Chris Cornell: Remembering the legendary Soundgarden frontman

18 July 2024, 16:40 | Updated: 18 July 2024, 17:19

The iconic Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman was born on 20th July 1964. Radio X takes a look back at his life.

By Radio X

@RadioX

Chris Cornell was an iconic figure in the world of rock. As the frontman of Soundgarden and Audioslave, his emotional, passionate vocals connected with audiences worldwide and took the underground "grunge" scene into the mainstream.

Cornell was a respected songwriter, guitarist, and philanthropist, whose life was tragically cut short. He did, however, leave behind an incredible catalogue of powerful songs.

To mark what would have been Cornell's 60th birthday, Radio X looks at the man's life and work.

1. Where and when was Chris Cornell born?

   The star was born Christopher John Boyle on 20th July 1964 in Seattle, Washington, the younest of six children. He adopted his mother's surname Cornell after his parents' divorce.

   

2. How did Chris Cornell get his start in the music industry?

   After taking guitar and piano lessons as a child, Cornell joned a covers band called The Shemps when he was in his late teens. Here, he met guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Hiro Yamamoto.

   

3. Which bands did Chris Cornell join?

   After The Shemps split up, Cornell, Thayil and Yamamoto formed Soundgarden, with Chris initially on drums. Later, the drum stool was taken by Matt Cameron and it was this line-up that recorded the first two Soundgarden albums: Ultramega OK (1988) and Louder Than Love (1989).

   The band broke through with the albums Badmotorfinger (1991, with Ben Shepherd, now on bass) and Superunknown (1994), with Soundgarden opening for Guns N'Roses on their Use Your Illusion tour and becoming part of the 1992 Lollapalooza line-up alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam.

   

   After the release of their fifth album, Down On The Upside in 1996, tensions within the band on the road had become too great and the group officially split in April 1997. In 2001, Cornell joined Audioslave with Rage Against The Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, releaseing three albums: Audioslave (2002), Out Of Exile (2005) and Revelations (2006).

   Soundgarden reunited in 2010, issuing an album, King Animal, in 2012.

4. What are Chris Cornell's best-known songs?

   Soundgarden's biggest UK hit was Black Hole Sun, released in August 1994, which made Number 12 in the UK charts. It's their most-streamed song, having notched up over 700 million plays on Spotify.

   

   Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

   Audioslave's most successful song in Britain was their debut single Cochise, which peaked at Number 24 in February 2003. Their most-streamed song on Spotify, however, is Like A Stone, which has had over 680 million plays on Spotify.

   

   Audioslave - Cochise (Official Video)

   Chris Cornell's biggest solo hit was You Know My Name from the James Bond film Casino Royale, which peaked at Number 7 in the UK charts in December 2006.

   

   Chris Cornell- You know my name (Casino Royale)

5. What other projects was Chris Cornell involved in?

   Cornell had a successful solo career, issuing four albums during his lifetime: Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009) and Higher Truth (2015). A posthumous collection of covers, No One Sings Like You Anymore Vol. 1, was issued in 2020.

   

   Cornell was also involved in the band Temple Of The Dog, put together as a tribute to his friend Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, who died of a heroin overdose in March 1990.

   The band consisted of Cornell, and some of the musicians who were in the process of forming Pearl Jam: Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready and Matt Cameron (who would later join Soundgarden, too), with Eddie Vedder contributing vocals. Temple Of The Dog released its solitary, self-titled album in April 1991.

   

   Temple Of The Dog - Hunger Strike

   Over the years, Cornell also worked with Alice In Chains, Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson and Slash of Guns N'Roses. With his Temple Of The Dog colleagues Mike McCready, Jeff Ament and Matt Cameron, Cornell recorded a version of Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) for the Jimi Hendrix tribute album Stone Free under the name M.A.C.C.

   

   M.A.C.C. - Hey Baby

6. Which soundtracks did Chris Cornell contribute to?

   Cornell's first solo outing was the song Seasons, which, along with the Soundgarden track Birth Ritual, appeared on the soundtrack to the grunge-era movie singles. Cornell makes a very brief cameo in Cameron Crowe's satirical film.

   

   Chris Cornell's cameo in "Singles"

   Cornell also contributed the song You Know My Name to the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale; Sunshower appeared in Great Expectations (1998); a version of Mission appeared in Mission Impossible 2 (2000); and The Keeper was included in Machine Gun Preachers in 2011.

   He recorded Misery Chain for 12 Years A Slave (2013) with Joy Williams; and The Promise for the film of the same name in 2017. Soundgarden's Live To Rise also appeared in The Avengers in 2012 as part of the band's reunion.

   

   Chris Cornell - The Promise (Official Video)

7. Was Chris Cornell married and did he have kids?

   Cornell's first marriage was to Susan Silver, who he met when he was 21. She became Soundgarden's manager and also took care of the bands Screaming Trees and Alice in Chains. They had one daughter, Lillian Jean, born on 28th June 2000, but the couple divorced in 2004. Cornell's song Moonchild, from his debut solo album Euphoria Morning was written for Silver.

   In May 2004, Cornell married publicist Vicky Karayiannis at a ceremony in Paris - although they had legally tied the knot in Los Angeles a few months eariler. The pair had a daughter Toni later that year and a son Christopher Nicholas in 2005.

   

8. When and how did Chris Cornell die?

   After performing a show with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan, Cornell's bodyguard found the singer unconscious in his hotel room at around 12.15am on 18th May 2017. He was pronounced dead by a doctor at 1.30am. He was 52.

   The coroner ruled the cause of death to be suicide, and although seven different prescription drugs were found in his bloodstream the added that “drugs did not contribute to the cause of death".

   

   Cornell had struggled with depression through much of his adult life and had battled substance and alcohol abuse. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Cornell's widow Vicky said: "Many of us who know Chris well noticed that he wasn’t himself during his final hours and that something was very off.

   "We have learned from this report that several substances were found in his system. After so many years of sobriety, this moment of terrible judgment seems to have completely impaired and altered his state of mind.

   “Something clearly went terribly wrong and my children and I are heartbroken and are devastated that this moment can never be taken back. We very much appreciate all of the love we have received during this extremely difficult time and are dedicated to helping others in preventing this type of tragedy.”

   Vicky Cornell and her children later filed a lawsuit against Cornell's doctor, which was settled confidentially in April 2021.

9. How did the stars pay tribute to Chris Cornell?

   The day the news broke about Cornell's death, Seattle's Space Needle tower went dark for an hour at 9pm.

   At a solo show at London's Eventim Apollo the month after Cornell's death, Eddie Vedder said that the star "wasn't just a friend, he was someone I looked up to like my older brother".

   Tom Morello said on 19th May 2017: "Thank you for your friendship and your humour and your intellect and your singular and unmatched talent."

   

   On 20th July 2017, which would have been Cornell's 53rd birthday, Stone Gossard wrote: "I keep waking up in the middle of the night and remember, fresh again, that you are gone. An absence grows in my stomach and slowly turns circles like a far off galaxy on a grainy TV.

   "I’m so selfishly sad that I’ll never get to see you again, never play with you again, never feel the bask of your approval or be part of your life.

   "Fuck…We all miss you so much..."

   

   On 16th January 2019, a tribute concert, I Am The Highway, was performed in honour of Cornell at the Los Angeles Forum. Among those appearing were Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters, Metallica, The Melvins, Josh Homme, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and the surviving members of Soundgarden.

   Also appearing at the show was Toni Cornell , the star's daughter who posted on the occasion of Chris's birthday in 2022: "Losing you was one of the hardest things we had to go through. They say it gets easier with time, but as the days and years go by, and since we last saw you, we are missing you even more."

   View this post on Instagram

   A post shared by Toni Cornell (@tonicornell)

   A life-size, bronze statue of Chris Cornell stands outside the Museum Of Pop Culture in Seattle. It was commissioned by his widow Vicky in 2018 and created by artist Nick Marra.

   

If you've been affected by this story, check out Radio X's Ways To Get Help With Mental Health for useful advice, info and links.