What were you doing before you became a music journalist?

I was in the U.S. Army for about five years before I started really writing. I joined out of high school and deployed to Iraq in 2009. When I came home, I enrolled at the Evergreen State College and then began blogging, mostly as a hobby.

How did you get into writing?

I’d been writing casually for about a year when a guitar magazine hit me up and asked if I’d like to write a 3,000 word piece about this obscure, English session guitarist named Big Jim Sullivan. I was supposed to interview him for my own blog, but he died literally the day before we could talk, so I posted an obituary instead. They noticed it, and the rest, as they say, is history.

What your favorite music memory from childhood?

That’s a tough one. I think I’ll fast-forward a few years to seeing my first concert at 14, at ARCO Arena in Sacramento. Nine Inch Nails was headlining, with Queen Of The Stone Age and Autolux in support. The intensity and the volume are what I remember most fondly. I guess I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

Do you remember the first Soundgarden song you ever heard?

It had to be “Black Hole Sun.” Even as a young, young kid, that song was everywhere when it came out.

What are some of your favorite Soundgarden/TotD/Audioslave/CC solo songs?

Do you have an hour? Haha. “4th Of July” from ‘Superunknown’ is probably my favorite Soundgarden song. “Reach Down” is my favorite Temple Of The Dog track. I’d have to go with “Shadow On The Sun” for Audioslave.” And then Chris’s solo work, excepting “Seasons,” which is incredible, I think I’d pick “Can’t Change Me” from ‘Euphoria Mourning.’

Do you have a personal story or connection to Chris or any of the bands you’d be willing to share?

Chris Cornell has always seemed like an omnipresent musical force in my life. I was in High School around the time the first Audioslave album dropped and it was inescapable. Then you realize, ‘Oh, that’s the guy from Soundgarden??’ and get to really dig into that collection of music. A few years later I moved up to the Seattle area, and you could feel the mark he left on that place, even if he wasn’t living there at the time. Seeing Soundgarden at the Paramount in 2013. Seeing him solo and as part of the Mad Season celebration at Benaroya Hall where Temple Of The Dog reunited. Bumping into him in LA for the onstage chat with Jimmy Page he did at the Ace Hotel. His music meant a lot to me.

What did you think of the I Am the Highway Event? Who was your favorite?

I thought it was spectacular! My first book, ‘Lighters In The Sky’ is a year-by-year profile of the greatest concerts of all-time, and if my publisher asked me to cook together a chapter about 2019, I mean, it’s only January, but I can’t imagine another show surpassing the quality and emotion of that one. Favorite singer was probably Miley Cyrus doing “Say Hello 2 Heaven” or Dave Grohl shredding his vocal cords on “Show Me How To Live.” The most powerful moment however, was at the very beginning, just seeing the three Soundgarden guys together again and the outpouring of love from the crowd for them. I still think about Matt Cameron’s speech.