Tom Morello confirmed in a new Guitar World interview “there’s a great amount of Audioslave material” that was never released prior to Chris Cornell’s tragic May 2017 death. It appears that there may be an Audioslave record at some point when all parties involve want it, as Morello said there are ‘records worth’ of unreleased songs. Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his comments.
“There certainly is a chance [for it to be released]. There are no plans for that currently to be released, but there’s no impediments to being released either.
“We’ll figure it out at some point, but there’s a lot of records worth of stuff that didn’t get released. Some of the choices of what songs were on what records were almost arbitrary.
“There’s a few of my favorite Audioslave songs that just never fully saw the light of day, so hopefully they’ll come out with something.”
The interviewer said, “There’s a lot of statistics out there, something like 60% of musicians wrestle with depression or forms of anxiety and it feels like that should be talked about a little bit more.”
Morello responded, “I think that the creative gene and the mentally not-entirely-okay gene are related genes. You may be throwing the addictive gene as well. It’s not a surprise that some of the people who are the most talented and creative wrestle with these.
“That’s the bad news, the good news is that in Chris’ case, he was able to harness those demons for an incredible career, make some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll, greatest singing that’s ever been put down on tape, so we have that as a legacy, but we don’t have him anymore.”
Morello was also asked if it’s gotten any easier to deal with Cornell’s death.
“Short answer: no. It’s brutal. He was a good friend, a great artist, I never stopped being a fan of his, but the hole that he left is one that’ll never be filled.
“And I was glad that we were able to do the memorial concert [this January in LA] that felt like everybody in the world who was a Chris Cornell fan knew that was happening on that night.
“And for five hours, friends of his, bandmates of his, artists who his children loved, all got together to pay respects to his incredible catalog itself. On every one of my shows, there’s a couple of moments that we devote to him, so I still like to hear his voice in the room.”
Tom Morello says he agrees with fans who are petitioning to name the ‘black hole’ after Chris Cornell, in honor of the late Soundgarden frontman’s 1994 classic “Black Hole Sun.” Alternative Nation reported additional details in April.
Asked by Sean Stewart of the Rock 105 WRXR radio station about the petition, Morello said, “I heard that. I think that would be really nice. I don’t know who you send that petition to, but I’d be happy to officially add my name to that… That seems absolutely appropriate.”
Morello also said during the interview that he had played with a ‘Mt. Rushmore’ of frontmen, including Zack de la Rocha, Chris Cornell, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck D, and B-Real.
