Hiro Yamamoto

Hiro Yamamoto (born April 13, 1961) is an American bassist who was a founding member of grunge band Soundgarden, along with Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell in 1984. He left the band in 1990, and one year later, he started the independent rock band Truly together with Screaming Trees drummer Mark Pickerel and Robert Roth from The Storybook Krooks.

Soundgarden

Yamamoto was the founding bassist of Soundgarden. He appears with the lineup of Cornell, Thayil, and drummer Scott Sundquist on the Deep Six compilation, and with the lineup of Cornell, Thayil, and drummer Matt Cameron on the EPs Screaming Life, Fopp, and Loudest Love, as well as on the albums Ultramega OK and Louder Than Love. His last gig with the band was in 1989 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, after which they got into an argument and Yamamoto subsequently left. He was replaced on the bass by Jason Everman, formerly of Nirvana, for a brief period of time after which Ben Shepherd was tapped as the permanent replacement. After his departure, Yamamoto finished his Master's degree in Physical Chemistry at Western Washington University.