Drummer Matt Cameron, a longtime member of both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, will soon be a two-time inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, thanks to his legendary work with both Seattle bands. However, he says his upcoming induction with Soundgarden will be “a little more meaningful” than his 2017 induction with Pearl Jam.
Soundgarden made the cut as part of the Class of 2025, and will be inducted November 8th during a ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, airing live on Disney+. While Cameron spent 27 years in Pearl Jam prior to exiting the band earlier this summer, he feels like he made a greater contribution to Soundgarden.
“It’s a huge honor,” Cameron told Billboard of Soundgarden’s upcoming induction. “I haven’t really wrapped my head around it, and it’s not lost upon me that it’s pretty real to get in there two times. I’m feeling great about everything.”
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He added, “They’re both huge honors, of course. For me, personally, I helped build Soundgarden from the ground up, and I helped create the sound, I think, a little bit more than I did with Pearl Jam, which was definitely more of an established thing that I came into. So in that sense [Soundgarden’s induction] is a little more meaningful for me as an artist and musician and songwriter to go in with a band that I helped establish itself.”
While he wasn’t Soundgarden’s very first drummer, Cameron joined the band in 1986, and played on every one of their studio albums. He remained a member until singer Chris Cornell’s death in 2017 effectively ended the band, although he and the other surviving members are currently working on a new album featuring Cornell’s posthumous vocals.
With Pearl Jam, Cameron became their drummer in 1998, and didn’t appear on any of the band’s classic albums of the 1990s. His first appearance on a Pearl Jam studio album was on 2000’s Binaural.
Along with Soundgarden, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 includes The White Stripes, OutKast, Cyndi Lauper, Bad Company, and more.
