chris

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

Along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains, Soundgarden became one of the biggest bands in the early '90's. As the Seattle grunge scene was discovered, these bands were thrust into the international spotlight. Cornell became known for the incredible power and range of his voice, and for his dark lyrics often dealing with themes of death and existentialism. Following 1988's Ultramega OK, and 1989's Louder than Love, Soundgarden finally found widespread success in 1991 with the double-platinum selling album Badmotorfinger. They used this achievement as a springboard, following up with 1994's Superunknown, the band's highwater mark critically and commercially, which went quintuple-platinum and earned them a pair of Grammys. Their final album, the single-platinum selling Down on the Upside followed in 1996, but served more to foreshadow the band's demise than to continue their successful climb. Soundgarden split shortly after this album's release. Following their years of toiling as a small local band, their achievements in the '90's solidified both Chris Cornell and Soundgarden a spot in rock history.

While in Soundgarden, Cornell recorded an album with members of what would become Pearl Jam. This collaboration went under the name Temple Of The Dog, and the self-titled album was released in 1991. The album is a tribute to their mutual friend, and Cornell's former roommate, Andrew Wood. Wood, the former lead singer of Mother Love Bone, died of a heroin overdose the year before. The remaining members of Mother Love Bone would find a new vocalist, Eddie Vedder, and a new name, Pearl Jam. Temple of the Dog has gone on to sell more than a million copies, thanks in large part to the single "Hunger Strike," which features the duet of Cornell and Vedder. This was the first time Vedder was recorded professionally.

Cornell 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 decade, chiefly due to his singing abilities and vocal range. His ability to "belt" a note, almost screaming it is well utilized, giving his baritonal range an often much louder, or "higher" sound. This is shown to much effect on Ultramega OK's "Beyond the Wheel," Badmotorfinger's "Slaves & Bulldozers" and the title track from Superunknown. [1]

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.[2]

Audioslave

Audioslave was formed after Zach de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine and the remaining members were searching for another vocalist. Producer and friend Rick Rubin suggested that they contact Chris Cornell. Rick played the remaining Rage instrumentalists the Soundgarden song "Slaves and Bulldozers" to showcase Chris' ability. Chris was in the writing process of a second solo CD, but decided to shelve that and pursue the opportunity to work with Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk, when they approached him.

The recording of their self-titled debut went very smoothly by all accounts. All members felt that they were experiencing a collective burst of creativity. Despite this, the band was nearly derailed before the album's release; Chris was going through dependency problems and a slot on the Ozzfest tour was cancelled. The problems were soon ironed out however, and Chris has remained sober since this time. Audioslave has gone on to become a full-fledged band in their own right, and not a one-off experiment.

Their debut album, Audioslave, released in November 2002, spawned hits such as "Like a Stone" and "Cochise", and has reached triple-platinum status in the United States. The band extensively toured through 2003, before resting in 2004 to record their second album.

Audioslave's second album, Out of Exile, was released in May 2005 and debuted at #1 on the U.S. charts. Critics noted Cornell's stronger vocals, due to him quitting smoking and drinking. The album has since gone on to achieve platinum status. The album features the singles, "Be Yourself", "Doesn't Remind Me", "Out of Exile" and "Your Time Has Come". The band toured through 2005, across USA and Canada and on May 31, 2005, Audioslave became the first American rock group to perform a concert in Cuba, playing for free in front of an audience of 70,000.

In early 2006 the band returned recording their third album as they had written most of the material during the tour. The band released their third album, titled Revelations, on early September 2006. The first three singles are: "Original Fire", "Revelations", and "Wide Awake". Several of the songs were prominently featured in Michael Mann's film Miami Vice prior to the release of the album. Touring for this album has been put on hold as Cornell is now focusing on his second solo effort. This album, he has repeatedly stated, does not signify the end of Audioslave and that the band are keen on continuing with producing music.

Solo albums

He released a solo album entitled Euphoria Morning in 1999, on which he collaborated with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven (now in Queens of the Stone Age). 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-1990s 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.

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.

Other projects

Cornell wrote and performed the theme for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. He and composer David Arnold collaborated on the song titled You Know My Name. This is 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.

He produced and contributed backing vocals to the Screaming Trees 1991 album Uncle Anesthesia.

He co-sang on the Alice in Chains EP Sap, on the song Right Turn along with Mark Arm of Mudhoney.The combination of the three lead vocalists led the liner notes crediting the band as Alice Mudgarden. The song was one of many tributes to Andrew Wood.

Personal life

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.

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.
• He stands 6'3 (1.91 m) tall.
• Though he did not perform on the track, Cornell wrote the song "Someone to Die For" for the 2004 Spider-Man 2 Soundtrack. The song is performed by Jimmy Gnecco of Ours and Brian May of Queen.
• Chris being renowned for his high singing, the highest officially recorded note he sings is a G above male high C, both in the intro of "Cold Bitch", and during the final chorus of "Say Hello 2 Heaven." On early bootleg recordings he is heard to go as high as A above high C on one occasion.

Discography

Soundgarden

Main article: Soundgarden discography

• 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)

Audioslave

Main article: Audioslave

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

Solo releases

• 1999 Euphoria Morning (A&M)
• 2007 Upcoming album

Contributions and collaborations

• 1991 Temple of the Dog (A&M)
• 1992 Alice in Chains - Sap, "Right Turn" (Columbia). Credited as Alice Mudgarden.
• 1997 A Very Special Christmas, Vol. 3 - "Ave Maria"
• 2004 Axis of Justice Concert Series Vol. 1 - "(What's so funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" with Maynard James Keenan

Soundtracks

• 1990 Pump Up the Volume - "Heretic"
• 1992 Singles - "Seasons" and "Birth Ritual"
• 1993 True Romance - "Outshined"
• 1995 Basketball Diaries - "Blind Dogs"
• 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