Chris Cornell on Soundgarden Reunion: "You Never Know"

Chris Cornell has finally said something of substance about the brief reunion of his Soundgarden bandmates in Seattle, telling the Washington Post, "If I was there, I probably would've gotten up onstage." The Superunknown band's Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron briefly reformed with fellow grunge icon Tad as frontman during the Washington stop of Tom Morello's Justice Tour, performing "Spoonman" and other songs from the Soundgarden catalog.

"I thought it was cool that they'd actually get together and rehearse some songs. I was kind of surprised by it, to be honest. And I love Tad. We toured with Tad; I've always felt he was a really amazing person and a really talented guy," Cornell told the Post. "So I just really thought it was a cool thing for them to do. They were just getting up there and doing it for fun, and I think that's great. The only thing I didn't like is that I wasn't there to see it." As for whether Cornell would ever reunite with his old bandmates, Cornell admitted, "You never know."

Cornell also responded — in non-Twitter fashion — to Trent Reznor's dissing of Cornell's maligned Scream album. "That's kind of childish. To be honest, if I wanted to go out to blast records that I hate, I would be sitting on Twitter 24 hours a day blasting 96 percent of what comes out — maybe 98 percent of what comes out," Cornell said. "There's a lot of music that I don't like." Still, all the criticism following the Timbaland-produced Scream isn't getting Cornell down. "A lot of people hated it, even people who were fans of us and had liked what we'd done until then hated it," Cornell told WP. "They didn't get it. That was exciting, actually. I like that feeling."

Related Stories:

• Soundgarden Nearly Reunite At Tom Morello Justice Tour Stop in Seattle
• Chris Cornell Quotes Scripture, Responds to Trent Reznor's Twitter Slam
• Chris Cornell on Timbaland-Produced "Scream": "I Think Fans Will Come Around to the Concept"

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
• 
  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter