Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and Cameron Crowe recently had a live discussion, and McCready asked Crowe if anybody was ever in consideration to play the lead role of Cliff Poncier in Singles besides Matt Dillon. Alternative Nation transcribed Crowe’s answer.
“Yes, Chris Cornell, frankly. We worked on a part, it was probably a little too much for him to be the lead of this movie and also have his own musical career so we kind of decided that he would be this other character who would come through people’s lives, and make an impression, and that they would play Birth Ritual.”
“He gave us a tape with some songs on it, it was Birth Ritual, Jesus Christ Pose, and a couple other things, and he said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I was like, ‘Birth Ritual.'”
“I just remember one of the great things he said to me before we filmed it, he said, ‘So do you want me with the shirt on, or do I do the Chris Cornell shirt off thing?’ I said, ‘Let’s do the Chris Cornell shirt off thing.'”
“It was like his version of being as professional as all of the people making the movie, the Chris Cornell shirtless thing, action! He was wonderful in the part, that Matt Dillon would play too, just his own charismatic guy as we know, I’m just so glad that he’s there in the film, contributing music, it’s kind of a snapshot of the time, and he’s very vivid in it.”
