Classic Rock
Tom Morello recalls Chris Cornell’s ability in terms of melody
The American singer Chris Cornell first achieved fame as a member of Soundgarden in the late 80s and was also successful as part of the supergroup Audioslave and as a solo act.
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Audioslave had three members of Rage Against The Machine and became one of the most successful supergroups formed after the 00s. The band’s guitarist Tom Morello recalled in an interview with Loud TV (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar), the ability that Cornell had to come up with melodies. He even recalled how the hit “Like a Stone” was written.
Tom Morello recalls Chris Cornell’s ability in terms of melody
“Part of the brilliance of Chris Cornell was that no matter what you threw at him, whether it was like a complicated, heavy riff or a very, very simple and sparse chord progression, he instantly came up with some brilliant melody, haunting or terrifying melody. That was very much the case with ‘Like a Stone.'”
“The first time that we were writing it, he sang not the words, but sang the melody that you hear on the record, and I played the solo that you hear on the record. So it was one of those songs that it felt like it was almost ‘unearthed’ in a way, and we just tapped into something that was very soulful.”
“At every show that I play, we always do something in memory of Chris, and we’ll do something today for him, too. It might be ‘Like a Stone,’ spoiler alert!” Tom Morello said.
Morello is currently touring as a solo artist and “Like a Stone” is one of the songs he has been playing live. Chris Cornell tragically passed away in 2017 at the age of 52.
Audioslave was active from 2001 to 2007 and in 2017. Besides Morello and Cornell the band also had the bassist Tim Commerford and the drummer Brad Wilk. They released three albums: “Audioslave” (2002), “Out of Exile” (2005) and “Revelations” (2006).
