Musician Richie Kotzen’s voice has often been compared to the late Chris Cornell. So much so that Kotzen has been asked multiple times since Cornell’s death if he would ever consider singing for Soundgarden if the band ever made him an offer.
In a new interview with Chris Akin Presents, Kotzen was once again asked if he would ever entertain the possibility of joining Soundgarden or Audioslave, stepping in as a replacement for Cornell if the opportunity ever presented itself.
“I don’t know, because I don’t think that’s something that would ever happen — I don’t,” Kotzen said. “I think that my pedigree, regardless of what you think I sound like, my roots are so deep in soul and R&B, and that’s why I sing the way I sing. I look at myself as more of a soul singer that sings rock as opposed to a hard rock, grunge singer. I know people hear it the way they hear it, which is fine. And by the way, the comparison [to Cornell], I take it as a compliment because, obviously, I view him as one of the greatest of all time. But they say, never step in a great man’s shoes.”
Kotzen continued: “I feel like I am my own thing. I’m not looking to join anybody else’s band. But the one thing that does strike me — I remember when [INXS singer] Michael Hutchence died, I saw a video of Terence Trent D’Arby with INXS, and they did a tribute, and it was really powerful. So, those kinds of things are really wonderful to participate in.
“I’ve sung with [Audioslave guitarist] Tom Morello and The Winery Dogs — Mike [Portnoy] and Billy [Sheehan] — we performed, years ago, an Audioslave song. And that’s out there on YouTube. So anybody that wants to hear that, actually, it’s there — you can hear me singing a Chris Cornell song. But to actually go out and join someone’s band — I don’t even know how to answer that because I don’t perceive that as something that would ever [happen].”
Kotzen gave a similar answer nearly five years ago in an interview with Izzy Presley of “Another FN Podcast,” but left the door a bit more open to the possibility back then. “I think that it would be an honor for anyone to have that opportunity,” he said. “And again, it goes back to the sentence I said earlier: ‘Never step into a great man’s shoes.’ But I think that that phone call, whether it was me or anyone else, would be a complete honor, and I think someone would have to be a bit of a fool to say ‘no.'”
