Tom Morello Reveals How Chris Cornell Beat Eddie Vedder

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Former Audioslave and Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello discussed how Chris Cornell and Soundgarden beat out Pearl Jam when it came to launching Grunge into the world in a new interview on BBC’s The First Time With. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.

“I met Chris I think backstage at Lollapalooza in 92 an maybe at a barbecue at my house and he was just a lovely dude. Huge fan of his, Badmotorfinger was a cornerstone album for Rage Against The Machine.

The intelligence of the lyrics, the sort of poetic indirection and the huge uncompromising metal riffs of it was, that was a brand new thing. Chris sings great and they’re one of the great Grunge bands they predated Pearl Jam, they predated Nirvana. They redeemed metal- and Jane’s Addiction. But Soundgarden redeemed metal in that it made intelligent content a possibility with super heavy music.”

Soundgarden released Louder Than Love in 1989 on A&M Records, so they were the first Seattle Grunge band to release a major label album. Nirvana didn’t release a major label record until Nevermind on Geffen in 1991, as Bleach was released on the indie Sub Pop in 1989. Pearl Jam didn’t release their debut album Ten on Epic until 1991.