One of the most praised voices of his generation, Chris Cornell left his mark on Rock and Roll history through his incredible work with Soundgarden, the supergroup Audioslave and as a solo artist. He showed how versatile his voice could be, exploring many different musical styles and possibilities.
After becoming a major star in the early 1990s, he had the chance to see and meet many of his heroes, as well as new artists who, like him, were just beginning to shine. Throughout his career, the late musician shared his thoughts on many of those artists, including Jeff Buckley.
What was Chris Cornell’s opinion on Jeff Buckley
Chris Cornell was a big fan and a friend of Jeff Buckley as he said in the in the documentary Jeff Buckley You and I. “It’s great to hear a version of ‘Grace’ where is just Jeff playing it and singing it. Because the version that’s on ‘Grace’ it’s like amazingly conceived but there’s a lot going on. Gary Lucas is playing on it, there’s this other feel that’s happening. But to just hear Jeff playing the guitar parts, it’s one of those moments that you have as a musician where it makes you want to pick up a guitar and play like you remember ‘Oh yeah, (playing) guitar is a fun thing to do.”
“It’s a fun, exciting instrument where anything can happen’. He did that on a few songs, the first time me all my friends heard it, we thought ‘God, what? How he come up with that?’ Or I would pick up a guitar and ‘Grace’ in particular is one of those songs where I would think… It would inspire me to pick up a guitar and play. Then I’d start to kind of find something that made me feel like that. (Then I would) fail miserably at it (and would) put the guitar back.”
Chris continued:
“He was a brilliant guitar player, amazing guitar player! He was like a fantastic instrumentalist, you hear a bit on ‘Night Flight’, but you also hear aspects of the song that (you go) ‘I never heard that before’. There’s like a childlike joy when he’s interpreting it, which I think the whole album kind of has that.” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
According to Soundgarden‘s former manager, Susan Silver, Chris and Jeff bonded immediately when they first met. “He just magically showed up one day and it was on. It was a beautiful, beautiful friendship between him and Chris. There was a sense of mischief with this almost soulmate understanding”, she said in the documentary “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley“. In the same movie, in a recovered interview, Jeff talked about Cornell, saying:”Chris Cornell does it really well. He’s like one of the few people that I’ve met that makes his life work, his ordinary life, because without ordinary art there’s no art”.
According to the Soundgarden frontman, they had the chance to spend a lot of time together and help each other cope with everything young, rising rock stars go through. “We would talk to each other about the things that we had in common, which was the songwriting, performing, dealing with the record industry and things we just liked about it. We would often kind of complain to each other. Because nobody wants to hear some young successful Rock artist complain about anything. So you have to go find another one (to complain to),” he told MTV in the 90s (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
The song Chris Cornell wrote as a tribute to Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley tragically passed away in 1997 at the age of 30 after going swimming fully dressed in the Wolf River Harbor, reportedly singing the chorus of Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love.” The wake of a tugboat swept him away from the shore and underwater. The body of the 30-year-old artist was found a week later.
Two years later, in 1999, Chris Cornell said that the song ‘Wave Goodbye”, released on his first solo album “Euphoria Mourning” was written as a tribute to his friend. “When you miss somebody. You tell yourself a hundred thousand times. “Nobody ever lives forever”. So you give it one more try. To wave goodbye,” the lyrics said.
To Cornell, Buckley was one of the rare people that had a “quality that superstars have”. “What made him that person? I have no idea. But he was that person. He was this amazing, unique kind of spirit that everyone was kind of drawn to. He had that quality that superstars have. But he unfortunately didn’t live long enough for that to be exposed to everyone,” he told ABC in 2014.
Curiously, Cornell carried Buckley’s memory with him on the road. During his solo acoustic shows, he kept a red telephone onstage beside him. The phone had belonged to Buckley and was given to Chris by the late musician’s mother. “A friend’s mom gave it to me after my friend passed away. The first time I ever did an acoustic show I was in my bedroom. I was grabbing stuff like a cable, things that I leaved in there. When I saw it (the phone) I grabbed it and put it on stage. Ever since (I’ve being using). That’s the real version (of the story),” he said at one of his shows.
Cornell said Buckley could have done anything he wanted musically
As many of the famous artists who admired Jeff Buckley have said over the years, he was a complete musician who was remarkably versatile and capable of exploring many different styles in his songwriting. Chris Cornell felt the same way about his late friend and believed that, like Jimi Hendrix, it would be impossible to know what kind of music Buckley would be making if he were still alive.
“He could literally be doing anything musically that he wanted to do. I would think of him like I would think of Jimi Hendrix, where there’s no real way to predict it. Because he could have done anything (if he was still alive). (After his death I felt like) Something just kind of happens where it’s like you’re in a movie where you walk out of real life and there’s movie time out.”
“It’s like I’m acting like I’m in a movie, (saying) ‘this isn’t real’. He had a way of playing the most beautiful song you ever heard and sing them, still with the way that he sang, create a bit of an uncomfortable edge to it, that you felt like, he did that with most of (his career),” he said in an interview with MSNBC in the 90s (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).