Chris Cornell interview by Jane Stevenson at the Winnipeg Sun

Chris Cornell, one of rock music's most respected wailers, has a new album due Feb. 3 called Scream.

Sounds about perfect, right?

Except that the former hard-rocking frontman for such outfits as Soundgarden and Audioslave (the latter with three members of Rage Against The Machine) took a major left turn on his third solo record by hooking up with R&B-hip-hop-pop producer Timbaland (Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Madonna) on Scream.

He'll admit it's the biggest musical detour he's ever taken "in a condensed session."

"In terms of it being a whole album and focusing in kind of a different direction on the entire album, yeah, definitely," said Cornell down the line from Vancouver leading up to an extensive Canadian club tour that hits Kool Haus on Nov. 21.

Cornell was initially drawn to Missy Elliott's work with Timbaland years ago and more recently was looking for someone to do remixes of his second solo album, 2007's Carry On. Timbaland's name came up because of his interest in rock music but the hit-making producer wasn't interested and wanted to do original material instead.

"Nobody knew about it at the record company, nobody from my management knew about it," said Cornell. "People think of these things like they thought of Audioslave, in the sense that it was some idea that was hatched up in some board room for commerce, but it really was just a phone call between two guys talking about making music."

Still, such high-profile Timbland collaborators as Timberlake and Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic) did drop by the studio to lend backing vocals to some songs on Scream.

Now fans are getting to hear some of the results -- the singer has been on the road since October doing both solo shows and eight gigs with Timbaland, performing Scream in its entirety (the album was originally going to come out Nov. 4 but Cornell didn't want it to be released on American election day).

'AMAZING' RESPONSE

So what do his hard-core, hard-rock fans think of the new material in a live setting?

"It's really been amazing," said Cornell, who plans to tour again next year around the album. "The best way I can illustrate it is San Diego -- I played a sold-out show at the House of Blues two months ago doing basically anything I wanted to in my catalogue, up to bringing in new songs, and then just last week I did a sold-out show playing nothing but the new album, and the response was the same, which is pretty incredible.

"It was really kind of moving to me to see that people are interested and listening to completely new music from an artist, because that's not always the case and there are fans who aren't going to like this album."

It's definitely hard to categorize the sound on Scream but Cornell says it will surprise people, if nothing else.

"It's actally a collection of a lot of different influences in music, coming from a lot of different angles and creating something new. It's not Walk This Way (the Run-DMC with Aerosmith version) and I think P. Diddy did some version of (Led Zeppelin's) Kashmir for the Godzilla movie. My album's not that."

Speaking of Zep, Cornell says he's not interested in filling Robert Plant's shoes should those reports about guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham touring next year with a replacement singer come to fruition.

"I would never do anything like that whether I were approached or not," he said. "It just doesn't make any sense to me at all. I would not want to go see me performing Led Zeppelin songs with the two other guys that used to be in a band called Led Zeppelin while Robert Plant is out somewhere touring.

"That's not a ticket I would buy. God bless 'em, but that's not Led Zeppelin. I find it completely depressing. I'd never do anything like that. I mean just out of respect to the legacy of the band."

Reprinted from The Winnipeg Sun - originally available as an online feature here



	the new cornell by jane stevenson, winnipeg sun, november 2008
	Chris Cornell, one of rock music's most respected wailers, has a new album due Feb. 3 called Scream. Sounds about perfect, right? Except that the former hard-rocking frontman for such outfits as Soundgarden and Audioslave (the latter with three members of Rage Against The Machine) took a major left turn on his third solo record by hooking up with R&B-hip-hop-pop producer Timbaland (Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Madonna) on Scream. He'll admit it's the biggest musical detour he's ever taken "in a condensed session." "In terms of it being a whole album and focusing in kind of a different direction on the entire album, yeah, definitely," said Cornell down the line from Vancouver leading up to an extensive Canadian club tour that hits Kool Haus on Nov. 21. Cornell was initially drawn to Missy Elliott's work with Timbaland years ago and more recently was looking for someone to do remixes of his second solo album, 2007's Carry On. Timbaland's name came up because of his interest in rock music but the hit-making producer wasn't interested and wanted to do original material instead. "Nobody knew about it at the record company, nobody from my management knew about it," said Cornell. "People think of these things like they thought of Audioslave, in the sense that it was some idea that was hatched up in some board room for commerce, but it really was just a phone call between two guys talking about making music." Still, such high-profile Timbland collaborators as Timberlake and Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic) did drop by the studio to lend backing vocals to some songs on Scream. Now fans are getting to hear some of the results -- the singer has been on the road since October doing both solo shows and eight gigs with Timbaland, performing Scream in its entirety (the album was originally going to come out Nov. 4 but Cornell didn't want it to be released on American election day). 'AMAZING' RESPONSE So what do his hard-core, hard-rock fans think of the new material in a live setting? "It's really been amazing," said Cornell, who plans to tour again next year around the album. "The best way I can illustrate it is San Diego -- I played a sold-out show at the House of Blues two months ago doing basically anything I wanted to in my catalogue, up to bringing in new songs, and then just last week I did a sold-out show playing nothing but the new album, and the response was the same, which is pretty incredible. "It was really kind of moving to me to see that people are interested and listening to completely new music from an artist, because that's not always the case and there are fans who aren't going to like this album." It's definitely hard to categorize the sound on Scream but Cornell says it will surprise people, if nothing else. "It's actally a collection of a lot of different influences in music, coming from a lot of different angles and creating something new. It's not Walk This Way (the Run-DMC with Aerosmith version) and I think P. Diddy did some version of (Led Zeppelin's) Kashmir for the Godzilla movie. My album's not that." Speaking of Zep, Cornell says he's not interested in filling Robert Plant's shoes should those reports about guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham touring next year with a replacement singer come to fruition. "I would never do anything like that whether I were approached or not," he said. "It just doesn't make any sense to me at all. I would not want to go see me performing Led Zeppelin songs with the two other guys that used to be in a band called Led Zeppelin while Robert Plant is out somewhere touring. "That's not a ticket I would buy. God bless 'em, but that's not Led Zeppelin. I find it completely depressing. I'd never do anything like that. I mean just out of respect to the legacy of the band." Reprinted from The Winnipeg Sun - originally available as an online feature here
	Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2008