System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian joined surviving Audioslave members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford, and Brad Wilk to perform “Like a Stone” at the Rock Im Park festival in Nuremberg, Germany yesterday during Prophets of Rage’s set. Audioslave reunited for their first performance in 12 years on January 20th at the Anti-Inaugural Ball in Los Angeles, but it turned out to be the original lineup’s final performance as frontman Chris Cornell died on May 18th.
Tom Morello discussed Audioslave’s January 20, 2017 reunion performance at the Anti-Inaugural Ball in a new Rolling Stone article, and how Chris Cornell had hopes for future Audioslave reunion performances.
Cornell was “shining” at that gig, Morello insists. “We hung out after the show – just laughed, took pictures. The last thing he said to me was, ‘I had such a great time. I would love to do this again. You just let me know.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s figure it out!’
“It’s unbelievable,” Morello says of Cornell’s death. “I don’t know what the phases of mourning are, but I’m in the first one. I still expect this to be some kind of mistake” – that Cornell will soon be in touch with a text or phone call “where it’s ‘I’m cool. I’m so sorry. That was a scare. Everything is going to be all right.’ ”
“Soundgarden took the riff rock I love and made it smart,” Morello says, recalling that band’s profound impact on the early sound and direction of Rage Against the Machine. “Cornell’s dark, poetic intellect was not something you found in heavy metal.”
