SOUNDGARDEN’s BEN SHEPARD Reflects On The Band’s Final, Unreleased Album

Soundgarden was working on the follow-up to their 2012 record King Animal when vocalist Chris Cornell tragically died in 2017 by suicide. The record has since been a battle ground between Soundgarden and Cornell‘s widow Vicky Cornell for years, as it fluctuated between seemingly on the verge of release and mired down in legal woes.

All we know are the names of a few songs thanks to court filings, which are:

• “Road Less Traveled” (Chris Cornell/Matt Cameron)
• “Orphans” (Chris Cornell/Matt Cameron)
• “At Ophians Door” (Chris Cornell/Matt Cameron)
• “Cancer” (Chris Cornell)
• “Ahead Of The Dog” (Chris Cornell/Kim Thayil)
• “Merrmas” (Chris Cornell/Ben Shepherd)
• “Stone Age Mind” (Chris Cornell)

Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil recently spoke to Rolling Stone saying he believes the record will eventually get released despite the legal hangups, while bassist and vocalist Ben Shepherd recently took to Instagram to offer the following reflection on Cornell and the unreleased record.

“As I wait for my son Noah to get out of school today im thinking about … well actually its stuck in my head and’s been there since early this morning like a proud spring bird damnit , its a song Chris and Matt wrote ‘The Road Less Traveled’ for our album that has yet to be named , just hearing Chris‘ voice helps, i know he did that for everyone he knew …. help them , he did for me , filled with self doubt and indebtedness and in just his tone knew what i was going through and forgave me like he always did even when he was older.

“Its at this point of recording all of our previous albums id get this overwhelming hit of awe, camaraderie, power of creativity , majesty even , and love, from the music, and my bandmates ….and i guess just pure life force.

“Like a torrent of light raging freely towards the sky . That pure life force . My heart would fill up with life, like helium and it’d lift me almost off the ground. Chris and i used to get giddy like little kids and laugh together in the studio at least once each time recording a record ‘- wow , we GET to do this , can you believe it !? We GET to record !’

“It has the power this feeling to well up my eyes with tears , and then make me openly weep. Many, many times this has happened over these 30 plus years . When stepped back from this raging torrent is a serenity like the cliche of deafening silence , and I am finding in this silence and calm , time to re-grab the canoe edges and brace then reopen my eyes re-see the horizon. There , behind the mountains are the stars. Is it dawn ? or is it dusk ? Ambiguous yet welcoming. Reassuring. Natural paces and cyclical understanding and breath. Mighty .

“I hope every one of you reading this can lace positive moments together and make some sense of the calm and the torrent into some kind of constellation for your horizons and appreciate those living along with those you love.

“I am very blessed by my loved ones and very honored to have known or worked with each of my brothers Kim , Matt, and Chris in this path of music , and life , of loves and losses , righteousness and folly ,but i can tell you , it feels good and invigorating to hear Chris singing from over that horizon and hear the mighty… mighty life , of souls sharing.

“To hear , as a fan …and band member , a song or two Chris brought in a few years ago turn before my very ears and finger blisters into a full blown Soundgarden tune is like feeling a glacier fall away off your chest.

“We all have a lot of work to go through in this life.. but we are all to a man trying our best and to do each and every one of us proud , you Chris , are right here with us. We all miss you brother , see you when we do.”