Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell (born July 20, 1964) is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter most well-known for being the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave. He is considered to be one of the most talented vocalists and songwriters in the rock industry. He began his musical career as a drummer, before moving on to become a singer and guitarist.

Early life

Cornell was born in Seattle, Washington and lived there in his childhood. His Irish Catholic parents are Ed Boyle (a pharmacist) and Karen Cornell (an accountant). Cornell's last name used to be Boyle, but after his parents divorced he and his siblings took his mother's maiden name. He suffered from a severe case of depression during his teenage years, leaving the house rarely. At one point, he spent a whole year without leaving his house, during which time he would play drums and guitar.

"My lifestyle was transformed after many years of drinking a lot, isolating myself a lot and going into long periods of depression."

The Audioslave song "Doesn't Remind Me" appears to relate to this part of his life.

Soundgarden

While in Soundgarden, he also recorded an album with members of Pearl Jam as Temple Of The Dog in 1991, in tribute to his friend and former roommate Andrew Wood, who had died of a heroin overdose in 1990. He also worked as a producer on the album Uncle Anesthesia by the band the Screaming Trees and featured as an actor in both a cameo role and an onstage performance in director Cameron Crowe's Seattle-based film Singles. He also contributed the song 'Seasons' to the film's soundtrack. In 1992 Cornell also turned up on the Alice in Chains EP, Sap, sharing vocal duties with Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney on the song "Right Turn." He was also part of the project called M.A.C.C. who contributed the song "Hey Baby (Land Of The New Rising Sun)" to the 1993 Jimi Hendrix tribute album, "Stone Free".

Cornell himself gained nearly as much fame as Soundgarden during this time, chiefly due to his singing abilities and vocal range. His ability to soar into falsetto and through head voice effortlessly[1] often defies many a normal singer's natural timbre, giving him a high harmonic overtone or timbre to his voice. Indeed, his ability to "belt" a note, almost screaming it is also well utilised, giving his baritonal range an often much louder, or "higher" sound than is actually tonally present. This is shown to much effect on Ultramega OK's "Beyond the Wheel," Badmotorfinger's "Slaves & Bulldozers" and the title track from Superunknown. [2]

In late 1994, after touring in support of the album Superunknown, doctors discovered that Cornell had severely strained his vocal chords. Under medical directive, Soundgarden had to cancel several shows to avoid permanent damage to Cornell's vocal chords. During this time he also collaborated with shockrocker Alice Cooper on Cooper's album The Last Temptation, and together with him wrote the song "Stolen Prayer", in which he also sang. Soundgarden would later cancel a handful of shows in the fall of 1996 while touring to support Down On The Upside, due to Cornell coming down with laryngitis.[3]

Post-Soundgarden

After Soundgarden split up, he collaborated with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven (now in Queens of the Stone Age) and released a solo album entitled Euphoria Morning in 1999. Although critically hailed, the album proved commercially unsuccessful despite the album's single "Can't Change Me" being nominated for "Best Male Rock Vocal Performance" at the 2000 Grammy Awards. With Euphoria Morning, Chris also contributed the song "Sunshower" (a bonus track on the Japanese release of the CD) to the soundtrack of Great Expectations, as well as a reworked version of the track "Mission" to the film Mission: Impossible II soundtrack, retitled "Mission 2000". Also, Euphoria Morning includes Chris' tribute to friend and fellow musician Jeff Buckley entitled "Wave Goodbye". Cornell and Buckley met during the mid-1990's and became fast friends, and were mutual admirers of each others' work. It has been noted that Euphoria Morning is very much influenced by Buckley's songwriting and distinctive vocal style. Buckley accidentally drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis in 1997.

Audioslave

Cornell is currently the vocalist in the critically and commercially successful alternative rock quartet Audioslave, backed up by the former members and instrumentalists of Rage Against The Machine, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk. Audioslave's self-titled debut album spawned hits such as "Like a Stone" and "Cochise".

Audioslave's latest album, Out of Exile, was released on May 24, 2005, and debuted at #1 on the U.S. charts. The album features the singles, "Be Yourself", "Doesn't Remind Me", "Out of Exile" and "Your Time Has Come". The band is planning to release their third album, tentatively titled Revelations, in September 2006.

Cornell married Vicky Karayiannis in 2004, with whom he had a daughter named Toni in September of 2004. Their son, Christopher Nicholas, was born on December 5, 2005. Cornell previously was married to former Soundgarden and Alice In Chains manager Susan Silver. They are the parents of Cornell's first daughter, Lillian Jean Cornell, born in July 2000. He currently lives in Los Angeles and Paris.

Upcoming Solo Album

Cornell has recently mentioned that he is working on a second solo album, which he hopes to complete by the end of summer 2006. He plans on holding off the album's release as to allow the new Audioslave album to be released and begin its sales. As he feels that Euphoria Morning contained less acoustic material than fans expected, he has stated that this upcoming album will feature more acoustic cuts. He does not intend this solo effort as a hiatus for Audioslave, as the band has been rather active in practicing and recording recently.

Finnish Newspaper Ilta-Sanomat reported Cornell would be writing and performing the theme for the upcoming 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale on July 20. On July 26 it was confirmed in a press release by EON Productions that he and composer David Arnold collaborated on the song titled "You Know My Name." This will be the first Bond theme song since 1983's Octopussy to use a different title than the film, and the first since 1987's The Living Daylights to feature a male singer.

Vocal Style

Cornell's vocal expression is often compared to that of AC/DC's Brian Johnson and Bon Scott, a perfect example of his high pitched 'scream-like' singing. His amazing vocal abilities are beautifully portrayed in the song "Say Hello To Heaven". One may conclude through careful observation and analysis that his rather unique ability has degraded over the years, nevertheless he is still a 'more than above average' vocalist as demonstrated in various Audioslave songs such as Cochise, Show Me How To Live and many more. His involvement in the supergroup "Temple of the Dog" is undoubtedly one of his best performances and is also considered one of the finest rock albums in context to vocal capabilities.Cornell's voice does not rely solely on volume, however, as his melodic vocals on Euphoria Morning drew critical acclaim as much as his more agressive vocals in Soundgarden. This quieter approach may be due to the damage his screaming technique has caused his vocal chords over time, but it serves as a testament to Cornell's dynamic versatility nonetheless.

Trivia

*Cornell mentions on the Audioslave - Live in Cuba DVD Documentary that he spent a 2 year period between the ages of 9 and 11 solidly listening to the Beatles after finding a large collection of Beatles records abandoned in the basement of a house.
*Cornell's voice is voted 12th in MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music
*He stands 6'3 (1.91 m) tall.

Discography

Soundgarden

*1987 Screaming Life (Sub Pop)
*1988 Fopp (Sub Pop)
*1988 Ultramega OK (SST)
*1989 Louder than Love (A&M)
*1990 Screaming Life/Fopp (Sub Pop)
*1991 Badmotorfinger (A&M)
*1994 Superunknown (A&M)
*1995 Songs from the Superunknown (A&M)
*1996 Down on the Upside (A&M)
*1997 A-Sides (A&M)(Singles)
*1987 - Hunted Down
*1990 - Hands All Over
*1990 - Room A Thousand Years Wide
*1991 - Jesus Christ Pose
*1991 - Outshined
*1992 - Rusty Cage
*1994 - Spoonman
*1994 - The Day I Tried To Live
*1994 - Black Hole Sun
*1994 - My Wave
*1994 - Fell On Black Days
*1996 - Pretty Noose
*1996 - Burden In My Hand
*1996 - Blow Up The Outside World
*1997 - Ty Cobb
*1997 - Bleed Together

Temple of the Dog

*1991 Temple of the Dog (A&M)

Alice in Chains

*1992 Sap â€" "Right Turn" (Columbia)

Solo

*1997 A Very Special Christmas, Vol. 3 - "Ave Maria"
*1999 Euphoria Morning (A&M)
*2004 Axis of Justice Concert Series Vol. 1 - "(What's so funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" with Maynard James Keenan

Audioslave

*2002 Audioslave - (Epic)
*2005 Out of Exile - (Interscope)
*2006 ''Revelations - (Epic)

Soundtrack

*1990 Pump Up the Volume - "Heretic"
*1992 Singles - "Seasons" and "Birth Ritual"
*1993 True Romance - "Outshined"
*1996 Road Rash - "Rusty Cage", "Outshined", "Superunknown" and "Kickstand"
*1998 Great Expectations - "Sunshower"
*2000 Mission: Impossible II - "Mission 2000"
*2001 ATV Offroad Fury - "Spoonman"
*2004 Collateral - "Shadow on the Sun"
*2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - "Rusty Cage"
*2006 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - "Cochise"
*2006 Miami Vice - "Shape of Things to Come", "Wide Awake"
*2006 Casino Royale - "You Know My Name"

External links

*Official site with biography, discography, images, tour dates, etc.
*Thorough biography at a comprehensive Soundgarden fan site
*IMDB page for Cornell
*All Music Guide artist page for Cornell
*VH1 artist page for Cornell
*Fan page at fluttergirl.com (first such hit on Google)
*SeattleSound - everything about grunge music
*Chris Cornell Lyrics