancelled and their pasts negated. With what was at the time almost a footnote, on October 8, 1991 Soundgarden released their third album, Badmotorfinger , a record that, despite paling in comparison to these other two albums, would sell more than a million copies in America.

Suddenly – and it really was very sudden indeed – it wasn’t so much a case of the Jet City being placed on the map, but rather there no longer being any maps at all, just a handwritten sign that pointed to one destination: Seattle.

“When Nevermind came out and Ten came out, this was the year that we released our fourth album,” says Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil. “We’d been a band then for seven years. We’d toured the country more than once in a van. So I think we definitely did look at those albums and think, well we’ve definitely paid our dues, so it would be nice if we had a bit of that actual success rather than just critical acclaim, you know? 

"At the time, we were getting by pretty much on positive [press] reviews alone. It would be nice to be able to buy a home, I remember thinking, because at that time I was living in the same place that I lived in when I went to college. That kind of security would make the emotional and musical investment worthwhile.”

Cryptically, Cornell describes the writing process for Superunknown as being “as easy or as difficult as we wanted to make them”. Writing sessions began after the band’s appearance at 1992’s Lollapalooza tour. The process was reactive, rather than mapped out in advance.

“We’d listen to the material we’d gotten together and then analyse what we had, what we felt about it and what it said about where we were as a band,” says Thayil. “Nothing was premeditated. We weren’t the kind of band that talked about that kind of stuff.”

“I can’t say that we knew that what we had was significant in a wider sense,” says Cornell, “but I think we knew that what we were writing was different from what we’d done before. I knew that internally we were now really stretching our limbs.”

Recording sessions for the album began at Bad Animals Studios in Seattle in July ’93 and ran for almost three months. In an effort to fully re-imagine their sound, the band took the unusual decision to record each track one at a time. It was an exacting process. And in order to help shape their material in the unforgiving confines of the studio they enlisted the services of a producer whose pursuit of specific sounds for certain songs was recognised as being relentless.

Michael Beinhorn began his musical life as a musician in the 1970s. As a producer he made his bow with the great jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, and by the time Nirvana had rerouted the musical A To Z, he had worked with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Soul Asylum, among others.

“To me, Beinhorn was an innovator,” says Ben Shepherd – this despite the bassist claiming to dislike the sound of Superunknown . “He totally thought outside of the box. Then again, I’d just go in there, record my parts and then leave.”

Kim Thayil remembers the recording experience rather differently. The guitarist says that Soundgarden “were strong-headed enough not to do anything that we didn’t want to do”, and so Michael Beinhorn’s reputation as “a taskmaster wouldn’t really have worked with us because we would have stood up to that. He wasn’t a drill sergeant, but he could certainly be a monumental pain in the ass. If he got us motivated he did so by being the flea on the elephant’s bum.”

For example?

“He was difficult because he’d want us to repeat things over and over again, whereas we wanted things to be fresh; we certainly didn’t want to beat something to death. I remember I played the main riff to Limo Wreck for about two or three days, over and over again, trying to hone it down and to get the sound right. Now as far as I’m concerned, he’s the engineer, so he can be concerned about the sound. If he’s having me play a riff over and over again for three days trying to get a good amp sound, then he’s wearing out my fingers in order to impress his ears.”

In the intervening years other stories of complications of a different kind have leaked into the public domain. Several years ago, Cornell revealed that he was “drunk” for the recording of Soundgarden’s final two albums. On hearing this today, Thayil says: “Chris said he was what? Drunk?” in the same way he might say: “Chris said he was a sabre tooth tiger?”

“Alcohol was never part of our creative process,” says Cornell. “It was never an inspiration for writing songs. If anything, it slowed us down. But if a song was written, then I might get drunk in the studio. There is the thing of making things as difficult for yourself as you can. You still triumph, but if there’s no impediments in the way then sometimes you don’t really get a sense of achievement out of it. So making things difficult for ourselves was definitely something that we did.”

If Cornell – or any other member of Soundgarden, for that matter – was blind drunk during the recording of Superunknown , it doesn’t show. Mixed by Brendan O’Brien, it was unveiled to the rest of world on March 7, 1994 and a day later in the US. Reviews were effusive, and advance chatter volcanic. Better yet, in the three years that had elapsed since the release of Badmotorfinger Soundgarden had been the beneficiaries of that most precious of things: word-of-mouth buzz. The ground, clearly, was prepared for the eruption that followed. Within seven days the album was the most sought-after property in America.

For all their achievements inside and outside of the studio, there was a nagging doubt at the heart of Soundgarden. The profile of other bands from their home town both lessened and enlarged the impact of Superknown ’s success.

“There was an impact that the record had that was definitely piled on top of all the other success stories that were coming out of Seattle at that time,” says Thayil. “We felt that what was good for Nirvana was good for us. Without that context, whatever success Superunknown would have had would have been more personal. But because of that wider context, it made the success a lot bigger, but also in some ways a bit smaller, if that makes sense.”

A corollary to this was a city-and movement-wide uneasiness regarding the pursuit of commercial success. This was a musical first. The alternative generation of the 1990s was a movement ridden with guilt. And despite the fact that Superunknown utilised the marketing and promotional tools of the day with some panache – with videos for the album’s five singles (most notably the magnificently creepy clip for Black Hole Sun ) being shown on heavy rotation on MTV – this was a concern from which Soundgarden were not excused.

“It was the first time that successful bands became very self-conscious about what success would mean for them,” says Cornell. “We felt as if we had to explain ourselves. We came from a world where commerce was frowned upon and where it seemed that there had to be some of kind of deception involved in getting mass amounts of people to buy your music. That was the world that we hated. But not just that, we took a platform on the fact that we hated it, as in: ‘Look, we hate this – we hate commercial music.’ And then we became that thing. So now what do we say? That we were liars? It was a moment of crisis, although I think it was less for us because we weren’t a band that had had overnight success.

“But we toured with Guns N’ Roses , and saw what the ultimate end result of that kind of thing could be. And that wasn’t something we were comfortable with. It wasn’t something we aspired to; we were self-conscious on stage in a 60,000-seat stadium.”

But then everything changed again. Just a month after Superunknown had been introduced to its waiting public, Soundgarden were in Paris, on tour with another Seattle band, Tad, when their tour manager took a call from their then-manager Susan Silver relaying the news that Kurt Cobain had called time on the alternative movement by firing the finishing gun. What followed, according to Chris Cornell, “was a strange and emotional night”.

And that, really, was the end of that. On an individual level Soundgarden would continue apace, releasing one more album, Down On The Upside , in 1996, before disbanding the following year (they re-formed in 2010 and released the excellent King Animal album in 2013). But the passion and energy of the movement as a whole had been sucked from the room. Within months of Cobain’s suicide, listeners signalled a weariness with the tone of despondency inherent in much alternative rock. This they did by voting into power a related yet fundamentally different movement, spearheaded by Green Day.

What remains is music that has aced the test of time. Of this, no record stands taller than Superunknown , an album that, even a generation on, still stands coiled and rattling with turmoil, trouble and spite. On the subject of which, the final word goes to Ben Shepherd.

“You know,” he says, “I like playing the iTunes festivals for those Apple robber barons. We play Superunknown and people are all: ‘Yay, we’re happy!’ But then we get to Limo Wreck and suddenly they’re all: ‘Oh, Soundgarden is dark!… No wonder they never got to be as big as Pearl Jam.’ I like that some people don’t like us. I like that we’re smarter than them and that we’re darker than them.”

This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 199, published in June 2014. 

Barnsley-born author and writer Ian Winwood contributes to The Telegraph, The Times, Alternative Press and Times Radio, and has written for Kerrang!, NME, Mojo, Q and Revolver, among others. His favourite albums are Elvis Costello's King Of America and Motorhead's No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith. His favourite books are Thomas Pynchon's Vineland and Paul Auster's Mr Vertigo. His own latest book, Bodies: Life and Death in Music, is out now on Faber & Faber and is described as "genuinely eye-popping" by The Guardian, "electrifying" by Kerrang! and "an essential read" by Classic Rock. He lives in Camden Town.

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September 10, 2019

Culture , Music

30 Years Ago: Soundgarden Lit the Fuse for the Seattle Explosion

The Seattle Sound conquered rock in the early ‘90s. But the breakthrough began when Soundgarden reached the majors.

Troy Brownfield

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It’s been called “The Seattle Sound.” It’s also been called, much to the disdain of the musicians that hail from the Jet City, “grunge.” Inspired in varying fractions by the punk stylings of bands like Black Flag, the doomy riffing of metal acts like Black Sabbath, and the indie sensibilities of groups like The Pixies, the sounds that brewed in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s and 1980s become one of the defining tones of the 1990s. A kind of conventional wisdom has gelled around the notion that Nirvana was the band the broke the doors open in 1991; however, the first band from that scene to make the move to a major label is also one that found enormous success, only to later lose their voice. That band was Soundgarden.

In all fairness, Seattle produced plenty of well-known musical acts in the decades prior to the flying of the flannel flag. The vocal stylings of The Fleetwoods and the surf rock of The Ventures emerged from the Seattle-Tacoma area in the 1950s. Jimi Hendrix made his mark after traveling to England to break through. Progressive metal band Queensryche formed in 1980 before becoming hitmakers a decade later. But the undisputed rock royalty that would have direct ties to the later “grunge” scene were Ann and Nancy Wilson, the sisters at the center of the massively successful (and still touring) Heart . Founded in Washington state before finding success in Canada and dropping their debut in 1975, Heart inspired a number of younger musicians with their musical prowess and work ethic, eventually becoming “big sister” and mentor figures to a number of stars-in-the-making.

The Seattle scene that became mythologized by MTV started forming in the ’80s. Brothers Andrew and Kevin Wood put together Malfunkshun, a rock band noted for their humor and Andrew’s glam vocals and magnetic stage presence. The Melvins, led by singer-guitarist Buzz Osborne and second drummer Dale Crover, formed in Montesano in 1983; the band applied the heaviness of Black Flag to the varied tempos of their music. A year later, Green River debuted, boasting a line-up that included future members of Mudhoney and Pearl Jam.

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It was in this environment of furious musical activity that Soundgarden formed. The 1984 line-up featuring Kim Thayil on guitar, Hiro Yamamoto on bass, and Chris Cornell on . . . drums? It may seem hard to believe now, but one of the most charismatic vocalists of all time started off behind the kit; he was the singer then too, of course, but he wouldn’t emerge from behind the drums full-time for another year. The nascent band, along with Green River, was among the early signees to local label Sub Pop.

Soundgarden began to grow their fanbase from Screaming Life and the follow-up EP, Fopp . Though primed for a swing at the major labels, Soundgarden opted to sign with California indie SST Records, the home of Black Flag. The resulting album, 1988’s Ultramega OK , earned positive attention, garnered MTV airplay for the video “Flower,” and enabled the band to tour the U.S. and Europe. The album would eventually be nominated for a Grammy in the Best Metal Performance category.

Flower by Soundgarden (Uploaded to YouTube by Sup Pop

After the success of OK , the band made the difficult decision to sign with a major label. When A&M took them on, some of the original fans took umbrage to their hometown heroes leaving the indies behind. Nevertheless, the band found itself on a steadily upward trajectory. When their major label debut, Louder Than Love , dropped in September of 1989, they found themselves with an album in Billboard’s Top 200. Tours with Voidod and Guns ‘N’ Roses followed.

Soundgarden’s emergence threw a spotlight on the scene that Sub Pop had helped cultivate. Bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney had gained studio experience while honing their craft.

1990 and 1991 brought enormous upheaval to music. After several years of hair-metal dominance, alternative stalwarts like R.E.M. and Jane’s Addiciton and significant hip-hop artists like Ice Cube began to get more attention. In March of 1991, the introduction of the Nielsen SoundScan tracking system dramatically altered the make-up of the charts; previously, Billboard chart placement turned on phone calls and reports from stores, which frequently included mistakes and outright fabrications. The new system tracked the cold hard data of sales alone, and that shook up the traditional perception of what genres were popular. At the same time, MTV’s proliferating number of shows that focused deeply on genres, like Headbanger’s Ball (metal), Yo MTV Raps! (hip-hop), and 120 Minutes (alternative), allowed a greater number of acts to be seen.

In the midst of this, a serendipitous wrinkle arrived on the scene via Hollywood. Cameron Crowe had written for Rolling Stone as a teenager and had transitioned to the successful screenwriter of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the writer/director of Say Anything . Along the way, he married Nancy Wilson of Heart. Crowe set his new film, Singles , against the backdrop of the city’s vibrant music scene, inspired in part by the community he witnessed in the wake of Malfunkshun singer Andrew Wood’s death via overdose in March of 1990. Filming commenced in March of 1991. The movie featured a number of musicians from the city in visible roles, notably Ament, Gossard, and Eddie Vedder as the other members of Matt Dillon’s band, Citizen Dick. Cornell wrote some tunes to go along with some fictional song titles, and Soundgarden and Alice in Chains both appear performing in the film. The studio, however, wasn’t quite sure how to market it, so it wound up sitting on the sidelines for months. While the film waited, the music didn’t.

In the fall of 1991, Nirvana released the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and there was an explosion of interest in Seattle. As it happened, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam all either had albums out or ready to go. Nirvana’s Nevermind raised all boats. Facelift , the debut disc by Alice in Chains, had been released in 1990 and grown steadily, but it surged again with the Seattle association. Nevermind , Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger , and Pearl Jam’s Ten all arrived within one four-week period. The Alice in Chains and Soundgarden releases would sell more than two million copies each, while Ten and Nevermind went on to sell a stunning 13 and 30 million worldwide, respectively.

The Seattle bands hadn’t opened a door for alternative rock; they’d torn down a wall. Coupled with the new touring vehicles like the Lollapalooza tour and steady airplay on MTV, alternative rock exploded. Veterans like the Red Hot Chili Peppers would take Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Chicago’s Smashing Pumpkins out as opening acts while a signing frenzy began as major labels began to look for the “next Seattle” or the “next Nirvana.” In the summer of 1992, the soundtrack to Singles was released three months before the film; though the music had been selected and included long before the breakthrough occurred, the disc’s inclusion of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Smashing Pumpkins, and more powered it to double-platinum status.

For the next few years, the bands enjoyed huge success. Soundgarden’s Superunknown sold more than twice as many albums as Badmotorfinger , as did Alice in Chains’ Facelift follow-up, Dirt . The two bands and Pearl Jam would appear on the Lollapalooza main stage. Nirvana found themselves anointed as a kind of post-punk Beatles; the media and many fans viewed them as the figureheads of the scene. Unfortunately, Nirvana’s singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain succumbed to his combination of depression and addiction, and took his own life in April of 1994. Cobain’s death took the winds out of the sails of the alternative explosion. Later wave bands like Bush and Weezer had big successes, but the genre had lost its most visible frontperson.

Today, it’s hard to look back at the scene without melancholy. Original Alice in Chains vocalist Layne Staley died from an overdose in 2002, and Cornell would take his own life in 2017. The raw power and creativity of the music was driven in part by the real issues afflicting the musicians themselves; that honesty was an integral component of why they connected with audiences.  While some may regard the Seattle explosion as a phase or a snapshot in time, the pervasive nature of music and video streaming services allows new generations of fans to discover these bands and their songs on a continually recurring basis. Even as the musicians leave us, their songs, more powerful than a fad or passing interest, will continue to endure.

Featured image: Brian Patterson Photos / Shutterstock.com.

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A Soundgarden Tour of Seattle – 9 spots you can still visit

Posted by Brian Cicioni | Apr 6, 2020 | Music , Pacific Northwest | 13 |

Soundgarden

Coryell apartments, the moore theatre, museum of pop culture, paramount theatre, ray's boathouse, a sound garden, west point lighthouse, ray’s boathouse.

Chris Cornell started working in this Seattle institution as a dishwasher back in the early 1980s. According to a Seattle Times article from around the one-year anniversary of his death, the young, long-haired teenager used to enjoy impersonating rock stars while he hosed off floor mats down by the dock. His older brother (Peter) got him the job, and he in turn, got his friend Kevin a job. Some say that Kevin from the song “Full On Kevin’s Mom” off Soundgarden’s 1989 major label debut is a reference to Chris’ former friend and co-worker.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Cicioni (@brianmayroam) on Aug 16, 2019 at 12:34pm PDT

The first of the Seattle grunge bands to sign to a major label, Soundgarden took their name from this outdoor public artwork located on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) campus. The sculptural group of a dozen 21’ high steel towers makes un-grunge-like soothing sounds when the wind passes through. This is because each one is topped with an organ pipe attached to a weather vane. Bring your imagination and visit during a windy day, and maybe you’ll hear the intro to “The Day I Tried to Live” or “ Beyond the Wheel .”

Coryell Court Apartments (The Apartment Building from Singles)

The building first appears at the 8 minute and 35-second mark after the humorous black and white caption, “Have Fun Stay Single.” We first meet Cliff (played by Matt Dillon) and Steve in the building, and it makes numerous appearances throughout the film. Janet (played by Bridget Fonda) lives there as well.

Towards the end of the movie, there’s a hilarious scene where an excited Cliff surprises Janet with a new car stereo he installed for her. As the music starts ( “Jinx” by Tad ), a stoned-looking Chris Cornell comes walking out of one of the apartments dressed in black. As he’s standing beside Cliff bobbing his head, Cliff continues to turn up the music until all of the windows blow out on Janet’s car.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Cicioni (@brianmayroam) on Aug 22, 2019 at 8:07am PDT

This is the lighthouse you see in Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike” video. Just months before Chris Cornell broke his Rusty Cage and Eddie Vedder let the world know that he’s still alive, Temple of the Dog released their only album . It started as a tribute to Mother Love Bone (Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard’s pre-Pearl Jam band) frontman, Andrew Wood. The project started with two songs, “Say Hello 2 Heaven” and “Reach Down” and eventually was released as an album featuring Chris Cornell and the Pearl Jam lineup from 1998-present. 

The Paramount Theatre

The Paramount has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974. Soundgarden’s March 6, 1992, Paramount show was released in its entirety under the same name as part of the 25th-anniversary re-release of Badmotorfinger .

The Moore Theatre

Dating back to 1907, the Moore is the oldest Seattle theatre that is still in use. Soundgarden recorded their 1988 Fopp EP here before signing with A & M.

MoPOP (Chris Cornell Statue)

In November 2016, the former Experience Music Project rebranded itself as the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) . The famous guitar sculpture is still there, and you can still play with an array of instruments on the second floor, but the 140,000 square foot museum now focuses on film as well. Outside the museum, there’s a life-sized bronze statue of Chris Cornell, with guitar in hand.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Cicioni (@brianmayroam) on Aug 25, 2019 at 8:15am PDT

The 5th floor at the Hotel Max pays tribute to Sub Pop Records. Each door is designed with a black and white Charles Peterson photograph of a Seattle rock icon. Each room has a Crosley record player with a small Sub Pop vinyl collection along with some books about the grunge era. The door of room 509 has a Soundgarden picture from the Louder Than Love era. Inside the room, the vinyl version of Ultramega Ok hangs on the wall, held up by guitar straps.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Cicioni (@brianmayroam) on Aug 11, 2019 at 11:40am PDT

KEXP started in 1972 as part of the University of Washington. With a team of 60 employees and 45 deejays, they are on air 24/7, 365 days a year. Unlike other radio stations in the United States, KEXP disc jockeys are allowed to play what they want.

Tours are offered daily at 2 PM. In the summer months, there’s also a morning tour. They are limited to 45-minutes, which is not much time if you want to check out their extensive vinyl and CD collections. Two of the more interesting items in their collection are original 1991 vinyl releases of Nirvana’s Nevermind and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger . Numerous stickers are attached to the sleeves with comments from KEXP deejays. Comments include, “This entire album ( Badmotorfinger ) is a perfect fusion of rock/metal/punk.” When Chris Cornell died, hundreds of fans descended on the KEXP lobby area. The place quickly reached capacity, and an impromptu memorial service was held for one of the most iconic vocalists to come out of Seattle in the past 35 years.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Brian Cicioni (@brianmayroam) on Aug 10, 2019 at 6:54pm PDT

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I stayed at the Kimpton Palladian Hotel , which is conveniently located across the street from the Moore Theatre and within walking distance of many other Seattle grunge landmarks . Here’s a more general list of rock and roll landmarks in Seattle .

About The Author

Brian Cicioni

Brian enjoys exploring different cities along public transit lines and writing about it on his blog, IMayRoam.com. He also writes about food tours, layovers, and exploring movie and musical landmarks. You can find some of his work on Fodor’s, Insider, InsideHook, Travel + Leisure, and USA Today. Brian has traveled to more than 50 countries as well as every state. On weekends, he leads music and film-focused tours of New York City. His five-star rated Goodfellas Tour of NYC has been featured in Airbnb Magazine. Always happy to offer tips to aspiring travel writers and tour guides, Brian has spoken at events, including the Travel & Adventure Show, TBEX, and the New York Times Travel Show.

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13 Comments

Wow! I only see this place when I’m watching movies. Thank you for the virtual tour!

Wow this place looks totally awesome! How I wish I have chance to visit in Seattle someday nice pictures!

You know growing up a Gen X kid, I definitely was aware of Soundgarden but I have to say in the 90s I very much disliked the whole grunge scene coming out of Seattle. It wasn’t until Chris Cornell took over the lead of Rage and became Audioslave that I suddenly fell in love with his voice and styles. Then after I returned to Soundgarden and my ear suddenly became appreciative of their music. I personally would love to see all the old places he played at in Seattle. I missed that the last time I was there but it is a great reason to return.

I was thrilled in 2005, when Audioslave began playing Soundgarden songs. But I didn’t think Chris sounded right singing RATM songs at all.

Yeah, I can see that. I preferred Rage over soundgarden back then, so it never bothered me. Did you ever see the Audioslave live concert in Cuba? Its amazeballs!!!

Yes, I have the Live in Cuba DVD. I actually prefer the Audioslave version of Outshined to the original.

Yeah, its great.

Omg, I can only imagine Seattle was a paradise for you! I lived there for a few years (in the 90s!) and love love loved the music scene. So happy I was there for it!

What a great unique way to visit a place, especially if you are a music lover. I would think that all the places you mention are visited regularly by fans of Soundgarden.

When in Seattle one definitely should check out the grunge spots!

I just visited Seattle for the first time in September and really loved it. Thanks for sharing a unique way to visit the city and how the area influenced Soundgarden.

Absolutely Loved your informative Soundgarden Tour of Seattle with real life references and photos.

Thanks, Vicky. Heading back out there this week.

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S6 E2 Soundgarden Ends Tour With Performance At LA’s The Wiltern

On a warm February night in Los Angeles, the legendary Seattle rock band Soundgarden concluded a sold-out winter tour in support of King Animal , their first studio album in over sixteen years. In front of a rapturous crowd, Live From the Artists Den captured this unforgettable night within the historic art deco setting of The Wiltern. Soundgarden interwove brand new songs with classic radio hits, along with rarities performed for the first time in front of a live audience. Over the extended set, the band showcased their legendary catalogue and unparalleled musicianship, solidifying their impact on the history of rock and roll.

The full 29-song concert film is available to stream and for purchase on Blu-ray, LP, CD, and Limited Edition Super Deluxe Box Set.

Soundgarden interwove brand new songs with classic radio hits, along with rarities performed for the first time in front of a live audience.

Behind the Den

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Artists Den (@artistsden) on Apr 15, 2020 at 9:01am PDT

Soundgarden

Legendary rock band Soundgarden formed in Seattle in 1984, emerging as one of the pioneers of grunge. Founded by frontman Chris Cornell and guitarist Kim Thayil, the band released its first full-length album, Ultramega OK , to critical acclaim in 1988. The band fine-tuned its sound with the additions of drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd, achieving breakout success in 1994 with the release of its fourth album, Superunknown . Propelled by the singles “Black Hole Sun,” “Spoonman,” “Fell on Black Days,” and “The Day I Tried to Live,” Superunknown debuted at the top of the charts and won two Grammy Awards. Soundgarden released its followup album, Down on the Upside , in 1996. In the following years, Cornell embarked on several new projects, releasing three solo albums and forming the supergroup Audioslave with members of Rage Against the Machine, and Cameron joined the band Pearl Jam. Soundgarden returned to the stage in 2010 and released its sixth studio album, King Animal , on November 12, 2012. The album debuted at the Number 5 spot in the Billboard 200. In 2019, Soundgarden, in collaboration with the Artists Den, and the Cornell Estate released the album  Soundgarden: Live From the Artists Den showcasing the full 29 song set from the 2013 show.

The Wiltern opened in Los Angeles in 1931 as the Warner Brothers Western Theater, a vaudeville theater intended as the chain’s flagship venue. Closing quickly a year later, the theater reopened in the mid-1930s as The Wiltern, a reference to the intersection at which the theater sits (Wilshire and Western). Housed inside the landmark Pellissier Building, a dramatic Art Deco skyscraper covered in zig-zagging blue-green tiles, the theater features a spectacular interior designed by G. Albert Lansburgh and colorful murals by Anthony Heisbergen. The Wiltern fell into disrepair in the 1970s and faced demolition before local preservationists intervened and saved it. The theater was renovated and reopened in 1985. Photography courtesy of Colin Young-Wolff for Artists Den Entertainment.

You think you know what the songs do and what impact they have on the audience night after night, and it's just not true. It's always evolving. Chris Cornell

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Remembering Soundgarden’s Final Concert

As Chris Cornell tore through a typically supercharged set with Soundgarden on the night of May 17, 2017, at Detroit's Fox Theatre, there was nothing to indicate he'd be dead just a few hours later.

Even guitarist Kim Thayil subsequently told  Billboard , "I thought the show was good. I remember Chris had just gotten [into town] and was a little tired and his voice was a little rough, but by about the fourth or fifth song, it kicked in and then it was just, like, super amazing – beautiful, clear and strong and, I thought, particularly emotive."

Cornell was discovered unconscious at 12:15AM in the bathroom of his hotel room at the nearby MGM Grand with an elastic exercise band wrapped around his neck. He was pronounced dead at 1:30AM, and Detroit police ruled it a suicide — which the Wayne County Medical Examiner confirmed a little more than two weeks later. His family, however, rejected the finding, claiming instead that Ativan, an antianxiety medication he used in his acknowledged battle against depression, played a role in his death.

Five years later the discussion of whys and wherefores has faded. The crucial thing is that Cornell, who was 52, is no longer with us, though the music he left behind has been celebrated via reissues of Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog albums and the career-spanning 2018 compilation Chris Cornell , which was curated by Cornell's widow, Vicky, Soundgarden A&R rep Jeff Fura and Thayil, who wrote an essay for the package.

There was, not surprisingly, some sentiment in the immediate wake of the tragedy that the final show was filled with hints that all was not right with Cornell. But that was simply not the case. The two-hour, 19-song show offered a wide-ranging romp through Soundgarden's six-album catalog, with plenty of expected favorites such as "Spoonman," "Burden in My Hand," "My Wave," "Fell on Black Days" and "Black Hole Sun." The group also dug into deep cuts such as "Hunted Down" from its first Sub Pop EP, 1987's Screaming Life , along with Superunknown tracks such as "Kickstand" and "Mailman." Interestingly, there was nothing from 1988's Ultramega OK , Soundgarden's full-length debut, which the group had reissued in an expanded, remastered edition just two months earlier.

Watch Soundgarden Perform 'Black Hole Sun' at the Last Concert in 2017

Cornell was energetic and ebullient through the show, in a strong voice and hitting all the expected screams as well as fist-bumping with fans in the pit in front of the stage. He also went out of his way to flatter the city, tweeting , "Finally back in Detroit Rock City" with a picture of the Fox Theatre earlier in the day and telling fans at the show, "It's great to be back here, honestly."

"I have bragged about Detroit crowds for 30 years," he added. "There's no other crowd that never, ever disappoints" He saved more praise for the encore, declaring, "Detroit, you guys show up! I feel sorry for the next place we play, but we don't have the same expectations."

There was a point mid-show where Cornell was absent from the stage for a protracted period, but Thayil said it was simply because the guitar Cornell was playing next had fallen out of tune and a backup wasn't immediately ready. "He had to leave the stage, I remember," said Thayil, "and he just kind of poked his head around and said, 'Go ahead, start without me,' at which point [bassist] Ben [Shepherd] started jamming on something and we all fell in until Chris was ready." More telling about Cornell's state of mind to many came when he slipped a bit of Led Zeppelin 's "In My Time of Dying" into the closing "Slaves & Bulldozers." But Thayil noted "that wasn't the first time he did that. He liked the song – he liked Led Zeppelin. ... And he often added bits or snippets of other songs like that into the shows, especially at the end. So, maybe ... but I don't think so."

Thayil largely agreed that hindsight was inevitable but not exactly 20/20. "You know, people speculate, and they get causality in reverse," said the guitarist, who, along with drummer Matt Cameron, visited with friends backstage after the show. The rest of the group didn't hear about Cornell's death until they were on a bus headed to the next show, at the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio, which turned into a multi-band wake for the singer. "I guess it's natural to try to fill in the blanks to explain a particular mystery. I think it's natural to say that 'We know something terrible happened, so we know there must have been some sort of problem. Let's see what that problem might be. Well, come to think of it, the show was kind of messy.'"

Cornell was cremated on May 23 – the same day Norah Jones played a solo piano version of "Black Hole Sun" at the Fox Theatre in Cornell's honor — and his ashes were buried three days later at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, next to Johnny Ramone's memorial statue. Thayil, Cameron, Shepherd and former Soundgarden members Hiro Yamamoto and Scott Sundquist spoke, as did Pearl Jam 's Jeff Ament and Mike McCready , who played with Cornell in Temple of the Dog, and his Audioslave bandmate Tom Morello . Linkin Park 's Chester Bennington and Brad Delson performed Leonard Cohen 's "Hallelujah." (Bennington, who was a close friend,  killed himself on July 20, which would have been Cornell's 53rd birthday.) Cornell's death would be mourned around the world for months to come, from Seattle's Space Needle to baseball games. Heart 's Ann Wilson and Alice in Chains ' Jerry Cantrell paid tribute to Cornell with a performance of "Black Hole Sun" at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 14, 2018, in Cleveland. (Soundgarden have been nominated, but not yet voted into the Rock Hall.)

Watch Norah Jones Perform 'Black Hole Sun' on May 23, 2017

The next Rock on the Range festival coincided with the first anniversary of Cornell's death. Alice in Chains honored him by playing two Soundgarden songs , "Hunted Down" and "Boot Camp," arranging the stage lights to spell out "CC" and "SG" at the end of the latter. Two nights later,  Tool dedicated their Rock on the Range set to Cornell.

Cornell's family continued to question the official autopsy and also criticized what seemed like an excessive wait — 41 minutes – to get a medical team to the hotel. In November 2018, it sued Cornell's physician, Dr. Robert Koblin, for "negligently and repeatedly" prescribing "dangerous mind-altering controlled substances ... which impaired Mr. Cornell's cognition, clouded his judgment and caused him to engage in dangerous impulsive behaviors that he was unable to control, costing him his life." Details of the April 2021 out-of-court settlement were kept confidential .

Soundgarden, meanwhile, have continued to exist in archival form with releases such as Live From the Artists Den and Essentials , both from 2019. Cameron continues his membership in Pearl Jam, while Thayil pulled himself out of a post-Cornell " fetal position " to be part of Wayne Kramer's MC50 band, with which Cameron also made appearances. The guitarist has also made guest appearances on several other projects, and he and Cameron are part of the Seattle band 3rd Secret with Nirvana bassist Kris Novoselic and others. More vault projects are likely in the future, though another version of Soundgarden has not been spoken about publicly.

"We often reference rock history, and we've often commented on what other bands in similar situations have done," Thayil explained, "not as a plan or anything but just commenting on how bands have handled situations like this and what bands seem to have been graceful and dignified in how they manage their future musical endeavors and how some maybe were clumsy and callous. We think about those things. We try not to go too deep into these conversations, but stuff comes up after a few beers."

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Soundgarden Members, Tour, Information, Facts

Soundgarden was an American grunge band formed by singer and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in the year 1984 in Seattle, Washington. The band released several albums, extended plays, and tracks such as  Ultramega OK ,  Louder than Love ,  Flower , Badmotorfinger , Screaming Life , Down on the Upside ,  King Animal ,  Superunknown ,  Fopp ,  Before the Doors: Live on I-5 Soundcheck , and  Room a Thousand Years Wide . Also, Soundgarden was placed at number #14 on the special “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” list curated by VH1 .

Past Members

• Kim Thayil – Lead Guitar
• Chris Cornell – Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Drums
• Hiro Yamamoto – Bass, Backing Vocals
• Scott Sundquist – Drums
• Matt Cameron – Drums, Backing Vocals
• Jason Everman – Bass
• Ben Shepherd – Bass, Backing Vocals

Seattle, Washington, United States

Grunge, Heavy Metal, Alternative Metal, Hard Rock, Alternative Rock

Sub Pop, SST Records, A&M Records, Interscope Records, Seven Four, Republic Records, Vertigo Records

Formation Year

Singing portfolio.

• The band released its first EP,  Screaming Life , on October 1, 1987, through Sub Pop Records. It comprised of songs such as  Hunted Down ,  Hand of God , Entering , and  Nothing to Say .
• On October 31, 1988,  Soundgarden released its debut studio album,  Ultramega OK , via SST Records and the album included tracks like  Smokestack Lightning ,  Circle of Power ,  Flower ,  All Your Lies ,  One Minute of Silence ,  Beyond the Wheel , and  Head Injury . It was ranked at number #8 on the  US Vinyl Albums (Billboard) chart and at number #9 on the  US Tastemaker Albums (Billboard) chart while also being nominated for the 1990 Grammy Award in the “Best Metal Performance” category.

Soundgarden Facts

• Soundgarden was the first grunge band to sign a deal with the record label Sub Pop.
• The band’s most successful album,  Superunknown , was released on March 8, 1994, via A&M Records and included songs such as  Fell on Black Days , My Wave ,  Black Hole Sun ,  The Day I Tried to Live ,  Spoonman , and  4th of July . The tracks  Black Hole Sun and  Spoonman won Grammy Awards and the album was also nominated for the 1995 Grammy Award for “Best Rock Album”. It was certified ‘5× Platinum’ by the United States (RIAA) and was ranked at number #9 on the “50 Greatest Grunge Albums” list issued by Rolling Stone in April 2019.
• Soundgarden dissolved in the year 1997 and then re-formed in 2010. Later, after Cornell’s suicide in 2017, Kim Thayil revealed in an October 2018 interview with  Seattle Times that the remaining members would not continue as Soundgarden .
• As a tribute to Chris Cornell, the members reunited for a one-off concert in January 2019.

Featured Image by Musicisentropy / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

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Spain vs Croatia

06 - 09 Jun 2024

Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed

Vasatorps Golfklubb, Helsingborg, Sweden

DP World Tour Partners

Scottie Scheffler’s victory at the Memorial presented by Workday shows how far he’s come

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DUBLIN, Ohio – Not long ago, Scottie Scheffler wasn’t winning. Well, wasn’t is harsh. He wasn’t winning enough – not for someone lapping the field from tee to green at a rate not seen since peak Tiger Woods. That type of prowess is historically accompanied by at least a half dozen victories, including a major championship or two, and proclamations of generational stardom.

Instead, Scheffler’s 2023 was defined mainly by what he didn’t do. His two wins should’ve been six. His close calls in majors should’ve yielded at least one victory, and his tightly contested battle with Jon Rahm for Player of the Year should’ve been a runaway race.

See, the world loves to poke holes in greatness and Scheffler had one rather glaring bugaboo that was rightly picked apart: his putting. As invincible as he looked with a driver, iron or wedge in his hands, the cloak dropped when Scheffler stepped on the green. Suddenly, he was human. All the drama shifted from the approach shot to the putt. The exceptional wedge to 5 feet was expected. Whether or not he made the birdie putt became the riveting question. With cameras tightly focused on Scheffler’s putter head, we watched balls veer offline and saw an exasperated Scheffler as the camera panned up. He insisted he was improving and that the fix was not far off, but the stats showed a man without answers.

It came to a head at last year’s Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, where Scheffler strung together his magnum opus from tee to green, gaining 20.7 strokes on the field, the second-best ball striking performance of anyone in the previous 20 years on the PGA TOUR. Yet he stood on the 18th green down by one shot and watched as his 15-foot birdie to go to a playoff slid by the cup, a familiar sight. He lost more than eight strokes on the greens that week, the worst mark in the field. In a year full of putting disappointment, no shortcoming better encapsulated Scheffler’s season – historically great ball-striking and historically poor putting. As he walked off the green, Jack Nicklaus stopped him and said, “(You) didn't make the putt today, but one day (you’ll) make the putt.”

So, as Scheffler poured in a slippery 5-foot par putt on the 18th to win this year’s Memorial by one over Collin Morikawa, it was a reminder of just how far Scheffler has come, with his putter and his place in the sport.

Scottie Scheffler pars the last to hold on and win the Memorial

Jack was right. This time, the putt went in.

“It was pretty special thinking about that as I was walking over to shake (Jack’s) hand today,” said Scheffler after his final-round 74. “Yeah, it was a fun week.”

Scheffler is displaying domination only a few men – Nicklaus included – have conjured. Everything that seemed possible a year ago, but fell just out of reach, has come true. Scheffler is the commanding force in men’s golf with no sign of slowing down, regardless of off-course circumstances that would have spurned lesser competitors.

Scheffler’s win at Jack’s Place was his fifth of the season, the first to reach the milestone since Justin Thomas in the 2017 season. He is the first to win five times before the U.S. Open since Tom Watson in 1980, and Scheffler enters the year’s third major at Pinehurst No. 2 as the overwhelming favorite. With 3-1 betting odds, Scheffler holds the lowest odds entering a major championship since Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship.

“It’s not luck and it’s not just a run,” said Tom Kim, close friends with Scheffler. “It’s a consistency that’s unbelievable. He gets better every day. He's Tiger-esque.”

In a matter of three months, Scheffler has gone from one of the best in the world to the unrivaled pinnacle that everyone is chasing. He has won this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, THE PLAYERS Championship, the Masters, the RBC Heritage and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Winning those five events in a career would deliver a lasting imprint on the sport. Scheffler accomplished it all in one season.

He has done it amidst his fair share of distractions. Some were good, like the birth of his first child, Bennett. Others were worse. He’s dealt with increasing comparisons to titans of the sport, a la Woods and Nicklaus, a pressure that has crushed others through time. Then, there was the incident outside Valhalla Golf Club during the PGA Championship that led to Scheffler’s arrest. Scheffler still finished T8. Then he carded a runner-up at the Charles Schwab Challenge, both while the case was ongoing and as he dealt with the emotions of Grayson Murray’s passing.

Scheffler was undeterred by any of it. His greatness persisted.

“I don't know how he does it,” Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott said. “With what happened at Louisville and then the tragedy with Grayson, that really affected him a lot. So yeah, it's been a whirlwind of emotions for the last month, but sometimes it's probably a safe place to go, you get in contention and you’re just focused on what you’re trying to do and can get away from the noise.”

Scottie Scheffler battles tough course conditions to win the Memorial

His mental toughness has kept Scheffler grounded, though that’s a characteristic the world No. 1 has carried much longer than a few months. The biggest on-course variable that shifted was the putter.

When the struggles popped up last year, Scheffler initially avoided making significant changes. He kept at it with his normal blade putter, utilizing the same drills with Randy Smith that he used since childhood. He contended he was hitting good putts that weren’t falling, but as the struggles accumulated, it became hard to justify that small changes were all that was needed.

“I tried to do my best to block out the noise, but it was tough coming in here every week and having to answer questions about my putting. It's like, listen guys, I'm doing the best I can, I promise,” Scheffler said with a laugh.

Scheffler ranked 161st in Strokes Gained: Putting last season. His struggles were notable to his friends, too.

“I saw a lot of frustration there,” Kim said. “Even in practice, you could just see him grinding on the putting. He's come a long way.”

In September, Scheffler sought the help of putting coach Phil Kenyon, notable given Scheffler had never worked with anyone other than Smith. Kenyon worked with Scheffler on refining his technique and once that was solid and repeatable, they prioritized feeling athletic instead of being robotic. Scheffler won the Hero World Challenge in December, his first stroke-play event alongside Kenyon, but the woes weren’t corrected until February. That’s when Scheffler switched from his blade putter to a mallet. He won four of his next five starts, including THE PLAYERS and the Masters. He's 71st in SG: Putting this season – far from exceptional but plenty good to support his generational tee-to-green statistics.

“I wouldn't trade those weeks that I had back or the year I had last year, just because I felt like I learned a lot about myself and what makes me tick and I think it made me a better player today,” said Scheffler. “A lot of the challenges in this game, I think, can only toughen me up.”

Scottie Scheffler’s interview after winning the Memorial

It was an experience to fall back on during the final round. Scheffler watched as several putts lipped out or just slid by, any of which would have made Sunday’s proceedings smoother. The lead began at four shots, but by the fifth hole, it was just one. Adam Hadwin made three early birdies, and Scheffler bogeyed the fourth. His lead bounced between one and two shots all day long as Hadwin fell down the board, Morikawa charged and Scheffler couldn’t get a putt to drop. But the pivotal swing came on the 16th when Scheffler jarred a 16-foot par putt, and Morikawa missed one of a similar length. That briefly gave Scheffler a two-shot lead. The lead dropped to one after Scheffler bogeyed 17 and Morikawa made par, but the cushion was enough. Both facing short par putts on the 18th, Scheffler stepped up first, knocked down the speedy 5-footer and fist-pumped for the crowd. Morikawa’s putt didn’t matter. It was over.

“He just knocked that ball in like champions do,” Nicklaus said.

A champion many times over.