Chris Cornell Talks Fearing Making Prince Mad

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Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell discussed covering the Prince penned Sinead O’Connor hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” in a new interview with North Jersey.

“There are a lot of emotional ups and downs to it,” Cornell says. “When I initially did it, I found an interview with Prince where he was ticked off about the idea of people covering his songs and listeners having no idea that he wrote them.

“For me being a huge Prince fan, I’m thinking, ‘ If he hears the song, he’s going to be mad at me.’ I thought, ‘I don’t want Prince to be mad at me, but I’m going to do it anyway.’ I still want to pay tribute to him now as an artist and performer.”

He also discussed his cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”

“I slowed it down and it became a gospel lament,” he says. “That got me into a vein of thinking that the world of songwriting is at your disposal.”