Voices Of My Childhood: A Tribute to Chris Cornell

At 27 years of age, I’m slightly over half the age vocalist Chris Cornell was when he died earlier today. This is both a sobering reality of how finite our time is on Earth, as well as the limited amount of time we have to do something that truly matters. Think about your age and what you’ve accomplished. Have you truly lived?

Chris Cornell’s voice, both in Soundgarden and in Audioslave, was a massive part of my growing up. I won’t pretend I had a terrible childhood or anything like that, but growing up I sure did feel alone and unrelatable to people. Music was one of the few outlets I had to truly feel alive. And boy, did the sounds of grunge do that for me, but few voices compared to Chris Cornell, at least in my young mind.

One of the first CD’s I ever bought with my first “job” was the Soundgarden greatest hits collection, A-Sides. I bought the album alongside 311’s self-titled album and the 2000 Deftones masterpiece White Pony. While mowing lawns in the heat of summer to do that at age 13 pretty much sucked, and though I had heard a few Soundgarden songs before (thanks, Dad!), my mind was pretty blown at the time. Here was the sound of a band that, while not around anymore (at the time – this was in 2002-2003), was basically one of my new favorite bands, despite not having released anything in like 5-6 years. I immediately knew I wanted to get every Soundgarden album, and while 1991’s Badmotorfinger was (and still is) my favorite Soundgarden record, I was also immediately hooked on its followup, Superunknown. Of all the albums released in the grunge era, there are very few that top its metallic fury and the howling vocals of Chris Cornell, who puts on probably his best full album vocal performances of his career. Seriously, even the non-singles are phenomenal – “My Wave”, “Mailman”, and especially “Like Suicide” (which seems, in hindsight, chilling) are just a few of the great ones here.

Chris Cornell’s time in Audioslave was pretty gold for me, too. The supergroup’s self-titled debut was one of the last really good, top to bottom albums released from a rock supergroup in recent memory. Try to listen to “Cochise” without getting hyped – it’s nearly impossible. And for a young kid who couldn’t get enough of Chris Cornell’s voice, this was just another soundtrack of my life.

As the reports are starting to seep out that Chris Cornell did indeed commit suicide, I feel that it is important to remember not how he left the world, but what he brought to it with his phenomenal talent. Whether it was within the greater vision of the grunge scene out of Seattle, his time in Soundgarden, Audioslave, or even his (phenomenal!!!) solo material, Chris Cornell is a legend, and will be forever. So thanks, Chris. Thanks for playing a major role in the kind of person I am today. Because of you, bands were formed. Because of you, vocalists had a new personality to emulate. And because of you, our lives were made better.