Grunge

Eddie Vedder

His dead father sings on his record

He grew up in San Diego called Edward Mueller and learned at 17 that his father was the lounge musician he had been introduced to as a friend of the family, dead of multiple sclerosis in January 1981. Out of that came "Alive", "Once" and "Footsteps", written in a single day on 13 September 1990. Thirty-one years later, the credits of *Earthling* include one line: "Edward Severson Jr. – vocals (13)".

Pearl Jam

They testified and they lost

On 6 May 1994 Pearl Jam filed a memorandum with the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and on 30 June Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament testified in the House of Representatives. On 5 July 1995 the DOJ closed the investigation without acting: the boycott lasted until 1998, cost them some nine million dollars and three years almost without playing in their own country. And *Ten* never reached number one: Billy Ray Cyrus blocked it.

Blind Melon

It was about not being able to get out of bed

Everybody believes "No Rain" is about not fitting in. It was written by the bassist Brad Smith before the band existed, about a girlfriend with depression who slept through sunny days: it is about not being able to get out of bed. The belonging was invented by Samuel Bayer's video. And there are two bee girls: Heather DeLoach, 10, in the video, and Georgia Graham, the drummer's sister, on the cover. Real peak on the Hot 100: no. 20.

Candlebox

The farewell that wasn't

In 2023 they released a farewell record and a final tour that ended up fraying out at Club Chocolate in Santiago. As of October 2026 they are still on the road: 32 dates, 8 new songs and an album for 2027. Kevin Martin explains it without embarrassment: "I was done. And the minute you say that, your value goes up tenfold". Before that came a 4× platinum debut, no. 7 on the Billboard 200 and a "C" from Robert Christgau.

Silverchair

They never said they were splitting up

Silverchair never split up: in May 2011 they announced an "indefinite hibernation" and that is still their last official statement. They won a radio contest at fourteen and fifteen, recorded Frogstomp in nine days and then went off towards the orchestra while Daniel Johns was going through two different illnesses three years apart.

Dave Grohl

The drummer who turned out to be a songwriter

Dave Grohl left school at seventeen to play in Scream, joined Nirvana in September 1990 and, after Kurt Cobain's death, recorded alone in six days the album that gave rise to Foo Fighters, handed out on a hundred cassettes under a false band name. The least told part is his sideman's record: Probot (2004) with Lemmy and King Diamond, two Queens of the Stone Age albums and a double induction into the Hall of Fame.

Alice in Chains

The last one to see him alive

The Seattle band buried two members for the same cause: Layne Staley, who died on 5 April 2002 of a mixture of heroin and cocaine, and Mike Starr, a founder and the last person to see him alive, who died in 2011. In between, Dirt at no. 6 on the Billboard 200 and Jar of Flies, the first EP in history to debut at no. 1.

Kurt Cobain

He never wanted to be that

He changed the course of rock almost without meaning to, and he hated where it took him. Few artists have been so unhappy while being so successful.

Stone Temple Pilots

The ones branded a copy who turned out to be chameleons

They were received as a copy of Seattle grunge and an imitation of Eddie Vedder's voice. Two albums later the range was obvious: psychedelia, glam, twisted pop and a road song no Seattle band could have written.

Chris Cornell

Grief turned into songs

When his friend Andrew Wood died, he put together a whole band to say goodbye. That was his way: when the world took someone from him, he answered with music. He had almost four octaves and an honesty that gave others permission to name their own darkness.

Grunge: Seattle and the End of Innocence

'Bleach' cost 606 dollars; two years later 'Nevermind' knocked Michael Jackson off number one. How Seattle went from basement to summit, why it won thanks to the artifice it claimed to fight, and why no scene ever grew in the dark again.