(Credits: Far Out / Andreas Eldh)

The Story Behind the Song: Soundgarden’s ode to disillusioned ramblings in ‘Black Hole Sun’

Tue 4 March 2025 11:00, UK

When Soundgarden unintentionally established the sound of the summer in 1994 with ‘Black Hole Sun’, what they likely also didn’t realise was that they would be setting a new precedent for grunge. While other outfits centralised the appeal of the genre with a focus on lyrics, ‘Black Hole Sun’ proved the power of musical viscera, pandering to sun-kissed soundscapes with an unmistakable edge of melancholy.

The band’s most defining song came from their record Superunknown, reaching into the depths of other areas that proved their versatility within grunge and the rock scene as a whole. Although it was their fourth record, it no doubt proved their ability to push into spaces they previously hadn’t touched, with songs like ‘Black Hole Sun’ sitting at the crux of everything they achieved at this juncture.

Although a defining anthem across the less dreary months of that particular year, the track itself holds onto something far darker, though with an aura of catharsis that comes with almost everything Chris Cornell writes. To him, writing isn’t just a means of creating art but a tool for release, especially when it allows him to express and process the things that have been weighing him down. As he explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2014: “If I write lyrics that are bleak or dark, it usually makes me feel better.”

Still, whether knowingly or not, the song actually stemmed from a similar source to Talking Heads’ ‘Once in a Lifetime’, placing the very same perils of a life filled with information overload under the spotlight, even if both means of expression seem somewhat distinctive in approach. In Cornell’s case, this involved hearing a television broadcast utter something inaudible between the words “black hole sun”, which, out of context, seemed interesting enough to spark an entire musical idea.

In Cornell’s case, however, the transmission inspired him to use the cryptic three words as a starting point for what would eventually spawn into a song about being stuck in the depths of despair, willing the sun to come and “wash away the rain”. “I wrote it in my head while driving home from Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, a 35-40 minute drive from Seattle,” Cornell recalled to Uncut.

Continuing, “It sparked from something a news anchor said on TV, and I heard wrong. I heard ‘blah blah blah black hole sun blah blah blah’. I thought that would make an amazing song title, but what would it sound like? It all came together, pretty much the whole arrangement, including the guitar solo that’s played beneath the riff.” Elsewhere, he noted how much he liked the lyrics written down, stating they emitted a kind of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett-era quality that he didn’t shy away from.

It’s easy to see why from the sound and lyrics alone. Although starkly different from Talking Heads’ take, ‘Black Hole Sun’ also took shape in a stream-of-consciousness manner, with Cornell allowing the words to pour out from his heart and soul, almost like a withheld breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding onto. It was a natural affair, coming together in around 15 minutes, without the burdens of whether it would be well-liked among the rest of the band, let alone the world.

According to Kim Thayil, the song became as popular as it did because it adopted the perfect balance between accessibility and perfectly Soundgarden-esque. Though it initially hinged on some 1960s-specific tropes that could be compared to acts like The Beatles, it took on a life of its own entirely, sitting somewhere between nostalgia and innovation. In other words, it “wasn’t safe as milk, but it wasn’t glass in someone’s eye either,” according to Thayil. “It was the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.”

The words themselves, although accentuated by the song’s production, seem more akin to disillusioned ramblings when analysed on paper, gloriously highlighting the layers of Cornell’s vision. While it loosely began as something rooted in the perils of miscommunication and overstimulation in the digital era, it quickly became a Soundgarden and grunge staple, taking on its own form and reflecting everything good about the genre’s explosion—dark, honest, and inviting to every soul yearning to taste something a little bit different.

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