Soundgarden return with Taylor Momsen and Mike McCready (Pearl Jam) for NFL halftime show
Soundgarden are returning to the stage — and they’re bringing some very familiar friends with them.
The Seattle legends will perform during halftime of the Seattle Seahawks’ NFL season opener against the New England Patriots at Lumen Field on September 9, with The Pretty Reckless frontwoman Taylor Momsen on vocals and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready also joining the band.
For a band so intrinsically connected to Seattle, it feels like a particularly fitting place for another chapter in the Soundgarden story. McCready will make the night even more Seattle-heavy by performing the US national anthem before the game.
And if there is anyone for whom stepping into this role feels less like a random guest appearance, it’s Momsen.
The Pretty Reckless supported Soundgarden on their final tour with Chris Cornell in 2017, and Momsen has never hidden the enormous influence the band — and Cornell in particular — had on her. Earlier this year she simply described Soundgarden as “my favourite band in the world”. She has since performed with the surviving members on several occasions, including the Chris Cornell tribute I Am The Highway and Soundgarden’s 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, where she once again took on Rusty Cage.
There’s even a tiny detail regular followers of Momsen may have noticed: that Soundgarden bracelet seemingly permanently attached to her wrist. During the now-infamous 2024 incident in Spain when a bat landed on her leg mid-show, Momsen initially misunderstood the crowd’s frantic pointing, later joking that she thought they were pointing at her Soundgarden bracelet because they liked the band.
We know that bracelet well at The Riff Collective too. Look closely at our photo of Taylor accompanying this article and there it is.
For now, this is a special NFL halftime performance rather than the announcement of a full Soundgarden return or tour. But seeing Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron back together, with Momsen at the microphone and McCready adding another piece of Seattle rock history to the equation?
September 9 suddenly became a date worth circling.
The Riff Collective
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