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35 Surprising Facts About Musician Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell was a true rock legend, a gifted vocalist, and a powerful songwriter who left an indelible mark on the world of music. Chris Cornell was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was best known as the lead vocalist of the rock bands Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Temple of the Dog. He was also a successful solo artist. Cornell was known for his powerful and wide vocal range, which spanned five octaves, and his lyrics often dealt with themes of addiction, depression, and death. 

His music, often infused with raw emotion and introspective lyrics, resonated with millions of fans worldwide. However, behind the superstar persona was a man who battled personal struggles, including addiction and mental health issues. Tragically, his life was cut short in 2017, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire and touch hearts around the globe. In this article, we delve into the life and career of Chris Cornell, highlighting 35 surprising facts about him, exploring his musical triumphs, his personal struggles, and his enduring legacy.

1. Cornell founded the rock band Soundgarden 

Soundgarden was an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, both of whom are the only members to appear in every incarnation of the band, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Cornell switched to rhythm guitar in 1985, replaced on drums initially by Scott Sundquist, and later by Matt Cameron in 1986. 

Yamamoto left in 1990 and was replaced initially by Jason Everman and shortly thereafter by Ben Shepherd. The band dissolved in 1997 and re-formed in 2010. Following Cornell’s death in 2017 and a year of uncertainty regarding the band’s future, Thayil declared in October 2018 that Soundgarden had disbanded once again, though they did reunite in January 2019 for a one-off concert in tribute to Cornell.

2. Cornell was also a member of Audioslave

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Audioslave was an American rock supergroup formed in Glendale, California, in 2001. The four-piece band consisted of Soundgarden’s lead singer and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell with Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello on lead guitar, Tim Commerford on bass/backing vocals, and Brad Wilk on drums. 

Critics first described Audioslave as a combination of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine, but by the band’s second album, Out of Exile, it was noted that they had established a separate identity. Their unique sound was created by blending 1970s hard rock and 1990s alternative rock, with musical influences that included 1960s funk, soul and R&B. 

3. Cornell had a solo career 

In 1998, Cornell began working on material for a solo album upon which he collaborated with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven. The album, titled Euphoria Morning, was released on September 21, 1999. 

In his first-ever solo tour to support Euphoria Morning, Cornell spent seven months on the road from September 13, 1999, to March 7, 2000. He played 61 shows, two of which coincided with the debut of the album on September 21 and 22, 1999 at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood California. Attendance was high, considering that Cornell performed the initial shows before fans were even familiar with the music.

4. Cornell was the founder and frontman of Temple of the Dog

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Temple of the Dog was an American rock supergroup that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. It was conceived by vocalist Chris Cornell of Soundgarden as a tribute to his friend, the late Andrew Wood, lead singer of the bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone.

The lineup included Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Jeff Ament on bass guitar, both ex-members of Mother Love Bone and later Pearl Jam, Mike McCready, later Pearl Jam on lead guitar, and Matt Cameron, Soundgarden and later Pearl Jam on drums. Eddie Vedder appeared as a guest to provide some lead and backing vocals and later became the lead vocalist of Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten, was released four months after Temple of the Dog’s only studio album.

5. Cornell is regarded as one of the greatest rock singers of all time

Cornell is well known for his extensive catalogue as a songwriter, his nearly four-octave vocal range, and his powerful vocal belting technique. 

Cornell released four solo studio albums, Euphoria Morning (1999), Carry On (2007), Scream (2009), and Higher Truth (2015); the live album Songbook (2011); and two compilations, The Roads We Choose (2007) and Chris Cornell (2018), the latter released posthumously.

6. Cornell is considered one of the key figures of the 1990s grunge movement

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Grunge is an alternative rock genre and subculture which emerged during the mid-1980s in the U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of punk rock and heavy metal but without punk’s structure and speed. The genre featured the distorted electric guitar sound used in both genres, although some bands performed with more emphasis on one or the other. 

Like these genres, grunge typically uses electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals. Grunge also incorporates influences from indie rock bands such as Sonic Youth. Lyrics are typically angst-filled and introspective, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, neglect, betrayal, social and emotional isolation, addiction, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom.

7. Cornell contributed to numerous movie soundtracks

Chris received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his song The Keeper, which appeared in the 2011 film Machine Gun Preacher, and co-wrote and performed You Know My Name, the theme song to the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale.

8. Cornell鈥檚 last solo release before his death was the charity single The Promise

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The Promise is a song by American singer-songwriter Chris Cornell. The song was written as the ending credits song for the film of the same name.

The song was released as a single on March 10, 2017, and is notable as being the last solo release from Cornell prior to his death on May 18, 2017.

9. Cornell has sold over 30 million records worldwide

Across his entire catalogue, Cornell sold 14.8 million albums, 8.8 million digital songs, and 300 million on-demand audio streams in the U.S. alone, as well as over 30 million records worldwide.

Following his death, the sales and streams of Cornell’s discography grew by more than 550% from the week prior to his death. On platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora, his songs were streamed 32.5 million times during the week in which he died. The charting week prior to that, his tracks were played 5 million times. That same week, 38,000 copies of Cornell albums were sold, which represented a 1,700% gain in purchases; the week before his death, only 2,000 units were sold.

10. Cornell won 3 Grammy Awards

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Chris was nominated for 18 Grammy Awards, winning three. In 1998, Cornell began working on material for a solo album upon which he collaborated with Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven. The album, titled Euphoria Morning, was released on September 21, 1999. The touring band included several contributing musicians on the album: Alain Johannes, Natasha Shneider, Rick Markmann, and Greg Upchurch. 

Euphoria Morning proved commercially unsuccessful, selling 393,000 copies in the U.S.; however, the album’s single “Can’t Change Me” was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards. In 2019, Cornell won a posthumous Grammy award in the Best Rock Performance category at the 61st Grammy Awards for his single “When Bad Does Good”.

11. Cornell struggled with depression for most of his life

During his teenage years, Chriis spiralled into severe depression, dropped out of school, and almost never left the house. Cornell struggled with depression and had multiple addictions that he was able to manage until 1997 when Soundgarden disbanded and his first marriage was failing.

At that point, Cornell turned to Oxycodone and other substances. He said about that period, “I went through a serious crisis with depression where I didn’t eat a whole meal every day. I was just kind of shutting down. I eventually found that the only way out of that was to change virtually everything in my life. That was a very frightening thing to do, but it was worthwhile.” He checked into a rehabilitation center in 2002 and quit drinking and smoking around 2005.

12. Cornell was born in Seattle, Washington

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Cornell was born Christopher John Boyle on July 20, 1964, in Seattle, Washington, where he was raised. His parents are Edward F. Boyle, a pharmacist of Irish Catholic descent, and Karen Boyle, an accountant of Jewish background and self-proclaimed psychic. 

Cornell was one of six children; he had two older brothers and three younger sisters. He and his siblings adopted his mother’s maiden name, Cornell, following their parents’ divorce when they were teenagers. Cornell attended Christ the King, a Catholic elementary school, where he performed for the first time in front of a crowd, singing the 1960s anti-war song One Tin Soldier. 

13. Cornell dropped out of high school

When he was in seventh grade, his mother pulled him and his sister out of Catholic school for fear they were about to be expelled for being too inquisitive. He recalled the episode in a 1994 interview with Request magazine: “With a religion like that, it’s not designed for anyone to question. Being young people who have a natural curiosity and half a brain, you’re going to start finding inconsistencies, which there are tons of in organized religion. We both sort of made it clear in classroom situations that we didn’t get it. ‘Explain this to me.’ And they couldn’t, so we started creating a lot of problems.” Cornell subsequently attended Shorewood High School, where he later dropped out.

14. Cornell traced his musical influences back to Little Richard via The Beatles

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Chris spent a two-year period between the ages of nine and eleven solidly listening to The Beatles after finding a large collection of Beatles records abandoned in the basement of a neighbour’s house. Another of his influences was Little Richard, an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. 

Described as the Architect of Rock and Roll, Richard’s most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding backbeat and powerful raspy vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. In 1962, after a five-year period during which Richard abandoned rock and roll music for born-again Christianity, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded him to tour Europe. During this time, the Beatles opened for Richard on some tour dates.

15. Cornell took piano and guitar lessons as a child

He credited his mother for saving his life when she bought him a snare drum, the instrument he first adopted on his path to becoming a rock musician. Before he was a successful musician, Cornell worked as a busboy, as a dishwasher, as a fish monger at a seafood wholesaler, and as a sous-chef at Ray’s Boathouse in Seattle.

16. Cornell’s first band was The Shemps

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In the early 1980s, Cornell was a member of a Seattle-based cover band called The Shemps, which featured bassist Hiro Yamamoto. After Yamamoto left The Shemps, the band recruited guitarist Kim Thayil.

Cornell and Yamamoto stayed in contact, and after The Shemps broke up, the pair started jamming together, eventually bringing Thayil in to join them.

17. Cornell was a prolific songwriter

Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament said of Cornell: 鈥淚’ve always said that Chris was the greatest songwriter to ever come out of Seattle. Jimi Hendrix could play the guitar like crazy, but Chris had the songwriting chops that we all sort of hoped to get at different points in our songwriting careers. He had a way he could wrap a melody around odd time signatures and weird parts and make them catchy. He was a beautiful wordsmith.

If you look at his lyrics, he obviously was processing his pain and depression, and all of those things. I think that’s part of what people, myself included, responded to when he was singing. With the songwriting he had that voice, there’s not too many people that have that many options with their voice. He could do a lot of different things with it, and have a lot of different characters in that voice. I feel so lucky that I got to be in a project with him, got to hang out with him, and just sort of witness his greatness.鈥�

18. Cornell collaborated with producer Timbaland on his studio album Scream

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The album was released on March 10, 2009. Timbaland has referred to the recording sessions as “The best work I’ve done in my career” and predicted that Cornell would be the first rock star in the club. 

Cornell described Scream as a highlight of his career. The album was largely panned by critics, but was the highest-charting album of Cornell’s solo career, reaching No. 10 on the Billboard 200. 

19. In January 2011, Cornell announced his solo acoustic Songbook tour

He embarked on a series of acclaimed solo acoustic shows in Los Angeles during 2009 and 2010. The first leg of the sold-out tour began on April 1, 2011, and continued through the U.S. and Canada until May 6, resuming in October and visiting New Zealand, Australia, South America and the U.S. again before ending on December 17. The tour received universally positive reviews.

20. Cornell performed at Barack Obama’s Inaugural Ball

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On January 21, 2013, Cornell performed a 10-minute acoustic set at the Commander-in-Chief’s Ball, which recognized Medal of Honor recipients and Wounded Warriors. He also performed later in the evening with Soundgarden at Barack Obama‘s Inaugural Ball, doing a three-song set at the event.

21. In November 2011, Cornell released Songbook

Songbook was an acoustic live album featuring songs recorded during Cornell’s Songbook tour in North America. His first live album as a solo artist, Songbook included stripped-down performances of songs from his entire career as a solo artist as well as with Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Temple of the Dog, plus covers of Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” and John Lennon’s “Imagine”. 

The album received largely positive reviews, with AllMusic calling it Cornell’s best solo offering to date. Cornell continued his Songbook tour in Europe and the U.S. in 2012 and 2013 to further acclaim

22. Prior to his death, Cornell committed all proceeds from his song, the promise to support refugees and vulnerable children

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In January 2015, Cornell announced via his Twitter account that he was in the studio recording a new solo album. Cornell’s last studio album, Higher Truth, was released on September 18, 2015.  His last solo release prior to his death was the charity single The Promise, written for the movie of the same name about the Armenian genocide. Prior to his death, Cornell committed all proceeds from the song to support refugees and vulnerable children.

23. In 2018, Cornell’s first posthumous song was released

On February 26, 2018, Cornell’s first posthumous song was released. He composed the music and added lyrics to Johnny Cash’s poems You Never Knew My Mind and I Never Knew Your Mind. The song, titled You Never Knew My Mind, is featured on the album Johnny Cash: Forever Words, a collection of songs created from Cash’s unused poetry, lyrics and letters, as interpreted by several artists. In 2019, Cornell won a posthumous Grammy award in the Best Rock Performance category at the 61st Grammy Awards for his single When Bad Does Good. 

24. Soundgarden disbanded in 1997 but reunited in 2010

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As tensions grew within the band, reportedly due to internal strife over its creative direction, Soundgarden announced that it was disbanding on April 9, 1997. In March 2010, Soundgarden announced that they would be headlining Lollapalooza 2010. Soundgarden made the announcement through their website and email list. 

Soundgarden made their first television appearance since their reunion on the second episode of Conan O’Brien’s TBS show, Conan, on November 9, 2010, and toured North America in the summer of 2011.

25. Cornell worked as a co-producer and backing vocalist on the Screaming Trees’ 1991 album, Uncle Anesthesia

Screaming Trees was an American rock band formed in Ellensburg, Washington, in 1984 by vocalist Mark Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bassist Van Conner, and drummer Mark Pickerel. Pickerel was replaced by Barrett Martin in 1991. 

Screaming Trees became known as one of the pioneers of grunge along with Melvins, Mudhoney, U-Men, Skin Yard, Soundgarden, Green River, and Malfunkshun, among others. Although widely associated with grunge, the band’s sound incorporated hard rock and psychedelic elements.

26. Cornell contributed his first solo song Seasons, and Soundgarden’s Birth Ritual to the Singles soundtrack

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Singles is the soundtrack album of the 1992 film Singles, released on June 30, 1992, almost three months before the film. It is primarily focused on the ascendant Seattle grunge scene of the early 1990s.

He also contributed the song Sunshower, a bonus track on the Japanese release of Euphoria Morning to the soundtrack of the 1998 film Great Expectations, and a reworked version of the track Mission, retitled Mission 2000, was used on the soundtrack to the 2000 film, Mission: Impossible 2.

27. Cornell and composer David Arnold collaborated on the song You Know My Name

Cornell co-wrote and performed and which accompanies the opening titles for the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale. You Know My Name is the first theme song since 1983’s Octopussy to use a different title than the film, and the first ever title theme song that did not appear on the soundtrack album. You Know My Name won a 2006 Satellite Award in the category of Best Original Song, and a 2007 World Soundtrack Award in the category of Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film. The song sold 323,000 digital copies and 3.5 million streams, and was also nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

28. Paul McCartney was one of Cornell鈥檚 greatest influences

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Cornell cited Paul McCartney, XTC, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Ultravox, and Bauhaus as some of the artists he liked. Paul McCartney is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, and versatile and wide tenor vocal range.

29. Cornell was a baritone

A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types.

30. Cornell had a vocal range of nearly four octaves

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He had the ability to sing extremely high in the tenor range, as well as in the lower register of a baritone voice. He showcased this in various songs, most notably the studio and the demo versions of Beyond the Wheel, where he can be heard spanning three octaves. 

He also experimented with various different vocal styles, ranging from light falsetto to high falsetto screams, and chants. In addition to singing rock and metal mainly with Soundgarden and Audioslave, Cornell sang the blues, neo-soul and stripped-down acoustic numbers.

31. Cornell made a cameo in the 1992 Seattle-based film Singles

The film was directed by Cameron Crowe, in which he appeared opposite Matt Dillon and Bridget Fonda. He also appeared onstage with Soundgarden performing the song Birth Ritual in a club. Cornell was Crowe’s original choice for the role of Cliff Poncier, played by Dillon, but he was unable to do it due to Soundgarden’s busy schedule.

32. Cornell was the face of fashion producer John Varvatos’ 2006 ad campaign

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John Varvatos is an American menswear designer. He has worked for Polo Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, and started his own label in 1999.

33. Cornell鈥檚 other work includes him becoming a restaurateur 

Cornell became a restaurateur with the opening of his restaurant, Black Calavados, in 麻豆APP, and was also the owner of the music publishing company You Make Me Sick I Make Music.

In 2009, Cornell planned to turn Philip Carlo’s true crime book The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez, into a film, collaborating with Carlo to produce the screenplay. In 2011, James Franco was attached to direct the film and star in the role of Ramirez.

34. Cornell was a close friend of singer Andrew Wood

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Andrew Wood was his roommate in Seattle. While living together, they recorded the song Island of Summer, which was written by Cornell and is the only existing recording of the two of them singing together. 

The song was released in 2011 in the album Melodies & Dreams, a solo album from Andrew Wood featuring unreleased songs he recorded throughout his life. Wood’s sudden death in 1990 led Cornell to make a tribute album for him with the band Temple of the Dog.

35. Cornell鈥檚 cause of death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging

Around 12:15 a.m. on May 18, 2017, Cornell’s bodyguard found him unconscious in the bathroom of his hotel room, 1136, at the MGM Grand in Detroit, Michigan, after performing at a show with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre on May 17. He was lying on the floor with an exercise band around his neck and blood in his mouth. An MGM medic and EMS personnel were unable to revive Cornell.

Cornell was pronounced dead by a doctor at 1:30 a.m., at the age of 52. The cause of death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging. Police ruled out foul play by reviewing a hotel surveillance video, which showed nobody entering or exiting the suite after Cornell’s bodyguard left at around 11:35 p.m.

Chris Cornell was a complex and talented individual who left a lasting impact on the world. He was a gifted musician, a passionate advocate for mental health awareness, and a loving family man. He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and fans around the world.