Soundgarden‘s Soundgarden NFL halftime show on 9 September brought together The Pretty Reckless vocalist Taylor Momsen and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready for a performance of Outshined and Spoonman at Seattle’s Lumen Field, during the Seattle Seahawks‘ season opener against the New England Patriots.
McCready kicked things off before the game with a rendition of the US national anthem. Then, at the halftime break, Momsen stepped up alongside the surviving members of Soundgarden to front two of the band’s most iconic tracks in front of their home crowd. The Seahawks, who had already defeated the Patriots earlier this year in Super Bowl LX, won the opener 13-10.
Soundgarden NFL halftime show: a homecoming built on loss and loyalty
Momsen’s presence was anything but a novelty booking. She has performed lead vocals with Soundgarden’s surviving members on several occasions since the death of frontman Chris Cornell on 17 May 2017. The Pretty Reckless were the opening act on Soundgarden’s final tour with Cornell, placing Momsen close to the band at one of the most painful moments in their history. She subsequently sang at the 2019 I Am the Highway tribute concert and, more recently, at Soundgarden’s 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
The connection runs deeper than live performances, too. Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil and drummer Matt Cameron appeared on The Pretty Reckless’ 2021 album Death By Rock And Roll, contributing to the track Only Love Can Save Me Now. The collaboration reflected an ongoing creative bond that has grown, rather than faded, in Cornell’s absence.
Speaking to NME earlier this year, Momsen explained what Cornell’s music means to her. ‘Chris Cornell’s work speaks to me on a level that nothing else does,’ she said. ‘When something touches you that way, it’s hard to put into words just exactly why. There is just this connection, and it’s like it is speaking to you on a level that is so deep that it feels like a part of you. I’ve listened to his solo work and to Soundgarden so many times, but every time I listen to them, it evokes something different in me.’
She continued: ‘There is the sheer amount of depth and sensitivity and aggression… [but] also, it’s so smart. It’s musically exquisite and complex, like this never-ending onion where you discover something new about it and about yourself every time you listen to it. I think that is so powerful and so fucking rare. It’s coming from a place that’s so deep and so powerful that it touches your soul.’
Final album with Cornell recordings on the horizon
The Soundgarden NFL halftime show comes at a moment when the band is quietly working toward something larger. Soundgarden are currently putting the finishing touches to unreleased material featuring Cornell. Thayil addressed the process in an interview with LifeMinute, acknowledging the unusual conditions under which the work is being assembled.
‘It’s atypical in the way we approach it,’ Thayil said. ‘There isn’t a record label budgeting time and money with a particular schedule with everybody else’s obligations, professionally or with family or whatever. We have to find the time and coordinate amongst ourselves to address the work. It’s coming.’
‘It’s important for the legacy of Soundgarden,’ he added. ‘It’s important for the legacy of Chris Cornell. It is doing right by our collective work. It is doing right by our partner and friend.’
According to Chaoszine, the band’s final studio album, which includes those Cornell recordings, is expected to be released in 2027. For a band navigating grief, legacy and the practicalities of working without a label structure, that timeline reflects just how carefully they are approaching the material. The halftime show at Lumen Field, in front of their Seattle crowd, felt like a marker on that same road: the band staying active, keeping Cornell’s voice in the room, and building toward a release that will close one of the most painful chapters in rock’s recent history.
