The music world is still coming to terms with the death of Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell, who was found dead in his Detroit hotel room on Wednesday night. The cause of death was officially ruled a suicide, but the frontman’s family is currently questioning that determination.
One of the most formative and influential voices of modern alternative music is gone, and the impact is being felt far and wide. One of Cornell’s fans was WWE Superstar and Fozzy singer Chris Jericho, who spoke with Loudwire about how surreal this is, especially since he saw Soundgarden perform in Wisconsin a week before Cornell’s death.
As you can see in the video above, Jericho is a longtime fan and student of the grunge sound that Cornell helped pioneer, and remarked about how it’s been 27 years since Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone died, leading to the formation of the Soundgarden/Pearl Jam collaboration Temple of the Dog. Jericho noted that Eddie Vedder is the only massive grunge frontman still alive, but he always liked Soundgarden the best.
“It blows my mind that four out of the five big five grunge band singers have passed away,” stated Jericho, who added, “I always liked Soundgarden the best out of all them because of the vocals. He was basically a heavy metal singer.
“No one ever really sounded like Cornell and no matter what projects he did whether he was singing and belting it out or doing a song like ‘Like a Stone’ from Audioslave where it was more introspective, his tone and his power and range were unlike anybody else,” says Jericho.
“I don’t know if Cornell influenced my vocals per se, but there is some similarities there,” says the singer. “He’s one of those guys where whenever I hear him sing it’s like, ‘Oh, what a great, great singer’ — just a beautiful, powerful, kick you in the f–king face type of a voice, which is very rare because nobody’s really sang like him before. Maybe nobody ever will.”
Read More: Chris Jericho Reflects on Chris Cornell’s Death + Legacy [Exclusive Interview] https://loudwire.com/chris-jericho-reflects-chris-cornell-death-legacy-his-tone-power-range-were-unlike-anybody-else-exclusive-interview/?trackback=tsmclip
The tributes and remembrances of Cornell will likely continue on for a good long while, and his influence will continue to be felt for a very, very long time.
