Speaking to 100.5 Atlanta radio last week, Candlebox frontman Kevin Martin spoke about Chris Cornell and Soundgarden:
“I woke up to awful news yesterday. I met Chris in Seattle when I was 16 years old, I was working at a shoe store with his now ex-wife Susan Silver who was managing them, along with Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees and a bunch of the other bands. So I met Chris then and we became friends over the years and I was fortunate enough to know him on a personal level.”
About Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame:
“I mean it’s shocking to me they [Soundgarden] aren’t in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame before Pearl Jam. And God bless Pearl Jam for being in there, you know, we all love them.”
After the radio jockeys mention Cornell was living a fine life, Martin responds:
“What puts you to this point, I just don’t know. Aaron Hernandez I can understand. Chris Cornell I can’t. If you’re thinking about it, you gotta talk to someone. I think we all expected that with Kurt [Cobain]. I don’t think we expected Kurt to live past 27. I expected Chris to be Paul Rodgers. I expected him to be that rock star that was 70 years old and still belting it out like the star that he was. I’m really at a loss.”
Before the tribute performance of “Say Hello to Heaven”:
“I’m still trying to come to terms with what’s happened. He was an amazing human being, a brilliant artist, an incredible talent, I’m still a little bit, kind of in shock about this. We’re gonna play something from the Temple of the Dog record. We’ve never played this song and we’ll probably gonna f— it up. And if you all know this song please help out, cause Chris, I hope you’re looking down cause I’m gonna miss the f—ing s— out of you. “
