Chris Cornell Biography

news-detailsChris Cornell was born July 20, 1964. Suffering from a severe case of clinical depression during his teenage years, he mostly spent his time, playing drums and guitar. Before becoming a successful musician, he worked at a seafood wholesaler and was a sous chef at a restaurant named Ray's Boathouse.

In 1984, Cornell joined Soundgarden, serving as the band's lead singer and songwriter. With this band, he released two compilation albums and five studio records, one of which made them nominated as Best Metal Performance at 1992 Grammy Awards. In 1997, the band unfortunately decided to end their career and so went their separate ways.

Post leaving Soundgarden, Cornell released a solo studio album entitled "Euphoria Morning". Through self-penned single "Can't Change Me", he was nominated for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at 2000 Grammy Awards. He was also signed to score music for movie "Mission: Impossible II", crafting a song called "Mission 2000".

After releasing "Euphoria Morning", Cornell joined the remaining members of Rage Against the Machine" and formed a new band called Audioslave with them. Having double duties as the band's rhythm guitarist and vocalist, he dropped three studio albums with Audioslave.

All lyrics in the three albums of Audioslave were written by Cornell with the other members contributing on arranging sounds to suit the lyrics. Though claiming that he was "never able to write effectively" while drinking, people in the band admitted that his drug addiction and alcoholism were defining factors in his writing and recording process.

After the release of Audioslave's debut album, Cornell attended a rehab to fight his drug and alcohol addictions. Said to have stayed sober during the making of Audioslave's second and third albums, he officially announced his departure from the band in 2007, citing "irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences" as the cause.

After walking out of Audioslave, Cornell continued his career in music industry as a solo singer. He crafted music called "You Know My Name" for "Casino Royale" before releasing his second solo studio album "Carry On" in 2007. Exploring various music genres from blues, psychedelic and country, he still stayed true to his root, alternative rock. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album reached number 17 on Billboard Hot 200.

Cornell decides to experiment with R&B sounds in his third solo studio album "Scream". He joins forces with rapper/music producer Timbaland in a single called "Long Gone", which is co-written by OneRepublic's frontman Ryan Tedder. He releases the record across U.S. on March 10, 2009.