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 'Star Trek' Is Crazy Good
• 
  TV 10 Shows to Watch This Summer
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter