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Chris Cornell Information
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'Christopher Cornell' (born July 20, 1964) is a guitarist/singer-songwriter most well-known for being the lead singer of Soundgarden, of which he was a member from their formation in 1984 until they disbanded in 1997. He began his musical career as a drummer, before moving on to become a singer and guitarist. He is currently the lead singer of Audioslave.
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). Chris's last name used to be Boyle, but after his parents divorced he and his siblings took his mother's maiden name. Chris suffered from a severe case of depression during his teenage years, leaving the house rarely. At one point, Cornell 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."
Soundgarden
While in Soundgarden, he also recorded an album with members of Pearl Jam as Temple Of The Dog in 1991, in tribute to his friend and former roommate Andrew Wood, who had died of a heroin overdose in 1990. He 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.
Cornell himself gained nearly as much fame as Soundgarden during this time, chiefly due to his exceptional singing abilities. Cornell's range is known for being well utilised. In fact, his ability to soar into falsetto and through head voice effortlessly often defies many a normal singers natural timbre, giving him a high harmonic overtone or (timbre) to his voice. Indeed, his ability to "belt" a note, almost screaming it is also well utilised, giving his Baritonal range an often much louder, or "higher" sound than is actually tonally present. This is shown to much effect on Badmotorfinger's "Jesus Christ Pose".
In late 1994 after touring in support of the album Superunknown, doctors discovered that Cornell had severely strained his vocal chords. Under medical directive, Soundagarden 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 Coopers album " Last Temptation", and together with him wrote the song Stolen Prayer, in which he also sang.http://web.stargate.net/soundgarden/misc/history.shtml
Post-Soundgarden
After Soundgarden split up, he collaborated with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven and released a solo album entitled Euphoria Morning in 1999. 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-1990's 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. Buckley accidentally drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis in 1997.
Audioslave
Chris is currently the vocalist in the critically successful alternative rock quartet Audioslave, backed up by the former members and instrumentalists of Rage Against The Machine, Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk. Audioslave's self-titled debut album spawned hits such as "Like a Stone" and "Cochise".
Audioslave's latest album, "Out of Exile", was released on May 24, 2005, and debuted at #1 on the U.S. charts. The album features the singles, "Be Yourself", "Your Time Has Come" and "Doesn't Remind Me". The band currently is touring in support of the album and has a new album in the belt for 2006.
Cornell's vocal range seems to have deteriorated since his years with Soundgarden. At that time he could sing a D5 clearly. At the time of the self-titled Audioslave album, Cornell's upper vocal limit appeared to be a B5. In addition, during Audioslave's most recent tour and in the "Live in Cuba" DVD, Cornell rarely attempts to sing sustained B5 notes, such as in the chorus of the song "Shadow of the Sun." This seeming delcine in Cornell's vocal range was most likely a result of the over-straining of his vocal chords over his long singing career and possibly his bouts with alcoholism and drug use.
Chris 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 "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.
Discography
Soundgarden
*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)
Temple of the Dog
*1991 Temple of the Dog (A&M)
Solo
*1999 Euphoria Morning (A&M)
*2004 A Very Special Christmas, Vol. 3
Soundtrack
*1990 Pump Up the Volume - Heretic
*1992 Singles (film) - Seasons and Birth Ritual
*1993 True Romance - Outshined
*1998 Great Expectations - Sunshower
*2000 Mission: Impossible II - Mission 2000
*2004 Collateral (film) - Shadow on the Sun
*2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Rusty Cage
Audioslave
*2002 Audioslave (Epic Records)
*2005 Out of Exile (Epic Records)
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