Ben Shepherd

Hunter Benedict Shepherd (born September 20, 1968) is an American musician best known as the bassist of rock band Soundgarden.

Shepherd has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Soundgarden.

Born in Okinawa, Shepherd grew up in Washington and developed an interest in music after watching Johnny Cash on TV.

Once bassist Hiro Yamamoto left in 1989, Shepherd auditioned to replace him even as his primary instrument was the guitar.

The band members liked Shepherd and his attitude, but given he did not know how to play the songs, they eventually picked bassist Jason Everman.

He played in various punk-rock bands and eventually joined Soundgarden as a bassist in 1990.

Shepherd contributed to the band's musical evolution and played a significant role in songwriting.

Following the closure of the Louder Than Love tour in 1990, Everman was fired, and the band contacted Shepherd to see if he could join the band.

His introduction was deemed by Soundgarden as helpful towards their musical evolution, bringing his own compositions that showed a new style, and guitarist Kim Thayil adding that Shepherd gave "a creative and emotional punch".

In addition to his role as bass player, Shepherd's role as a singer and songwriter increased during his tenure with Soundgarden.

On his first recording with the band, the studio album Badmotorfinger, Shepherd took part in writing the following songs: "Slaves & Bulldozers" (music, co-written), "Jesus Christ Pose" (music, co-written), "Face Pollution" (music), and "Somewhere" (music and lyrics).

Shepherd also introduced some of the now signature alternate tunings to the band, such as in the singles "The Day I Tried To Live", "My Wave", "Pretty Noose", and "Burden in My Hand".

In 1993, he formed a side project, Hater, with Matt Cameron and John McBain.

In 1993, Shepherd and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron formed a side-project band called Hater with John McBain of Monster Magnet.

Shepherd sang vocals and played guitar in Hater, in addition to writing several songs on the band's first release, a self-titled album.

In 1994, Soundgarden released Superunknown, which featured Shepherd's compositions "Half" and "Head Down".

The latter of which was heavily influenced by The Beatles and was written after experimenting with mic placement on his Gibson L-50, picking up the guitar and strumming it to find he liked the wildly out of tune sound, making up the song's composition on the spot.

"Half" was marked by an Indian flavor and was the first song on a Soundgarden album for which Shepherd sang lead vocals.

Shepherd has said that "Half" was a song he wrote in case his daughter ever wanted to learn guitar.

A second album called The 2nd was recorded in 1995 after Superunknown tour's end, but was not released until 2005, ten years later.

In 1996, Soundgarden released Down on the Upside, in which six of the sixteen album tracks were lyrically and/or musically composed by Shepherd.

The tracks were: "Zero Chance" (music), "Dusty" (music), "Ty Cobb" (music), "Never Named" (music) "Switch Opens" (music) and "An Unkind" (music and lyrics).

Shepherd once said he penned the music for "Never Named" at the age of sixteen.

"Ty Cobb" was the first song Shepherd wrote that was made a single.

Soundgarden broke up in 1997, leading Shepherd to struggle with addiction and personal issues.

The Down on the Upside tour ended on February 9, 1997, in Honolulu, with an acrimonious meltdown started by Shepherd.

With the band in a bad mood and facing technical problems in their performance, Shepherd eventually got so frustrated he smashed his bass during "Blow Up the Outside World", gave the audience the finger and left the stage.

He played in various bands before Soundgarden reunited in 2010, continuing until Chris Cornell's death in 2017.

Shepherd released a solo album, In Deep Owl, in 2013, and has two children.

He partially owns an upscale Seattle bar, Hazlewood, and resides on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Shepherd was born in an American military base in Okinawa.

His father worked in the Nike missile program and played the guitar.

His family moved to Allen, Texas, then settled in Kingston, Washington, where Shepherd grew up.

Shepherd became interested in music after listening to Johnny Cash on television.

When Shepherd asked his father for a guitar, his father complied only after insisting he must learn every chord in a large book with nothing but a guitar neck.

Shepherd did so—with help from his cousin Ralph "Tony" McMullen—and his father bought him his first guitar.

Shepherd played in numerous punk-rock bands with friends as a teenager like March of Crimes, Mind Circus and 600 School, meeting future musicians such as Stone Gossard, Krist Novoselic and Matt Cameron.

After graduating from high school, he worked as a carpenter and a laborer, and while playing in Tic Dolly Row with drummer friend Chad Channing, introduced him to Novoselic, who went on to bring Channing into his band Nirvana.

Shepherd would later travel with Nirvana on a tour leading up to the release of Nevermind, being a nominal second guitarist but not playing on stage.

Shepherd was a fan of Soundgarden ever since their early days as a three-piece.