Last night, at the annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio, Soundgarden were inducted by Jim Carrey. The ’90s grunge rockers were joined by Brandi Carlile, Taylor Momsen, Pearl Jam guiarist Mike McCready, and Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell to perform “Rusty Cage” and “Black Hole Sun.” Toni Cornell, the daughter of late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, also sang an acoustic rendition of “Fell on Black Days,” with accompaniment from Heart’s Nancy Wilson. Watch it all go down below.
In 1996, Carrey hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live with Soundgarden as the musical guests. While inducting the band, he told a story of being gifted Cornell’s guitar after the show. “When I heard Soundgarden for the first time, I wasn’t just excited,” Carrey shared. “I wanted to put a flannel shirt on and run into the streets screaming, ‘My mother smoked during pregnancy!’”
Carrey also brought out Cornell’s other daughter, Lily, who said of her father, “I know how much purpose that gave him, and how much it’s meant to people who have heard that music. That’s what I’ll be holding in my heart tonight.”
Following their performance, guitarist Kim Thayil, drummer Matt Cameron, and bassists Ben Shepherd and Hiro Yamomoto all gave speeches. “Chris Cornell, we are so missing you tonight on this stage,” Yamamoto said. “Thanks to my parents, whose story as American citizens who were rounded up and placed into prison camps, just for being Japanese during World War II—well, that affected my life greatly, and it really echoes strongly today. Let’s not add another story like this to our history.”
This year’s other Rock Hall inductees are the White Stripes, OutKast, Cyndi Lauper, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, and Joe Cocker, with Warren Zevon and Salt-N-Pepa receiving the Musical Influence Award.
