Chris Cornell was one of the most beloved artists of his generation, but the late Soundgarden/Audioslave singer was also a big appreciator of other musical greats. That’s what his wife Vicky said on a new radio special, revealing he thought Eminem was “amazing” and that he would sing “Not Afraid” in the car.
On the Chris Cornell Family Guest DJ special, which premiered today on SiriusXM’s Lithium station, Chris’ wife Vicky and daughter Toni played Chris’ favorite songs and shared stories about him. Of Chris’ interest in Eminem, Vicky said:
“So again, Chris had really eclectic taste. There was no such thing for him as like a specific genre. If he felt the artist was great, he listened to their music. It didn’t matter. Chris was… he loved Eminem. He thought he was an amazing artist and we would play ‘Not Afraid’ in the car. And little Christopher suddenly started singing it. And it was his favorite song. And so daddy and him would get into the car and immediately Christopher would be like, ‘Put on ‘Not Afraid,” and he would sing it and they’d sing it together. Like rap, this little baby was, was rap. I mean, he was really young. Yeah. And it was just one of those special songs that we played around the house and he thought he was amazing.”
Chris was also big on Adele and even planned to cover her entire 2011 Tiny Desk Concert. Vicky said, “He was a huge Adele fan. And I mean, he just admired her and thought she was just one of those… I mean, I think we can all agree one of the greatest and he was completely in awe of her Tiny Desk performance, the entire, the entire thing. And the next thing he was scheduled to go into the studio to do was cover of the entire Tiny Desk. That’s what he was planning on going in to do next. So it’s, it’s kind of bittersweet.”
