Kim Thayil reveals what he misses most about Chris Cornell

On May 18, 2017, Chris Cornell took his own life in his hotel room after Soundgarden's show at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Four years after his tragic death, Kim Thayil reflected on life without his friend and bandmate during a conversation with Kerrang!.

“I miss his company and presence,” Thayil revealed after "becoming uncharacteristically quiet," the outlet noted. “I miss the collaborative inspiration he brought, too, and the team and family that we built together over the years.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the guitarist divulged that "Slaves And Bulldozers" off Soundgarden's 1991 album Badmotorfinger was his favorite vocal performance from Cornell. “It captures everything that Chris was able to do in the one track," he explained. "He’s screaming like a reptile one minute, then crooning in a high pitch the next, and so soulful during the verses.”

“He knew what he could do, we all did,” he continued. “But he liked to pursue the areas he wasn’t as strong at too. He was more inclined to take that challenge with his instrument. There was a point when people started saying, ‘He’s a great singer – perhaps the greatest singer in rock,’ and that’s when he began to really focus on being as good a singer as he could be, so he could be even better.”

Hopefully, fans will get the chance to hear the last songs Cornell recorded with Soundgarden before he died. Though the band's surviving members have been embroiled in a legal battle with the late rockstar's widow Vicky, both sides have said unreleased Soundgarden music will "see the light of day."