Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament also played in Temple Of The Dog with Chris Cornell, and he delivered one of the eulogies at the Soundgarden frontman’s memorial service on Friday. Now, as Blabbermouth reports, he’s opened up publicly about his friend’s legacy.

“Jimi Hendrix included, Chris was the greatest songwriter to ever come out of Seattle,” Ament told the NBA.com podcast NBA Soundsystem yesterday. “Hendrix could play the guitar like crazy, but Chris had the songwriting chops that we all sort of hope to get to… He had a way that he could wrap a melody around odd time signatures and weird parts and make them catchy. And he was a beautiful wordsmith.”

“If you look at his lyrics, he was obviously processing his pain and his depression and all those things,” he continued. “I think that’s part of what people, myself included, responded to when he was singing. And then with the songwriting, he had that voice. There’s not too many people who had that many options with their voice. He could inhabit a lot of different characters with that voice. I feel so lucky I got to be in a project with him and got to hang out with him and just witness his greatness.”