Chris Cornell

About Chris Cornell

As a child, Chris Cornell took piano and guitar lessons, but he was drawn to drums—the instrument he played in Soundgarden when the band formed in 1984. ∙ Axl Rose, Alice Cooper, and Eddie Vedder praised Cornell’s four-octave vocal range, and Rolling Stone ranked him ninth on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. ∙ An architect of grunge music, the Seattle native made his acting and solo-singing debuts in Cameron Crowe’s Gen X-defining movie, Singles, contributing the song “Seasons” to its soundtrack. ∙ During his 30-plus-year career as a solo artist and frontman for Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and Audioslave, he was nominated for 16 Grammy Awards and won 3, including posthumous honors for the single “When Bad Does Good.” ∙ With “You Know My Name,” which opens 2006’s Casino Royale, Cornell joined the ranks of Paul McCartney, Shirley Bassey, and Madonna—artists who recorded a James Bond movie theme song. ∙ Heart and Alice in Chains paid tribute to Cornell with a stirring rendition of Soundgarden’s classic track “Black Hole Sun” during 2018’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.