3 Grunge Stars’ First Bands That Never Became Famous

In the 1990s, grunge groups became globally famous. It felt like it happened almost overnight. Suddenly, every record store was filled with posters of people in flannel shirts, and they were all playing music from the Pacific Northwest.

Here below, we wanted to highlight three artists from back in the day who rocketed to fame thanks to grunge. But they didn’t do it immediately, per se. Indeed, these are three grunge stars’ first bands that never became famous.

Eddie Vedder

Born on December 23, 1964, in Evanston, Illinois, future grunge star Eddie Vedder later moved to San Diego to work a day job and enjoy the surf. It was in the mid-1980s that he started to record demo tapes and get his burgeoning musical career going. He played in a number of early projects, including groups called Surf and Destroy, the Butts, and Indian Style. The latter featured future Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave drummer Brad Wilk. In 1988, Vedder joined the group Bad Radio. But soon, his grunge career would commence in earnest thanks to bands like Temple Of The Dog and Pearl Jam.

Chris Cornell

Born in Seattle on July 20, 1964, Chris Cornell would go on to become the frontman for the iconic grunge band Soundgarden. Later, he’d front the heavy rock group Audioslave. But before all that got going, Cornell was kicking around the Pacific Northwest, trying to find his way. In the early 1980s, before forming Soundgarden later in the decade, Cornell played in the cover group The Shemps. Ironically, the band featured future Soundgarden bassist Hiro Yamamoto. After the bassist left, the band then recruited (again, ironically) guitarist Kim Thayil. Later that trio would form the bones of Soundgarden.

Kurt Cobain

In many ways, Nirvana lead vocalist Kurt Cobain represented the pinnacle of grunge music. His band’s sophomore LP, Nevermind, remains one of the biggest and most influential records of all time. But before the Aberdeen, Washington-born artist was in Nirvana, he was fronting a band called Fecal Matter. Born on February 20, 1967, Cobain started Fecal Matter in 1985 with Dale Crover of the Melvins and drummer Greg Hokanson. But while promising, the group split just a year later in 1986. And it would be three years after that when Nirvana released its debut LP, Bleach, in 1989.

Photo by Paul Bergen/Redferns