For decades, the origins of grunge have been debated, with Seattle often credited as its birthplace and Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden as its pioneers. But what if grunge's DNA stretches back further? According to King's X frontman Doug “Dug" Pinnick, his band played a foundational role in shaping the genre — even if mainstream recognition of their influence has been rare.
In a recent interview with The Lounge With Jake Ellenbogen (via Blabbermouth), Pinnick reflected on Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament's claim in the early ‘90s that King's X “invented grunge." For Pinnick, the acknowledgment was significant.
“It was really, really, really, really so cool for him to say that, especially when nobody else would, especially those who would agree with him, who wouldn't say nothing. And it meant a lot for him to publicly say that," he said.
Despite Ament's praise, King's X rarely gets the credit they deserve for their impact. Pinnick noted that while many musicians acknowledge the band's influence privately, few publicly proclaim it. “I've been told how influential King's X has been by almost every musician I've run into, but very few will make a big statement about it. They'll mention the classics… And for us, I think we just carried the torch of a type of music that needed to be explored," he explained.
One key element of King's X's sound that may have shaped grunge is their use of Drop D tuning. Pinnick described it as an approach rooted in bluegrass. “Drop D tuning isn't nothing new. We just decided to play The Beatles' ‘She's So Heavy' in Drop D tuning. That's about it. Drop D country music with Beatles singing," he said.
He credits King's X guitarist Ty Tabor's background in bluegrass for helping shape their signature tone, long before Drop D became a staple in heavy music.
"Drop D tuning is basically bluegrass music. And Ty listened to bluegrass when he played it when he was in grade school and stuff. His dad and his brother, and his brother played banjo and so he comes from that. And he would play these riffs with this Drop D thing, and he just took the distortion up, and there it is. And grunge happens. And it was the easy thing to do, I think. And I think that when a lot of people heard the difference in the sound of when you Drop D tune, it's just a different tone. And we weren't used to it at the time. Everybody's used to it now. It's, like, everybody's even lower. It's not even special anymore."
That shift in tuning had a ripple effect. Pinnick recalled how, at the time, Metallica and Slayer were still in standard tuning, making Drop D sound fresh and heavy. “Now, every now and then, Eddie Van Halen would drop his E string down to D, and Tony Iommi would tune down on some Black Sabbath stuff, but at the end of the day, the whole Drop D way it's played and how you phrase it and stuff is a unique way that bluegrass players play," he explained.
Fast forward to today, and Drop D is no longer groundbreaking — “We got Korn, we got Meshuggah. Fuck that," he quipped.
Pinnick also noted how quickly grunge took over. “Someone told me one time that the easiest way to change the world with your music is to make up something cool that any kid could play as soon as he picks up a guitar," he said,
"I think about when grunge hit — from Helmet to you name it. Filter. I mean, within six months there was like a whole another wave of music. And people said it was grunge because it was grungy like Neil Young," he recalled.
But what really drove grunge's explosion? According to Pinnick, it was a reaction to the oversaturation of late ‘80s glam metal: "They wiped out the germs, if you wanna look at it in a pharmaceutical way of looking at it. We were just burnt out on late '80s everything. And it was like a virus. Everything sounded the same. It was on the radio, it was on TV — everybody looked the same, the songs sounded the same.
As grunge took off, the flashy excess of hair metal quickly faded, and a rawer, more organic sound took its place. And while Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is often cited as the song that officially kicked off the grunge movement, Pinnick believes bands like King's X and several others had already been laying the groundwork.
"Right before that, there was King's X, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Faith No More, and Jane's Addiction, all within a year of each other. All of a sudden, there was this new thing that was happening. Nobody was following anybody, but we were all listening to each other. And kids wanted something new. And I think that because of those bands and King's X, the grunge thing, those bands kind of helped push people to look towards Seattle, which was coming out with some radical stuff that was inspired by these bands, I feel us included," he explained.
Pinnick also revealed that Soundgarden's Kim Thayil personally credited King's X with influencing their sound: "Kim told me that he showed Chris Cornell Drop D tuning in '85. And Ty wrote 'In The New Age' in 1985… So both bands had never heard of each other and had started writing songs in Drop D tuning."
He recalled conversations with the late Chris Cornell, where they discussed tunings and techniques, and pointed out the similarities between early Soundgarden and King's X tracks.
“Chris and I both — I've gotten to know him before he passed away and stuff. We talked about tunings and all that stuff. And so there was like a neck-and-neck Soundgarden–King's X thing happening where we were that generation that was daring to do different tunings and different timings, and we had these two different singers. You listen to some of the Soundgarden and King's X stuff, and there were times where you're going, ‘Which band is which?', like 'Outshined' and 'Spoonman' and 'Black Hole Sun'," he said.
"And even though nobody's gonna go, 'Oh, that sounds like King's X,' but I know that we were all listening to each other. Well, not all. There was always one person in all those bands that was a King's X fan, the rest of them couldn't care less. But that one person always would bring in that thing that pushed it towards that vibe, which was pretty cool. I mean, even Pearl Jam, they don't sound like King's X, but put on the first record and listen to that rhythm section… That's us, me and Jerry slamming that shit."
Ultimately, Pinnick doesn't claim that King's X single-handedly created grunge, but he does believe they played a significant role in the genre's evolution.
"I think we all started to see this new thing happening. We all started pushing each other. We all became fans of each other. Everybody was going, 'Uh oh, we found something, guys.' And most of them would give King's X credit, but in the soup of everything, we were all kind of pushing each other's buttons, in many ways," he concluded.
Grunge's origins will likely always be debated, but if the musicians who built the scene acknowledge King's X as a crucial influence, perhaps history should as well.
