Heart’s Ann Wilson discussed her final encounter with Chris Cornell in a Rolling Stone article a few weeks ago.
“Like Chris, I’ve always been an anxious person. And meditation eventually became the way I tamed those feelings. That, and being around other people who are going through the same thing. All of those Seattle bands – as varied and different in their anger and interests as they were – were idealists. They wanted to fuck the bullshit. And at that time, Nancy and I really had that in common with them. The Eighties were really uncomfortable for us with the low premium on naturalness. So when we’d all hang out; we weren’t standing in the doorway, hand-on-hip. We were participating in the debauchery with them.
The last time I spoke to Chris was just after seeing Soundgarden in Los Angeles at the Forum [in November 2016]. There was this huge Forum Club thing afterwards with all kinds of journalists, fans and industry people crowding around just to get a look at him. I remember catching his eye and he was like this trapped dog – and we just kind of looked at each other as if to say, ‘Hi buddy.’
People say, ‘what was it about Chris Cornell’s voice that was so amazing?’ And it was that it didn’t have any element of trying to show off or trying to impress or trying to keep up with any particular trends. He was a brilliant storyteller. And he played it real all the time.”
