Due to his work with Soundgarden, Audioslave, and as a solo artist, the late/great Chris Cornell is often considered to be one of the greatest rock singers of all time, as evidenced by Billboard’s “50 Greatest Rock Lead Singers of All Time” list from 2023, in which he landed at #17. Heck, if you simply Google “greatest rock singers,” Mr. Cornell is the second chap pictured between Robert Plant and Freddie Mercury!
During a recent interview with Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello at Hellfest 24 for Loud TV, it sounded like songwriting came effortless for Cornell. And in particular, a certain Audioslave classic.
“Part of the brilliance of Chris Cornell was that no matter what you threw at him, whether it was like a complicated, heavy riff or a very, very simple and sparse chord progression, he instantly came up with some brilliant melody, haunting or terrifying melody,” Morello explained (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “That was very much the case with ‘Like a Stone.'”
“The first time that we were writing it, he sang not the words, but sang the melody that you hear on the record, and I played the solo that you hear on the record. So it was one of those songs that it felt like it was almost ‘unearthed’ in a way, and we just tapped into something that was very soulful.”
“At every show that I play, we always do something in memory of Chris, and we’ll do something today for him, too. It might be ‘Like a Stone,’ spoiler alert!”
Cornell took his own life on May 18, 2017, at the age of 52, shortly after a performance with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. Although Audioslave split in 2007 after three albums, the group reunited for a one-off performance just several months before Cornell’s passing on January 17, 2017, at Prophets of Rage’s Anti-Inaugural Ball at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, California.
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