During a recent live conversation, Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan revealed why the band played “Black Hole Sun” in honor of Chris Cornell.
Duff said a weird thing happened. One night during rehearsal, Axl Rose came into rehearsal and said, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can do ‘Black Hole Sun.’”
Later on that same night, Richard Fortus texted Duff McKagan to inform him that Chris Cornell had died.
In a recent Classic Rock Magazine interview, Slash addressed rumors that Chris Cornell was set to join Velvet Revolver as their lead singer.
The interviewer asked, “There’s an internet rumor that you were going to put together a band with Chris Cornell around then.”
“I didn’t know if that was ever a reality,” Slash said in response. “I didn’t even know that was a rumor. I did work with Chris on the solo record, but I never had any prospects of doing a band with him.”
Scott Weiland joined Velvet Revolver in 2003 and was fired in 2008. He reunited with the band for a one off performance in 2012.
Slash and Chris Cornell recorded the song “Promise” in 2010 for Slash’s self-titled solo record. Cornell died by suicide in May 2017, and Weiland died from a drug overdose in December 2015.
Former Slash’s Snakepit singer Rod Jackson claimed in a January 2018 Appetite For Distortion interview that late Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell and Guns N’ Roses/ex-Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash almost formed a band together in the 90’s before he was selected as the singer of Slash’s Snakepit. It’s unclear though how valid Jackson’s claim was, as Cornell never discussed this in any of his interviews and neither has Slash. Cornell and Slash did collaborate on “Promise” in 2010. Alternative Nation transcribed Jackson’s comments.
“So Johnny [Griparic] and I had played together, and in passing he said: ‘Hey Rod, how would you like to come down and demo some songs for Snakepit?’ I’m thinking Slash, Snakepit, putting two and two together, I said, ‘Sure.’ I went down there and they’d tried out like 300 singers, Chris Cornell was one, God bless.”
