Bandmate Reveals How ‘Handsome’ Chris Cornell Had ‘Darker Side’ And ‘Demons’

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Former Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello told Red Bulletin about his late friend and bandmate Chris Cornell in a new interview.

“I have two memories that I’ll share with you. In January, the last time I saw Chris, we played the first Audioslave show in 12 years at the Anti-Inaugural Ball, it was so great to see him. It was a charity show. He sang, he’s one of the most powerful rock gods of all time. He looks great and he sings both ferociously and beautifully. And his lovely sweet smile, it was great to hang out with him backstage and his last words to me were, ‘I had a great time, let’s do that again, you guys let me know’. And so, that was lovely.

“A lot of the tributes to Chris have been about what a great singer he was, what a handsome guy he was, what a good dad he was, all of which is very true. But I think, in my view, what sometimes goes unacknowledged is his creative brilliance and power came from the darker side of his psyche. And his demons were, that was the root of his awesomeness, in the part that may have eventually been his undoing.

“And he was able to speak. Read Chris Cornell’s lyrics some time, they’re beautiful and poetic. He was able to speak to millions of people around the globe. So while the eulogies are all about the great guy he was, it was the dark box that he accessed and he wrote the shadow part of himself, like a chariot of lightning to make some of the greatest rock and roll of all time. We were blessed to have had 52 years of him.”