Chris Cornell

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 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 severe forms 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 has 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 tribute to his friend and former roommate Andrew Wood, who had died of a heroin overdose. 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.

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.

He is currently the vocalist in the critically successful alternative rock quartet Audioslave, backed up by three of the four former members 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.

Chris married Vicky Karayiannis in 2004, with whom he had a daughter named Toni in September of 2004. 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.

Discography

External links

Early life

Soundgarden

Post-Soundgarden

Discography

Soundgarden

Temple of the Dog

Solo

Audioslave

External links