Fifteen years after Kurt Cobain’s suicide on April 5th, 1994, comes the authoritative story of grunge. ‘Grunge is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music’ (released April 1, 2009, via ECW Press) by Greg Prato is the definitive story of the Pacific Northwest music scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Never before has a book attempted to examine the scene as a whole. Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament says, “Finally, a book about the early years of our little scene in Seattle. I can’t wait to hear all the different perspectives from the people that were actually there, not the so-called experts, who didn’t show up until the ’90s.”
Taking the form of an oral history, Prato’s tome contains over 130 original interviews conducted for the book over a three-year period. No outside interviews are included and most of the interviews are published here for the first time. Some of the original interviews include:
Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam singer
Jeff Ament, Pearl Jam/Mother Love Bone bassist
Kim Thayil, Soundgarden guitarist
Susan Silver, Soundgarden/Alice in Chains’ manager, ex-wife of Chris Cornell
Duff McKagan, Guns N’ Roses bassist
Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, Alice in Chains guitarist and drummer
Nancy Layne McCallum, mother of late Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley
Mark Arm, Mudhoney singer
Chad Channing, Nirvana drummer
Jack Endino, producer Nirvana/Soundgarden/Mudhoney
Charles Peterson, photographer
Bruce Pavitt & Jonathan Poneman, founders Sub Pop Records
