Several years ago I had the honor of having a “private concert” with Chris Cornell. I was on an airplane seated next to him and after chatting for a little while I asked if he could play a song. He jokingly said that he wasn’t very good. I just smiled because I knew who he was from the moment I saw him. After chatting a little while longer he got his guitar from the closet. He strummed one song, I said thank you. I didn’t realize that he was just warming up. He started to play, and surprisingly everyone around us was actually getting annoyed. They just wanted to read the newspaper in silence or type away on their computers. I couldn’t believe it – here an architect of grunge music was playing his guitar and singing but nobody paid him any attention, except me. Of course I knew every lyric to every song he played that day, but for over two hours I silently sat on the floor of the airplane and listened to Chris Cornell.
Audioslave was and still is my favorite band. In one year I drove almost every weekend from Atlanta to Washington DC or Detroit and back. The only music that played though the car stereo on those road trips was Audioslave… from “I Am the Highway” to “Yesterday to Tomorrow.”
Now there’s “Nothing Left to Say but Goodbye”
Chris Cornell 1964-2017
“Somedays, somedays, somedays just ain’t so easy.” Audioslave – Revelations lyrics
(Yesterday Chris Cornell was found dead after performing with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. The cause of death was determined to be suicide by hanging. Cornell was 52 years old.)