Heart singer Ann Wilson discussed Chris Cornell and her upcoming tribute album tentatively titled Dead Guys Project.
She told The Sun Herald, “The thing about doing a cover is that I have to really like the song,” Wilson said. “I don’t want to do tributes, I want to make it my own — we’re going into the studio next week so I hope to inject some new stuff later in the tour — I pick my songs based on what I think I can do well or songs that I love that I think will work well live.”
Wilson said she’s recording the album in studios in LA and Florida.
“We’re doing with producer Mike Flicker, who worked with Heart at the very beginning,” she said.
Wilson grew up in Seattle, which became the center for alternative rock music in the early 90s with the popularity of bands such as Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
“I knew a lot of those guys and they were fiends of mine,” she said. “I had a place and a lot of them would hang out there and it was just a normal music scene but then all of these people started showing up trying to get a record deal and there were strangers among us.”
Wilson maintained a friendship with Soundgarden front man and singer/songwriter Chris Cornell, who took his own life on May 17, 2017.
“He was a sweet guy — we became friends first through the music scene and then were just friends outside of all of that,” Wilson said. “We hung out at various get togethers and he would come over and we would talk and hang out. He was a very sweet and sincere person but I think he was very complicated and the brutality and mundanity of this world, especially the entertainment touring world, was too much for him.”
