(Credits: Far Out / Original Poster / Perfectrx)
Sat 18 April 2026 4:00, UK
Given the sheer amount of inter-scene feuds and rival bands that have dominated the headlines of the music press since way back in the 1960s, it is easy to view a movement like grunge as a constant battle between opposing bands. In reality, according to Eddie Vedder at least, there was a little more brotherhood in grunge than its abrasive atmosphere might suggest.
Rivalries certainly wormed their way into Seattle’s grunge movement, particularly when its penchant for fuzz pedals and flannel shirts broke into the musical mainstream of America. Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, for example, took virtually every opportunity to lament and criticise Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder. Nevertheless, those who held on to the original, DIY ethos of grunge certainly boasted some unity among artists.
Among that grunge brotherhood, Vedder fostered a particularly close relationship with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell – a fact that should not come as any great shock when you explore the joint activities of the pair in their pre-fame days. Back in 1991, for instance, the pair collaborated on the self-titled Temple of the Dog album, in tribute to Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, who succumbed to a heroin overdose the year prior.
That album, in fact, features Vedder’s first professional recording session, for ‘Hunger Strike’, which sees him duet with Cornell years before that meeting of grunge titans would have blown the minds of listeners. Even when the pair’s respective bands began to take flight, though, the close friendship that had been forged during that album’s production period only seemed to strengthen.
If there was any rivalry between Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, it was in the singles charts or the pages of the music press. In reality, the two bands consistently supported one another and, throughout it all, Vedder never for a moment lost respect for the distinctive gravelly voice of Chris Cornell, a voice that arguably defined the American rock landscape of the 1990s.
Inevitably, then, when Cornell tragically took his own life in 2017, after a Soundgarden gig in Detroit, it left Vedder, along with legions of fans and grunge obsessives, absolutely devastated. In the wake of that passing, Vedder has spoken at length about his lasting adoration for Cornell, making a particularly impassioned, emotive speech during a Pearl Jam show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo in 2017.
During the speech, Vedder spoke about the difficulty of losing people who were close to him, including family members and fellow musicians, with a particular focus on Cornell. “He wasn’t just a friend, he was someone I looked up to like my older brother,” he said of the Soundgarden frontman.
“I didn’t want to be sad, I wanted to be grateful, not sad,” the songwriter concluded, reflecting on the endless hours’ worth of memories he cherished of time spent with Cornell. “I’m still thinking about those memories, and I will live with those memories in my heart, and I will love him forever.”
That sentiment is echoed throughout the entirety of alternative rock to this day, with countless artists endlessly indebted to Soundgarden’s pioneering output. Not only was he among the greatest voices in grunge, but he also played a key role in the life and musical development of others, Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam being a key example.
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