Last month, the guitarist shared a performance of an acoustic composition called Crying Moon, written as a tribute to his friend and Temple of the Dog bandmate Chris Cornell. The late Soundgarden frontman is part of the inspiration behind the new project.

“I look at him as one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time, aside from being a friend,” McCready says of Cornell. “I love Chris and I'm working on a little project about the Seattle scene and a musical kind of rock opera thing. It's just from my experience in the Seattle music scene, and he's part of it.”

McCready notes that Crying Moon will appear in the rock opera, but as for what form the musical will take, that remains to be seen – he’s currently weighing up “a record and maybe some sort of stage/play thing”. “I'm just in the middle of it,” he says. “I’m working on a script and I've got about 18 songs that I'm working on, and I'm singing on it. It's been a long journey.”