It Happened Today: Sept. 4, 1960

Former Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil was born 48 years ago in Seattle, Wash.

Thayil met Hiro Yamamoto at high school in Park Forest, Ill. and after the two moved to Washington to attend university, they met Chris Cornell and formed Soundgarden with him in 1984. Cornell was originally the band's singer/drummer, but was moved permanently to vocals after Matt Cameron joined the band in 1986. Yamamoto left Soundgarden in 1990 and was replaced by Ben Shepherd.

Soundgarden released five albums over their 13-year career, and over the course of those albums, Thayil was one of the band's main songwriters. Soundgarden broke up in 1997 over a disagreement between Thayil and Cornell over the band's sound.

Since Soundgarden broke up, Thayil has contributed his guitar work to a number of projects, including Dave Grohl's Probot, his Foo Fighters heavy metal side project. He also formed No WTO Combo, a band with former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Jello Biafra and former Sweet 75 drummer gina Mainwal. However, the band were only active for a week and were only formed to protest the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle.