chris cornell coming to connecticut

by jordan fenster, new haven register, april 2011

BRIDGEPORT — When Chris Cornell comes to The Klein Friday, he won’t be with Soundgarden, the band that made his fortune and gave him fame. He won’t be with Audioslave, the band that solidified his position as a rock icon. He’ll be all alone.

Though he confirmed that he has been recording again with Soundgarden — the band broke up 14 years ago this weekend, on April 9, 1997 — and said he might perform some of the songs that made him famous, Cornell, quite honestly, isn’t sure what he’ll play.

“It’s kind of whatever I want to do, really,” Cornell told the Register recently. It’s works that are “fun to interpret acoustically,” he said, “certain songs, in terms of solo material, that I’ve never done.”

And it won’t be songs solely drawn from his own catalogue of music. For example, one of the pieces he’s been playing during the live solo tour that brings him to Connecticut is “Billie Jean,” by Michael Jackson. It’s a song he’s done before — he started playing it “as a prank with Audioslave,” he said, but liked how it worked so much that he decided to incorporate it into his solo tour.

Whatever he plays, Cornell’s show promises to not conform to any distinct style, other than his own, which he said has intentionally changed over the years. A “stylistic thread,” he said, is “something I embrace and allow, and something I try to avoid.

“I don’t want to feel like I’m writing the same song or creating the same imagery over and over again,” he said.

As for a potentially forthcoming album with Audioslave [I think they mean Soundgarden - webmaster] , Cornell refused to say when it might hit the shelves — “Next Thursday. I really have no idea,” he said — which is why it’s been so good to record with the band again. There is no pressure.

“We were just tired of the business of it. It became big business, and we didn’t read that very well,” Cornell said. “It started to feel more and more foreign. Now it’s a lot like being a band writing your first album.”

Reprinted from New Haven Register - originally available as an online feature here

Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2011