In time for the 20th birthday of Soundgarden‘s breakthrough fourth album Superunknown, Dave Grohl has recounted his experience hearing the record for the first time during Nirvana‘s final recording session, waxing lyrical on the impact the band had on his musical life.
In the video (below) Grohl recalls hearing Superunknown and in particular the track Black Hole Sun, when producer/engineer Adam Casper brought the record to Nirvana’s final recording session before it was released.
“He played Black Hole Sun and I remember thinking, ‘Holy shit, this is gonna be huge’,” Grohl says. “Because to me it was that perfect meeting of the Beatles and Black Sabbath, which is what I think we put in our Nirvana bio…but I don’t think that had ever successfully been paired until that record, and in particular that song.
“It was so much more melodically sophisticated than anything any of the other bands in Seattle were doing,” he continues. “It was a big deal.” Grohl recalls discovering Soundgarden during he 1980s and being surprised that a “rock band” was surviving and thriving in an underground scene.
“To me they had that punk-rock, underground, do-it-yourself ethic, but they were playing really interesting rock music.” He credits Soundgarden as being the first Seattle band to marry that underground ethic with a major label breakthrough, raising the bar for everyone else with the recording of Superunknown.
“Sonically, it was way beyond anything anybody had done in our scene. Melodically, again, just so much more sophisticated than anything we felt we were capable of doing,” he continues gushingly. “Twenty years later, that’s one of those records I honestly feel like your kid or your kids’ kids will discover and say, ‘Wow, dad, did you know about that band Soundgarden?’ 25 years from now.”
Watch: Dave Grohl on Superunknown
http://youtu.be/2OFaAhM6C3k
Watch: Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
Dave Grohl moshing the pits with the normal crowd at a Soundgarden gig – 7-22-11. pic.twitter.com/MwUZNrlsat
— dgrohldaily (@dgrohldaily) February 22, 2013
