The first unofficial biography of Chris Cornell, “Total F*cking Godhead,” comes out this week. I recently shared my spoiler-free review of the book. In short, it’s an excellent read and well worth your time if you’re a fan of Soundgarden, Audioslave or any of Cornell’s other projects.
But there are so many great details about Cornell’s life and career in the book that it felt criminal to not share some of the more notable ones that were unearthed. Unlike fellow ’90s rock icon Mark Lanegan’s memoir, this book isn’t a read through the gossip pages of the grunge history book. Instead, it sticks to the facts as reported and some of those facts are fascinating.
Here are a few of those interesting tidbits of info from Cornell’s life that are in the book. If you want to avoid spoilers, turn back. The spoilers begin after the link to the spoiler-free book review below.
Does Aerosmith featuring Chris Cornell sound strange? How about Queen?
During Cornell’s Euphoria Mourning tour he played a date supporting Aerosmith at Hyde Park in London. Years later, when the group was looking to potentially replace Steven Tyler they contacted Cornell to front the band. Cornell declined the invitation. And as if Aerosmith featuring Chris Cornell isn’t a wild enough idea (image Chris wailing “Dude Looks Like a Lady”), in the same paragraph mentioning that possibility, it’s noted that the surviving members of Queen approached him to fill Freddie Mercury’s shoes.
Of course, we know he declined that opportunity as well. But if anyone could pull off going from “Stone Cold Crazy” to “Tie Your Mother Down” to “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and then into “Bohemian Rhapsody” better than Adam Lambert it would have to be Chris Cornell.
Cornell could’ve had a Hollywood cameo before Singles
Everyone knows “Singles” was Cornell’s first on-screen appearance, but he almost made his Hollywood debut several years earlier. In 1987 Cornell and his brother Peter accidentally drove through a shot of the film “Harry and the Hendersons” while on the way to Mount Index. The director of the film liked the way Peter Cornell’s Fiat Spyder looked so much that he asked them to do it again, this time to be included in the film. Unfortunately, that scene didn’t make the final cut of the movie so the Cornell brothers did not get screen time and Chris had to wait until 1992 to make his big-screen debut.
He wrote ‘Hunger Strike’ while stoned
A lot has been written about supergroup Temple of the Dog. It’s most notable single was “Hunger Strike,” which features a duet of sorts with Eddie Vedder. The song almost didn’t make it onto the album and was one of the last songs Temple of the Dog recorded. Cornell rarely wrote songs after smoking weed, but he started jotting down the lyrics to “Hunger Strike” while stoned. The story goes that after writing the first verse he left the song alone and then along came Eddie Vedder into the studio. The rest of course is ’90s alt-rock history.
The Showbox reunion wasn’t the first Nudedragons show
Soundgarden’s 2010 reunion show at the Showbox where the band famously was billed as Nudedragons, an anagram for Soundgarden, wasn’t the first time the band used that moniker. In 1990 the group played a show at the Central Tavern under the pseudonym Vince Whilrwind and the Nude Dragons.
Guns N’ Roses, Lollapalooza and Johnny Ramone
Soundgarden toured as support for Guns N Roses a few times in the early ’90s and as you could imagine there are some memorable stories from those tours. One of those stories includes Duff McKagen, Matt Sorum and a naked Slash storming the stage unannounced while the band was performing and then proceeding to pretend to have sex with blow-up dolls.
Another incident of note from the GNR tours happened during a concert at Madison Square Garden when Cornell befriended Joey Ramone backstage. Apparently, the two hit it off, and because it was so loud in the green room they took refuge under a table and had a lengthy conversation. Years later when Soundgarden toured as part of Lollapalooza 1996, the band had the promoters include their friends The Ramones on the bill as a stipulation for Soundgarden joining Lollapalooza.
The Ramones had announced they were calling it a career in 1996 and Cornell, along with the rest of Soundgarden, wanted their friends to have as big of a farewell tour as possible. During that tour, Cornell bonded with Johnny Ramone. That bond was so strong that Cornell was eventually buried a few feet away from him at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
The filming of the ‘Cochise’ video had people calling the cops
The video for Audioslave’s first single, “Cochise,” the song that would introduce them to the world, featured the band playing outdoors on top of a large tower with a constant array of fireworks exploding behind them. The filming of the video caused such a commotion that, according to Tom Morello, the local police received thousands of calls wondering whether the explosions were a part of a terrorist attack.
