You can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Heart singer Ann Wilson revealed a joke that late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell told her about dying by suicide in a hotel in a new Rolling Stone interview.
“Chris’ death affected me, but I wasn’t that surprised. He always had gallows humor about being lonely in hotel rooms. ‘The only thing missing is a noose,’ he’d say. And it was like ‘oh, Chris.’ And he’s like ‘[I’m] too tired, the road is too hard, too impersonal.’ He was darkly joking.”
The period was dark enough to inspire Wilson’s new album Immortal, a collection of covers by recently deceased musicians including Chris Cornell, Tom Petty, Leonard Cohen, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie, George Michael and The Eagles (Glenn Frey) to honor and grieve them. Wilson adds that revisiting the songs in this way imbued them with new meaning for her life and career.
She also discuss Cornell’s death with Alternative Nation a couple of months ago at Live Nation’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan for their Concert Week kickoff. She was accompanied by Paul Rogers of Bad Company and legendary guitarist Jeff Beck, discussing their ambitious tour together this summer.
She also had the chance to discuss her upcoming cover album, Immortal, a collection of songs written by artists we’ve tragically lost over the past couple of years. Included is a cover of the Audioslave classic, “I Am The Highway”. Sadly, we are already encroaching on the one year anniversary of Audioslave/Soundgarden Chris Cornell’s passing.
“It’s my favorite Chris song,” Ann explained. “It’s as serene as it gets. You just look somebody in the eye and say, ‘I’m not your magic carpet ride in the sky!’ It’s a gorgeous song, incredible.”
She went on: “I knew Chris, I knew what he was like. He was a complicated person. Beautiful, but he always struggled with being on this plane [of existence].”
