Last night, Soundgarden hit the stage on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, ripping through two cuts from their latest opus, King Animal. You can watch footage of the band performing "By Crooked Steps" and "Been Away Too Long" below.
"It was just a matter of time before we got in a room together to jam," guitarist Kim Thayil recently told Guitar World of the band's 2010 reunion. "And that was fun. It went well. So it was, 'Let's play a show.' And through performing and rehearsing, we naturally jammed and improvised and introduced riffs and ideas to one another. That stimulated the interest in writing and recording together. And now here we are."
For more on the making of King Animal, gear and Thayil's bizarre arsenal of tunings, pick up the Holiday 2012 issue of Guitar World on newsstands now, or in our online store.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.

“There is no-one who can do this process with me as well as he can”: Alex Van Halen says a new Van Halen album is in the works – and he’s recruited Steve Lukather to help him complete it

“Exactly the kind of thing the Instagram algorithm won’t be injecting into your eyeballs every time you log on”: February 2025 Guitar World Editors’ Picks