SONiC presents 3/30, a celebration of the 30th anniversary of three iconic albums. Nirvana’s Nevermind, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magic, and Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger. It’s insane, all 3 albums came out on the same day, September 24th, 30 years ago. So here are some sweet facts, part 3/3: Badmotorfinger.

Cover art for Soundgarden’s 1991 album ‘ Badmotorfinger’ is shown via Soundgarden
  1. After Nirvana turned down the opportunity, Soundgarden joined Guns N’Roses on their Use Your Illusion Tour.
  2. The original masters of the album were destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire, but the band wasn’t notified until 2015. They used digital recordings to remaster the album.
  3. The title Badmotorfinger was inspired by Sammy Hagar’s pre-Van Halen band, Montrose. They had a song called “Bad Motor Scooter” and it inspired lead guitarist Kim Thayil to come up with the name. “I simply like it because it was colorful. It was kinda aggressive, too,” he told the Music Paper in 1992.
  4. The music video for “Jesus Christ Pose” was removed from MTV’s rotation after complaints and controversy over the subject matter.
  5. Johnny Cash covered “Rusty Cage” in 1996 after producer Rick Rubin convinced him to. Chris Cornell wasn’t involved with the cover and claimed later that he was glad he wasn’t a part of it. “I’m glad that I didn’t, because what they did with it is so much him,” he clarified. “It sounds like a song he could have written, which is great. That’s the way it has to be. I just heard a few months ago that he had done it. They did it much better than I would have done.”
  6. “Birth Ritual” didn’t make it on the album, but it was included on the soundtrack for Cameron Crowe’s 1992 film, Singles. The band makes several appearances in the movie, including a performance of the song.