Meat Puppets Artistfacts

1980-
Curt KirkwoodVocals, guitar
Cris KirkwoodBass
Derrick BostromDrums1980-1996
Shandon SahmDrums1999-
The Meat Puppets originally formed in 1980. Singer/guitarist Curt Kirkwood first met drummer Derrick Bostrom at a party in Paradise Valley, Arizona. In the book Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets, Kirkwood recalls, "It was a party of all his friends from the church that he went to - they were all pretty eccentric people already, listening to a lot of different stuff."
The Meat Puppets' 1982 self-titled album was recorded in just three days (at Unicorn Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard) and under the influence. As bassist Cris Kirkwood recalled in the book Too High to Die, "We dosed for three days in a row and recorded that thing."
Although Meat Puppets II is an all-time favorite of Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, it wasn't until many years later that he actually owned a copy of the album. At the time of the album's release (1984), a friend dubbed Thayil a cassette - one side comprised of early material from Blue Cheer, the other side featuring Meat Puppets II.
Curt Kirkwood once broke his finger (when it was accidentally slammed in a van door), which was one of the reasons that the 1986 release, Out My Way, was only an EP.
After the break up of the short-lived supergroup Eyes Adrift (which saw Curt joined by ex-Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and ex-Sublime drummer Bud Gaugh), Curt and Bud joined forces in the band Volcano. Like Eyes Adrift, Volcano only managed to issue a single self-titled album before breaking up.
Meat Puppets drummer Shandon Sahm is the son of Doug Sahm, who was a solo artist as well as a member of the Sir Douglas Quintet, Texas Tornados, and the Bottle Rockets.

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