Shaina Shepherd recently took to fronting a reunion of acclaimed grunge outfit Soundgarden‘s guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist/vocalist Ben Shepherd & drummer/vocalist Matt Cameron for charity. That show was held December 14th at the The Showbox in Seattle, WA with the returning Soundgarden members performing under their previously used anagram of ‘Nudedragons‘.
Together they ran through “Hunted Down“, “Outshined” and “Flower“, while Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan stepped in for “Kickstand” and a cover of MC5‘s “Kick Out The Jams“. Reactions to Shepherd‘s brief time spent fronting the outfit were divisive and apparently continue to play out on social media, with Shaina recently responding back to that commentary.
Responding to this Facebook post about a recent piece on the reunion by Hot Metal, Shaina offered, “Haters gonna hate while I live my dream. ”
After a commenter responded directly clarifying that hate and not liking are “very, very different things”, and went on to add, “If you’re still fronting them in 3,6,12 months time, good for you,” Shaina stated:
“bro….Soundgarden is a revolutionary band that changed my life, your life, the world. I could never front Soundgarden. But I love making music with those guys. I did it for me, for them like any other music endeavor. I don’t care what any of you think – never did. I care what they think – always will. This whole article is meaningless. Just like your timeline.”
The article in question pondered if Shaina fronting the band was a potential way forward for Soundgarden following the death of Chris Cornell. It also made mention of her unfortunate attempt at a stage dive during that performance, which went awry and subsequently went viral online.
New lead singer for Soundgarden misjudged the support she was going to get from a long time fans pic.twitter.com/PVNY5vZt8u
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) January 3, 2025
You can watch fan-filmed footage of the full performance below:
