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Kim Thayil is a true heavyweight of modern guitar playing. A shredder, but not in the conventional sense, his style is one of the most instantly recognisable out there, with his propensity for bellowing bursts of power as well as more melodic frills making his back catalogue a rivetting one that is brimming with surprises. 

Listening to him tear up the fretboard is quite something, as he can do it in as visceral a manner as any, and it was the combined force of his licks and riffs with that of Chris Cornell’s that really made Soundgarden stand out when they broke through in the late 1980s. Fusing punk, metal, industrial and pop influences, he has a rather minimalist style that always strives to serve the song above anything else.

‘Hands All Over’, ‘Jesus Christ Pose’, ‘My Wave’, there are numerous moments with Soundgarden that Thayil shines on, and many with his other projects, such as the 2006 record Altar, which he appeared on alongside the Sunn O))) and Boris, which is arguably the best example of just how far he pushes himself and the six-string. 

Given that Thayil’s work is so kaleidoscopic in the sense that it draws on a myriad of influences, his fans have long sought to understand who are the key figures who inspired his guitar-playing. Luckily for them, in May 2022 he sat down with Guitar World to shed some light, and some love, on those that have been the most significant to his rise as a guitar hero.

He started off with John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles, saying: “Normally, I would start with the Beatles. But John Lennon and George Harrison didn’t have an effect on me as guitarists – the Beatles had its effect by the nature of their songs and the culture that they came about in, both socially and politically.” 

“Being a little kid, the Beatles were the soundtrack to so much that was going on in the world in the ’60s and ‘70s. They were important in that way”, Thayil explained. “It wasn’t until I was older that I began to appreciate George Harrison as a guitarist on songs like ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ – where either he or Clapton or a combination of the two, did that sort of soulful playing. As a kid, I gravitated to the guitar songs and the cool guitar riffs, and songs that had a little bit of a bounce, such as ‘Paperback Writer’ or ‘Day Tripper’.” 

Later, he discussed how the great proto-punk guitarists such as Johnny Thunders, James Williamson, and Wayne Kramer also had a definitive impact on him in establishing his celebrated style. He paid particular attention to how their “loose, cool-looking playing” galvanised him when he was in his mid-teens and how he found them from the most unlikely of outfits, Kiss.

“Through reading about Kiss, I was connected to other ‘power chord hard rockers’ – like the MC5, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls – which was perfect because that is a good bridge to punk rock. That was perfect timing for me; when I was 14, it was like ’74/’75″, he said. “I ended up really liking Johnny Thunders. I got into that sort of sleazy, loose, cool-looking playing, like Joe Perry and Johnny Thunders, and that whole thing connected me to the MC5 and the Stooges.”

“I liked both periods of the Stooges – with Ron Asheton and with James Williamson. At the time, I was really into the MC5’s first album, Kick Out the Jams“, he continued. “I came to learn that a lot of the stuff I liked – which was wild and chaotic and careening out of control – was being played by Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith, and a lot of the more solid/learned stuff was coming from Wayne Kramer. It was just a great balance of those two guitarists in that band.”

Elsewhere, the most unsurprising of Thayil’s influences was that of Black Flag mastermind Greg Ginn’s SST records and the post-hardcore, as both had a defining impact on the grunge movement. He name-checked some of the best of the era, such as Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, and Meat Puppets.

He recalled: “Then in 1984, all this SST shit starts coming together. Besides Black Flag, you have Hüsker Dü, Meat Puppets, the Minutemen, and Saccharine Trust. I think the two guitarists that stood out for me were Curt Kirkwood and D. Boon.”

Out of all these esteemed alternative players, though, Thayil explained that the late D. Boon of Minutemen had the greatest impact on him, as his playing was the most “stylistically unique”. He expressed: “I probably say D. Boon’s playing might have hit me a little more as being stylistically unique. His guitar playing was slashy, percussive and very thin; bright, and high-end-y.”

Across the comprehensive list, Thayil also mentioned Daniel Ash of Bauhaus, Johnny Ramone, Bob “1” Mothersbaugh of Devo, and even the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck, reflecting just how many different influences he has, and exactly why he is such a dextrous guitarist.

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