Kim Thayil

Kim Anand Thayil (born September 4, 1960) is an American musician best known as the lead guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band Soundgarden, which he co-founded with singer Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984.

Born in Seattle in 1960, Thayil grew up in the Chicago suburb of Park Forest.

His parents came from the state of Kerala in India to Seattle.

His mother was a music teacher who studied to be a concert pianist at the Royal Academy of Music.

His father earned a degree in chemical engineering, received employment in Chicago and moved there with his family.

Thayil started writing lyrics at 12 years old.

In 1977, he formed his first band in Chicago, Bozo and the Pinheads, a punk rock band.

They did both original songs (written by Thayil and inspired by his punk music tastes) and cover tunes (mostly Sex Pistols, Devo, and Ramones).

Their first gig was at a school talent show for an audience of about 500 people.

He graduated, along with Hiro Yamamoto, from the Active Learning Process School (ALPS) at Rich East High School in 1979, the same school Bruce Pavitt graduated from 2 years earlier, in 1977.

He and Yamamoto decided to move to Olympia, Washington, to study at The Evergreen State College, but they were unable to find jobs and decided to move to Seattle.

There, Thayil earned money as a DJ for KCMU and earned a degree in philosophy at the University of Washington.

He played guitar in a post-punk band called Identity Crisis in 1980, and released a 7" inch EP called "Pretty Feet".

Thayil met Hiro Yamamoto at Rich East High School in Park Forest.

In Seattle they also met Chris Cornell, a roommate, and the three formed Soundgarden in 1984.

Soundgarden became the first of Seattle's grunge bands to sign with a major label (A&M Records).

They went on to release five albums, including three which went platinum at least once, and won two Grammys.

Thayil became acclaimed for his guitar work, which was typically characterized by heavy riffing, and was cited among other grunge guitarists as an influence and a pioneer of the "Seattle Sound."

In 1994, Thayil commented, "I think Soundgarden is a pretty good band and I'm a fine guitarist. I'm not God, but I'm certainly not average. I feel very comfortable with the fact that not many other people can do what I do on guitar. I think my guitar is happy with the way I play it."

Originally one of Soundgarden's main songwriters, Thayil's contributions as a writer eventually dwindled to just one song on Down on the Upside, "Never the Machine Forever", although he contributed to details in every song, as did every band member.

Thayil explained that "Collaboration was paramount in our early music, especially right at the beginning when it was me on guitar, Hiro on bass and Chris on drums," but eventually all four members became songwriters of their own, "all writing guitar parts that I had to learn."

This led him to do "Never the Machine Forever" all on his own, as Thayil thought "Well, if I'm going to have a song on this fucking record, I'm going to have to write lyrics."

While a member of Soundgarden, he has written the following songs for the band:

Thayil joined singer Johnny Cash, bassist Krist Novoselic of Nirvana and drummer Sean Kinney of Alice in Chains for a cover of Willie Nelson's "Time of the Preacher", featured on the tribute album Twisted Willie, released in January 1996.

After the 1997 breakup of Soundgarden, Thayil went on to contribute guitar to work by Pigeonhed and Presidents of the United States of America.

In 1999, Thayil formed a punk band, the No WTO Combo, with Jello Biafra (formerly of Dead Kennedys), Krist Novoselic (formerly of Nirvana, at the time a member of Sweet 75), and Gina Mainwal (also of Sweet 75).

The band was formed to celebrate and further the rampant protest activity against the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was held on November 30, 1999.

Originally scheduled to play at The Showbox on that same evening, police prevented the band from doing so, forcing the show to be rescheduled for the following night.

This was Thayil's first live concert since the breakup of Soundgarden.

The show was recorded by Mark Cavener and mixed by Soundgarden producer Jack Endino; it was released as the album Live from the Battle in Seattle in May 2000.

In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named Thayil #100 on the list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time".

In 2004, Thayil played guitar for Probot, Dave Grohl's heavy metal side-project; he was featured on the songs "Ice Cold Man" and "Sweet Dreams."

Thayil was a recurring participant on the Almost Live! sketch comedy show, calling things "lame" during "The Lame List" segments.

More recently, he contributed guitar to the track "Blood Swamp" from the 2006 Sunn O)))/Boris album Altar, for which he also wrote liner notes.

Thayil also plays lead guitar on a track called "V.O.G."

by Ascend, which features Gentry Densley (Iceburn, Eagle Twin) and Greg Anderson (Sunn O))), Engine Kid, Goatsnake). Ascend's record, titled Ample Fire Within, was released in 2008 by Southern Lord Records.

In 2009, Thayil played with Soundgarden's Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd at a show in Seattle on March 24, 2009, at the Crocodile Cafe that was headlined by Tom Morello's The Nightwatchman.

Thayil was named the 100th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2010, and the 67th greatest guitarist of all time by SPIN in 2012.

Thayil has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Soundgarden.

Cornell and Thayil remained as the original members of the band until Cornell's death in 2017, and the band's subsequent split in 2018.