Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell: Audioslave Never Got a Fair Chance

2011-10-01

Story by Anne Erickson

Chris Cornell stands by his time crooning with Rage Against the Machine players

Sure, everyone loves Soundgarden. And, of course, everyone loves Rage Against the Machine. But, it seems the combination of the two — al a Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and Rage Against the Machine instrumentalists Tom Morello (guitar), Tim Commerford (bass, backing vocals) and Brad Wilk (drums) as supergroup Audioslave — never quite got a fair chance. At least, that’s what Cornell says.

When asked about the melodic Audioslave era, Cornell recently told Faster Louder, “Personally, a lot of it was me trying to land on my feet again. I went through a lot of personal turmoil right around the time Audioslave formed and unfortunately I think that affected the band a little bit in terms of me not really being grounded. Having said that, I love all three records, I think they’re all great and I view them as being a super lucky thing to have been a part of.”

After Soundarden regrouped, Cornell says he got mixed reviews of his Audioslave foray from fans. “People would say things they maybe wouldn’t have normally said when it was Audioslave and say, ‘Yeah, I’m really glad Soundgarden’s back together,’ and, ‘I didn’t really like Audioslave as much,’ and I’ve heard Rage fans say the same thing,” he said. “But sometimes I feel like it’s a bad rap and there’s a negativity surrounding it that doesn’t make any sense to me.”

He stands by his Audioslave days: “Audioslave was a great rock band and we wrote great songs and we were very prolific. I love the albums, and I love the songs.”

As for Audioslave’s tumultuous ending, Cornell chocks it up to learning and growing up. “I don’t know if it was that, I think there was stuff that could have been resolved, and there was drama that was probably unnecessary, typical rock band stuff. I certainly played a role in it,” he said. “I definitely feel like I was part of a lot of unnecessary stuff. It didn’t need to become what it became. You learn with experience.”

Can’t get enough of Cornell, whether he’s in Soundgarden, Audioslave or neither? Catch his latest solo, acoustic run this fall, where he plans to play material from all of his ear-spinning projects. Find tour dates, below. (Photo: Chris Cornell via Facebook.)

Chris Cornell’s Solo ‘Songbook’ Tour Dates:

11/1 — Memphis, Tenn.
11/2 — Nashville, Tenn.
11/4 — Orlando, Fla.
11/5 — Tampa, Fla.
11/6 — Miami Beach, Fla.
11/9 — Buenos Aires
11/10 — Buenos Aires
11/12 — Santiago, Chile
11/13 — Sao Paulo, Brazil
11/17 — Albany, N.Y.
11/18 — Ridgefield, Ct.
11/21 — New York, N.Y.
11/22 — Red Bank, N.J.
11/23 — Allentown, Pa.
11/26 — Atlantic City, N.J.
11/29 — Burlington, Vt.
11/30 — Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
12/3 — Lakewood, Ohio
12/4 — Ann Arbor, MI
12/6 — Kalamazoo, Mich.
12/10 — Salina, Kan.
12/13 — Mesa, Ariz.
12/15 — San Francisco, Calif.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based music reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, Loudwire.com and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.