Official Bio

Chris Cornell is a rock icon who thrives on contradictions. An innovator who resists genre labels, he was nonetheless the chief architect of the 90s grunge movement. Frequently ranked as one of the best voices in music history, he has successfully maintained his own unique identity over more than two decades as a multi-Grammy award winning musician and universally acclaimed singer, songwriter and lyricist.

Seattle trailblazers Soundgarden were a law to themselves, edgy, dark and deeply individual. Their savage soundscapes, coupled with Cornell’s incisive lyrics and predatory roar, seduced audiences hungry for musical depth and complexity while leading trends in street fashion and iconic design. In 1989, they became the first Seattle band to sign to a major label. Their sound continued to change and evolve over the course of five pioneering albums.

Celebrated side project Temple of the Dog had already shown Cornell’s more soulful side and introduced future Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder to the world. Later, Cornell shocked the business once again with richly melodic, critically acclaimed solo album “Euphoria Morning”, swiftly recognized for its alienation and despair. And as the millennium turned, he joined with three other musical pioneers from rap-rock’s Rage Against The Machine to create Audioslave - a multi-platinum supergroup which lived to deny its detractors, producing three top-selling albums, touring the world and becoming the first American band to bring rock to Castro’s Cuba.

Since then, Cornell has redefined his sound and vision to encompass new music, new collaborations and new activities. Having contributed solo songs to movie soundtracks from “Great Expectations” to “Mission Impossible II”, he became the first American male singer to write the theme song for the James Bond franchise in “Casino Royale.” His bold and bluesy reinvention of Michael Jackson dance classic “Billie Jean” courted controversy and attracted imitators. And his triumphant world tour brought together songs from every stage of his career, reinterpreting them for new audiences and blending their original fire with the shock of the new. Cornell fronted fashion designer John Varvatos’s Spring 2006 collection, helped revive a historic Parisian restaurant/nightclub, the stylish Black Calavados, and forged the first-ever multimedia partnership between an artist and a commercial airline, Virgin America.

2008 culminated in an appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors Gala in Washington DC in front of the President. Cornell paid tribute to Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of the Who with a triumphant performance of their classic "Won't Get Fooled Again", which, according to the Washington Times, "brought down the house." 2009 saw the release of his latest solo album "Scream" while Chris continued to tour worldwide, co-headlining a European tour with Lenny Kravitz and playing his first-ever live solo show in Israel.

Only the most confident would claim to predict exactly what comes next for Chris Cornell. Always eclectic, always experimental, his collaboration "Scream" with super-producer Timbaland – who called the album “the best work I’ve done in my career” – took him into fresh territory, establishing a new sound and marking the creation of a masterpiece that breaks all musical boundaries. More recently, Cornell's studio collaborations with artists as diverse as Slash, Santana and Italian nu-jazz outfit Gabin have stood alongside intimate live shows showcasing songs from throughout his career.

In August 2010, Soundgarden made a historic return to the live stage as headliners for Chicago's Lollapalooza festival, and have released retrospective album "Telephantasm" and "Live on I5", taken from recordings of their 1996 US tour. In Spring 2011 Cornell embarked on a sold-out solo acoustic US ‘Songbook’ tour, followed by an acclaimed North American summer tour with Soundgarden and more Songbook dates in New Zealand, Australia, South America and the US.

In August 2011 Chris released “The Keeper”, an original song written for the Marc Forster directed film Machine Gun Preacher. The song is also the lead track on the film’s soundtrack album. It received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song in December 2011.

November 2011 saw the release of Songbook, his live acoustic album featuring songs recorded on the Spring tour in response to strong fan demand and including the never-before-released song "Cleaning My Gun".

Only one thing’s for sure – Chris Cornell will continue to break rules, make history and challenge everyone’s expectations.

Early Years

Chris shows an early interest in music, especially that of The Beatles, discovers the piano and takes lessons. The teacher is impressed that Chris has already begun to craft his own songs without formal training and takes him to a conference at the University of Washington for a recital.  Later Chris drops out of lessons, acquires a drum kit and plays in various local bands.

Soundgarden

1984 - Chris forms Soundgarden with Hiro Yamamoto and Kim Thayil, naming the band after an art installation in Seattle's Sand Point. Chris initially plays drums while singing, but in 1985 the band enlists drummer Scott Sundquist to allow him to concentrate on vocals. They play their first show at a club called Top of the Court in Seattle. The band's first recordings are three songs for a C/Z Records compilation called Deep Six.

1987/1988 – Kim Thayil introduces the two eventual founders of the Sub Pop label and encourages them to start a label. Scott Sundquist is replaced by Matt Cameron and the band signs to Sub Pop, releasing the Screaming Life EP in 1987, and the Fopp EP in 1988. A combination of the two is later issued as Screaming Life/Fopp in 1990. 

1988 - Though the band is the first of the Seattle grunge acts to generate major label interest, in 1988 they sign to the lesser known SST Records to release debut album Ultramega OK.

Temple of the Dog

1990 - Chris forms Temple of the Dog as a tribute to his friend, the late Andrew Wood, lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. The line-up includes Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Jeff Ament on bass guitar (both ex-members of Mother Love Bone), Mike McCready on lead guitar, Matt Cameron on drums and Eddie Vedder on backing vocals. On November 13 1990, Temple Of The Dog plays its only live show at Seattle's Off Ramp Club in front of 299 people. 

1991 - The album Temple of the Dog is released on April 16, 1991 through A&M Records.

Audioslave

2001 – Chris joins forces with three other musical pioneers from Rage Against The Machine to create Audioslave. It consists of Chris Cornell and the former instrumentalists of Rage Against the Machine; Tom Morello (lead guitar), Tim Commerford (bass and backing vocals) and Brad Wilk (drums).

2002 - The self-titled debut album, Audioslave, is released on November 19, 2002 and enters the Billboard 200 chart at number seven after selling 162,000 copies in its first week. Certified gold by the RIAA within a month of release, by 2006 it has achieved triple platinum status. It is the most successful Audioslave album, having sold more than three million copies in the United States alone.

Audioslave’s live debut is on November 25, 2002, performing on the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City, for the Late Show with David Letterman.  It’s the first time any band has appeared on Letterman's marquee.

2003 - Like a Stone, the second single from Audioslave, is released in early 2003, peaking at number one on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. It is certified gold by the RIAA and becomes Audioslave's most successful single.  The music video for the third single, Show Me How to Live, incorporates footage from 1971 cult movie Vanishing Point. The band's first DVD, Audioslave, is released on July 29, 2003. The band spends eight months of the year touring worldwide.

2004 - Audioslave is among the nominees for the 46th Grammy Awards where Like a Stone is nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance and Audioslave for Best Rock Album. They spend part of 2004 working on a second album and in March, Chris marries Vicky Karayiannis. Their first child, Toni Cornell (named after Vicky's mom, Antonia) arrives September 18, 2004. Their son, Christopher Nicholas Cornell, is born 15 months later on December 5th, 2005.

2005 - Audioslave's second album Out of Exile is released internationally in May 2005 on May 23, 2005, then a day later in the U.S. It debuts at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, the only Audioslave album to reach this position, and the band tour in support of it from April until November. On May 6, 2005, Audioslave becomes the first American rock group to play a free show in Havana, Cuba, in front of an estimated 50,000 people at the La Tribuna Antiimperialista José Martí.  Audioslave also performs at the Live 8 benefit concert in Berlin on July 2, 2005, and tours North American arenas from late September to November. 

Audioslave's second DVD, Live in Cuba, featuring the concert in Havana, is released on October 11, 2005, and is certified platinum in less than two months.

In December, Audioslave receives its third Grammy nomination in the Best Hard Rock Performance category for Doesn't Remind Me.

2006 - Audioslave spend the early part of the year in the studio.  Revelations, Audioslave's third album, is released in September 2006. A special marketing campaign places the album’s art concept on Google Earth as a fictional island, Audioslave Nation, in the South Pacific. The album enters the Billboard 200 at #2 and sells 142,000 copies during its first week of release.

Audioslave released three successful albums, received three Grammy nominations, sold more than eight million records worldwide, and become the first American rock band to perform an open-air concert in Cuba.

Solo

1998/1999 - In 1998 Chris Cornell begins writing and recording with guitarist Alain Johannes and keyboardist Natasha Shneider of the band Eleven. Chris Cornell’s first solo album Euphoria Morning is released on September 21, 1999.

2000 - The album's single Can't Change Me is nominated for "Best Male Rock Vocal Performance" at the 2000 Grammy Awards. Bonus track Sunshower is featured on the soundtrack for the film Great Expectations, and a reworked version of the track Mission, retitled Mission 2000, is used on the soundtrack to the film Mission: Impossible II.

2006 - Cornell co-writes and performs the theme song You Know My Name for the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale. This is the first Bond theme song since 1983's Octopussy to have a different title from the film and the first since 1987's The Living Daylights to feature a male singer.

2007 - In May/June, Cornell releases his second solo album Carry On, produced by Steve Lillywhite, which includes a groundbreaking reinvention of Michael Jackson dance classic Billie Jean as a slow blues. Among the artists accompanying him is friend and legendary guitarist Gary Lucas.

2008 – Cornell writes and records third solo album Scream with producer Timbaland  and plays summer shows across the US with Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour.  In the fall, he plays solo shows in the US and Canada and appears in front of the President at the Kennedy Center Honors Gala in Washington DC, playing The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" in tribute to the band.

2009 -- "Scream" is released worldwide in the Spring. In the first half of the year, Cornell continues to tour in North and South America and across Europe, taking in a total of 21 nations and including a triumphant open-air show in Tel Aviv. In December, he plays the first in his acclaimed "Songbook" series of solo acoustic shows at the Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles.

2010 - Chris Cornell's collaborations with rock guitarist Slash (on "Promise"), Santana (on "Whole Lotta Love") and Italian nu-jazz group Gabin ("Lies") are released.Chris plays more acoustic 'Songbook' shows at the Troubadour and the Roxy in Los Angeles.

2011 - In Spring, Chris Cornell embarks on a sold-out 'Songbook solo acoustic tour of the US and announces autumn dates in New Zealand, Australia and South America.

In August he releases “The Keeper”, an original song written for the Marc Forster directed film Machine Gun Preacher, released by Relativity in September 2011. The song is the lead track on the film’s soundtrack album and in December receives a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.

In September, he joins members of Pearl Jam for a Temple Of The Dog live reunion at the PJ20 Festival in Alpine Valley, WI. On November 21, he releases Songbook, his live acoustic album featuring songs recorded on the Spring tour.