Pavitt first met Jonathan Poneman in 1986, when Poneman invited Pavitt for an on-air interview on KCMU, to promote Sub Pop 100. In 1987, Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, said that the two should join forces. Pavitt and Thayil had attended Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois together in the mid-1970s. Subsequently Soundgarden's "Screaming Life" EP was released and the grunge phenomenon quickly followed.