Latest / DISGRACELAND / Chris Cornell: Bad Trips, Crooked DEA Agents, and Four Octaves of Sheer Power

Transcript

Chris Cornell: Bad Trips, Crooked DEA Agents, and Four Octaves of Sheer Power · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell are insane. He was a latchkey kid who
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: was doing weed, pills and LSD by the age of fourteen.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: A traumatic experience with PCP turned him into a recluse
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: for years. Music pulled him out of the darkness when
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: he discovered his four octave voice by accident, he was
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: robbed by crooked dea agents, developed an addiction to oxy
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: conton while trying to jumpstart a creative comeback, and was
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: part of the only rock band in history to send
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: a song that featured a guy playing the spoons up
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the charts. That song, like the best of Chris Cornell's songs,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: was great music. Unlike that Lupe I played for you
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called Montage
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Mystique MK one. I played you that loop because I
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: can't afford the rights to cold Hearted by Paula Abdul
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Laker's Girl Cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the number one song in America On September fifth, nineteen
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: eighty nine, and that was the day that Chris Cornell's
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: band Soundgarden released Louder than Love, an album that got
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: them on tour with Guns N' Roses, inspired Metallica to
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: write one of their biggest hits of all time, and
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: pushed Chris Cornell to the forefront of a new musical
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: movement in America. On this episode PCP before Octave, Range,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Crooked Dea, Agents, the Spoonman, and Chris Cornell. I'm Jake
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Chris Cornell killed himself. That sucks.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Suicide sucks. It's happened too many times to too many
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: great artists. Kurt Cobain, Michael Hutchins, Chester Bennington, Anthony Bourdin,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and Chris Cornell dead in twenty seventeen at just fifty
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: two years old. If you've ever heard Soundgarden Audio Slave
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: or a Temple of the Dog, then you know that
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell had a monster voice, four octaves of sheer power,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: power that Chris now once had no idea that he possessed.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Imagine standing in front of a microphone inside a recording
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: studio and laying down a track with your band the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: guys in your band are so loud that you have
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: to push your voice to the limit in order to
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: be heard, only to find that you're now pushing beyond
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: that limit. Everyone's like, dude, what are you doing? How'd
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you do that? And you don't know. You just did
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: it and now you can access that power anytime you want.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: That's how it was with Chris Cornell, stumbling into that
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: God given talent with ease. But if you've heard Chris
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Cornell's acoustic cover of Nothing Compares to You, the ballad
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: written by Prince and made famous by Sinead O'Connor, you
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: know the real reason he was one of the greatest
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: to ever do it. Because he was capable not only
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: of great power, but of tremendous restraint. And that restraint,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: that nuance, is why on his best day, nothing compared
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to Chris Cornell. Chris never met Prince, but he did
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: run into him. At the Beverly Hills Hotel. Chris was
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: walking down a hallway when a guest room door of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: ahead swung open. His royal badness appeared, no shirt, rocking
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: a purple headband, struggling to wheel a room service cart
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: out into the hallway. Prince locked eyes with Chris Cornell,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and Chris could see the shock. The panic. Prince wrestled
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: with the room service card some more, the silverware and
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: plates now clanking around and making a hell of a racket.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: With great effort, he finally managed to move the cart
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: fully into the hallway and then slammed the door behind
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: him without saying a word. Prince such a rock star
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: that he couldn't even say hello to a fellow rock star.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I'm not judging, and neither was Chris Cornell. He didn't
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: take offense. He could relate. Chris was shy, private. He
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: was allergic to the fame side of this business, all
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: that being recognized everywhere business, especially the being expected to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: engage with the person who recognized you business. Chris Cornell's
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: definition of a working musician was simpler than that, but
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: as soon as Soundgarden got famous, he discovered that the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: world of rock and roll was anything but simple. Nineteen
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: ninety two, Soundgarden's third studio album, Bad Motorfinger, the one
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: that was supposed to make them huge, was doing just that.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Not never Mind huge, not Nirvana huge, but it was
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: all good. Kurt Grunge, Seattle that Rise, and Tide was
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: lifting all boats. It lifted Soundgarden and that's Chris Cornell,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: of course, and guitarist Kim Thale, bassist Ben Sheppard, and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: drummer Matt Cameron to an opening slot on Guns n'
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: roses Us Your Illusion Tour, and as openers, there were
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: strict rules to follow. One no upstaging Axel Rose. Two
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: no walking out onto Axel's metal catwalk, which extended from
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: the main stage, and three don't leave yourself out in
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the open backstage where God forbid Axel could run into you,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: which is where Chris Cornell found himself now standing backstage
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: after Soundgarden's opening set, when suddenly here comes Axel fucking Rose,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: baseball cap, tight red shorts, fur coat, sunglasses, doing that
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: street walking cheetah s throat with his jack bodyguard by
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: his side. Shit Christop. Maybe Axel won't notice, Maybe his
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: bodyguard will take pity and won't beat the piss out
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: of me. Axel was close now, passing right in front
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of him. The moment of truth. Chris braced himself for
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a lecture, a kick to the nuts, some hardcore welcome
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to the ververbial jungle shit. He tends to Axel made
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: eye contact and then Axel said, hey, bro Axel Rose,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: in his bodyguard, kept walking. There was no dressing down,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: no penalty, the so called rules, there were a joke.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: It all was. I mean, look at these guys guns n' Roses,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: once a lean five piece that required nothing but themselves
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: to absolutely kill in some tiny club on the strip,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and now playing hockey arenas with two keyboard players, two
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: keyboard players, three backup singers, giant inflatables flying around. It
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: was crazy. Axel was pricing out blimps for the next
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: leg of the tour. Chris Cornell watched the sunfold before
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: his eyes, not with awe or even respect, but with fear.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Fear that this was where a Sound Garden was headed,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that in order to reach this level you had to change,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: compromise who you really were. He didn't want to do that,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: not for a record label, not for an audience, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: certainly not for Axel Rose. Which isn't to say that
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell and Soundgarden didn't want to write hit songs.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Their new single Outshined was holding up pretty well on
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the rock charts, but Chris was proud that they made
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: it happen. Their own way, by remaining true to themselves
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and by being authentic. There's this fallacy that American indie
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: bands in the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties were allergic
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to having hits, and that's simply not true. Soundgarden, for example,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: would gladly have a hit. Just look at sub Pop Records,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: one of the most important American indie labels during this
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: period and also the label that released Soundgarden's first single
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and EP. When Bruce Pavett and Jonathan Poeman co founded
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: sub Pop in Seattle in nineteen eighty six, they had
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Motown on the brain. They went after a certain kind
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: of band and a certain kind of sound. They hired
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: an in house producer, an in house photographer, and they
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: even flew in a journalist from England to write about
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the thing that they had created, thus drumming up interest
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: for what for the cool factor, fuck no interest, so
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: that they could sell more records. And that's not to
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: say that indie music can later grunge. He didn't enjoy
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: being imperfect, imperfections like flannel shirts and lace up Doc Martins,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: for all the rage it made the music human. But
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell had, as Bruce Pavitt put it a seemingly
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: flawless nature. He was polished in looks and in sound,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a long haired Pacific northwest of Donnis, with a voice
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: as smooth as the bare chest that he routinely took
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: to exposing on stage. And because of this, Chris Cornell
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: stood out from everyone else in Seattle. But this didn't
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: happen overnight. For a while, all Chris wanted to do
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: was not stand out. In fact, all he wanted to
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: do was hide. Nineteen seventy eight, fourteen year old Chris
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Cornell was freaking out, a latch key kid for years now,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: left to his own devices, smoking, drinking, getting high. One
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: thing led to another weed pills, LSD, booze. But the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: PCP was clearly a mistake. It turned his good day
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: into a bad day, the worst kind of day, a
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: black day, a day that envelops you, suffocates you, shuts
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: out the lights, everything in your own head twisted and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: haunted and blanketed in a drop tuned doom. Chris just
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: wanted it to go away, whatever was now invading his
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: own mind, that is, just to leave him alone. But
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't leave. Days turned to weeks and weeks to months.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: For about two years in his teens, Chris Cornell was
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: a shut ind all because of a bad trip on
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: angel Dust, a trip that turned him into an agoraphobe,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: one who fears public places. He dropped out of school,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: he isolated, Then his mom bought him a snare drum.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Soon he picked up the remaining pieces of a whole kit,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and he rescued a stack of Beatles records from a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: neighbor's basement. He met hero Yamamoto, a bass player, heroes
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Bug kim Thale, a guitarist, both Seattle transplants from Chicago.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: The first day of the trio jam, they wrote three songs.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: The next day they wrote five more. But within two
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: months they had fifteen songs and they just needed a singer.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: None of them, least of all Chris knew that one
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of Seattle's greatest voices was currently sitting on his ass
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: behind the drum kit. But like all young and hungry
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: indie bands, if you need something, you'd do it yourself.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Chris didn't expect his voice, though, to do that, And
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: when it did, Chris Cornell sealed his fate in an instant,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and that fate was not to be stuck inside his
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: own head, some pathetic PCP casualty, but to be compelled
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: by the act of making music, knowing without any reservation
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: that he was going to make music for the rest
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: of his life, even if that meant washing dishes or
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: cleaning fish guts on the side until he was eighty
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: years old, play sing tour. This was Chris Cornell's life now,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and it was simple. Nineteen eighty eight, twenty four year
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: old Chris Cornell was doing what he loved, hitting the
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: road with his band and their Chevy America, a blur
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: outside the window as they tore ass through Louisiana. Chris
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: no longer playing drums but singing lead his band Soundgarden,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: touring in support of Ultramega Okay, their full length debut
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: on SST Records. SST Come on, Man, are you kidding me?
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Black Flag, the Minutemen, Hohosker, due the Meat Puppets. They
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: were all on SST. It was the coolest to d
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: label going subpop was cool too, no doubt, and those
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: guys were Soundgarden's friends. But SST was SST, and they
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: wanted Soundgarden, they wanted Chris Cornell, but SST wasn't alone.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Every record label wanted to sign Soundgarden. Every major label.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: And remember this is the late nineteen eighties, this is
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: before the word grunge entered the lexicon, before Seattle became
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the new Athens or Minneapolis. Chris Cornell and Soundgarden were
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: that good and they were that compelling, But unlike most
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: bands eager to make that jump to the big time,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Soundgarden knew they weren't quite ready yet. Chris Cornell had
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the wisdom and the foresight at just twenty four years
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: old to know that he needed more time, and not
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a defined amount of time. It could be weeks or months,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: or even years. But the point was to wait until
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the industry needed them, not the other way around. Because
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: if Chris Cornell signed with major label A and M
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Records at this moment, he knew he would be forced
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: to change, forced to sacrifice his authenticity, which at this
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: point was a polished hybrid of metal, hardcore and psychedelic rock,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: wholly unique to the split camps of punk and hair
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: metal dominating Seattle at the time. And again, I'm not
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: saying that by turning down A and M, Chris Cornell
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: and the guys in Soundgarden were turning down the opportunity
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: to make a hit record, being authentic and being a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: huge star not mutually exclusive. Chris was turning down the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: notion of selling out. As Soundgarden went to the big
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: time before they were ready, before the industry was ready,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: they would fail and they'd never have a hit. The
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: hits would come and due time the way that they
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: wanted it. This particular strategy wasn't just Chris's idea. It
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: was recommended by Chris's girlfriend at the time, Susan Silver,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: who also happened to be Soundgarden's manager. The strategy worked.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: It allowed Soundgarden to retain their indie credibility. Then it
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: got them in with the SST crowd far beyond the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: borders of Seattle, and it only made the majors want
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the band more like everyone else did. But you can't
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: please them all, particularly members of law enforcement here in Louisiana,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: who assumed that your long hair, Washington state plates, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: buttholes surfers bumper sticker on the back of your van
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: equaled probable cause. Sound Gardens drummer Matt Cameron was behind
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the wheel when he saw the blue lights in the
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: rear view mirror. He didn't panic. He knew the band
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: was clean, cleaner than your average rock band. Only their
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: sound guy Hallerman was holding and that tiny bit of
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: weed was stashed safely inside his toolkit. Matt pulled over.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: The cops walked up. Chris got a good look. Dark sunglasses,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: big guns, and their badges. Not local police, not troopers, DEA,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the fuck everybody out. The narks had them surrounded. The
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: band did as they were told, lined up along the
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: side of the highway, where Louisiana Dea were now looking
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: them up and down. Don't even think about making a
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: run for it. One of the officers said, look behind
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you that there's Louisiana swamp. You were not there. You're
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: done for. We'll chase you like we're trained to do,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and chances are will catch you. But if we don't
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: catch you, the swamp will. Can't even begin to count
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: how many burnouts like you've gone missing out there. Thinking
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: they could run away. Thinking they're different, Soundgarden was different.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: You were more likely to find philosophical discussion in their
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: dressing room than chicks in dope, not that the DEA
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: would believe it. Belief was relative. Seeing was believing, and
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: right now the Narks wanted to see what they believed
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: was there. So Chris Cornell and the Soundgarden, stuck between
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: armed DEA officers and a swamp crawling with gaiters and snakes,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: consented to having their van searched. The officers found Hallerman's weed,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: which by their logic was communal property. And even though
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: it was a tiny amount, half a gram at most,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: and remember this was nineteen eighty eight, so half a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: gram was enough to put them all under arrest, which
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: was the DEAs and ten that is, until they found
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the cash twelve hundred dollars Sound Gardens meager earnings from
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: ticket and merch sales on the tour so far the Narks,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: though they defined it differently. Of course, in their eyes
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: it was drug money subject to seizure, and that was
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the bad news. The good news was that it made
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: things even. The money settled their tabs, so to speak. Well,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: that and the weed. The DEA kept it all and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: just sent the band on their way, humiliated, stripped of
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: all their cash, honest cash that was now lining the
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: dirty pockets of dirty cops all the way to their
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: next stop, New Orleans, where that night they played a
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: show for four people, three if you didn't count the bartender.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: If you've ever toured the country as an indie rock
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: band label or no label super Unknown and as it were,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: sorry couldn't resist. You don't have to share this exact
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: experience to sympathize with what I'm describing here. Life on
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the road is a struggling band on the come up
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: is equal parts exhaustion and disappointment. Defeat lurks around every corner.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: It breaks more bands than it makes. But Chris Cornell
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: was determined this is what he was going to do
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: for the rest of his life, even if it meant
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: he'd be penniless playing for three people at a French
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: quarter or adjacent shithole. It beats sitting inside an empty room,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: stuck inside his own head, navigating whatever dark spaces still
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: remained Following that ill conceived drug trip all those years ago.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: He'd found his place here in Soundgarden, cranking out their
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: brand of Sabbath and Zeppelin sludge, Kim Thale's heavy riffage
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: threading itself around Chris's four octave voice. But they didn't
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: take themselves or the lineage of their music too seriously.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Songs like Jesus Christ Pose and Big Dumb Sex took
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the piss out of rock and roll martyrs and Macho
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Lethario Fucos alike. Their music was smart, just like their strategy,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: a strategy that was beginning to pay dividends as planned,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Just as Chris and his girlfriend and manager Susan Silver hoped.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: The industry continued to lend a near to what Soundgarden
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: was doing and continued to up the ante. Before long,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: A and M Records had tripled their original offer. When
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Soundgarden finally made that jump to the majors, they made
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: it while maintaining the very essence of who they were,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and they didn't forget who got them there. In the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: liner notes for Louder than Love, their nineteen eighty nine
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: A and M Records debut, Soundgarden thanked subpop, SST and
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the Louisiana Dea, the irony being that within about five
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: years time, every one of those narks that pulled them
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: over outside New Orleans would have a Soundgarden CD on
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: permanent rotation in their shitty camaros, and Soundgarden would have
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: a lot more than twelve hundred dollars in an envelope
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: to show for right now. However, in the fall of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, Chris Cornell and Soundgarden just had to
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: kill a rep and a killer record, so killer that
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: it directly inspired Kirk Hammett to write the rift to
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Metallica's mega hit enter Samman after he binged Louder than
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Love at three o'clock in the morning, which is, as
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Kirk knows, the best time to listen to Soundgarden loud,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: But I digress Kirk Hammett. He was an early Soundgarden confert,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: as was Axel Rose, who took Soundgarden out on Tourhithm
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: just a few years later, and it was on this
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: tour that Chris Cornell once again confronted the fears selling out,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: a fear that, in order to proceed in the natural
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: order of things to go from big tour opener to
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: big tour headliner, he and Soundgarden would be required to
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: compromise who they were and what they did. It seemed inevitable.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: How one day you just wake up and everything is changed,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: and not for the better either. There was no explaining it,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: It just happened. You found yourself in that place. Cornell
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: knew that place better than most. He put pen to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: paper and began to immortalize that place in a song,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: a song that would soon reveal him at his most vulnerable.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: At the very moment, he seemed totally invincible. We'll be
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: right back after this.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: We're we're where the intersection of the five and the
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: ninety one freeways. A very slow pursuit followed by numerous
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: highway patrol vehicles. But because of the intensity, it seems
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: like people have heard about what's going on. The presuming
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: vehicle of OJ Simpson is still traveling very slowly northbound
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: along the five Freeway.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety five. America was glued to the television set,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: just as they had been for the past year, ever
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: since OJ Simpson drove his white Broncos south on the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: ninety one Freeway, California Highway Patrol all over his ass.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Now the juice was on trial for the murder of
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: his ex wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: a trial that completely saturated the culture, from the morning
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: news to the late night talk shows. It was the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: biggest reality show. At the dawn of reality TV. OJ
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: was all anyone talked about. Did he do it? Was
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: he guilty if the glove did not fit? Should they? Okay,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: you get it. But the judge presiding over the case,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Judge Lance Edo, wanted to talk about things besides OOJ Simpson.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: He wanted to talk about himself because Judge Edo, like
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Johnny Cochrane and Kato Kalin and so many others taking
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: part in this real life TV drama, saw an opportunity
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: to parlay his unexpected notoriety into something bigger. So there
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: was Judge Edo basking in his own spotlight in newspapers
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and on TV, this time not as a supporting player,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: but as the lead your honor du jour, being asked
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: questions about his life, his childhood, his hobbies, Questions like Judge,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: what music do you listen to? Judge Lanciedo had his
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: answer ready for that one. I really like Soundgarden. Chris
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Cornell could not believe that shit when he read it.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: The OJ Judge a fan a Soundgarden as far out
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: so was the size of this arena. Soundgarden was headlining tight.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Chris walked through it and off. But Chris didn't have
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: an Axel Rose clause. Other bands, other stars weren't banned
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: from backstage like these two guys just up ahead, waiting
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to pay their respects. They wore matching black suits, black hats,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: black sunglasses. Chris knew who they were before we even
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: got close, just like the whole Judge Edo thing. He
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: couldn't believe this either. Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis the
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Grammy Award winning writing and production team behind some of
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Janet Jackson's biggest hits, Bending the Knee Here for Him
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell. Soundgarden's fourth studio album and their third for
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: A and M, super Unknown, changed everything, not just the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: band's lineup, with Ben Sheppard replacing original member hero Yamamoto
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: on bass, and not just the band's sound, which was
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: both more beatlesque and more prog rock than ever before.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: It was Soundgarden's first album to be released in the
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: wake of the grunge phenomenon, and their first to debut
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: at number one on the Billboard chart in the first
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: week alone in March of nineteen ninety four, it sold
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: over three hundred thousand copies. By years end, that number
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: had increased two and a half million, not only their
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: biggest selling record to date, but their best justice. Soundgarden
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell and Chris's now wife Susan Silver designed it
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: to be authentic and a hit, like spoon Man, the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: album's first single, a song that couldn't have been written
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: or performed by anyone else, originally the name of the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: fictitious band in Cameron Crowe's nineteen ninety two movie Singles,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: a movie that capitalized on the run scene and featured
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: appearances in the film and on the soundtrack by Soundgarden
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and other Seattle bands. Spoonman was inspired by a guy
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: everyone in Seattle knew. Soundgarden invited artists the spoon Man,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the local street performer, to do his thing on the
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: actual track, which he did, playing the spoons like a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: man possessed the stainless steel, slapping between his fingers and
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: his arms and legs so hard and so intense that
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: his hands began to bleed, his harp began to pound,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: and then artists the spoon Man passed out in the
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: recording studio during the take. How's that for authentic? Super
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Unknown was a vibe all around dark psychedelia on black
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Hole sun thick gnarly guitars on Fourth of July fell
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: on Black Days was both dark and groovy, and it
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: was all about, to paraphrase Chris Cornell, that universal experience
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: we've all had in some way where one day you
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: wake up and realize that your good life was actually
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: headed in a negative direction. You didn't see it coming,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: It just happened. It was happening in Chris's hometown. Corporations
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: and conglomerates doing what they wanted with Seattle. Total exploitation
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: in the name of discovery, every bespoke subset of every
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: sub scene in town, picked over by Ian Hman, looking
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: for the next Nirvana, the next Pearl Jam, the next
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell, every rock band clutching what they thought was
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: a golden ticket, when in reality it was just fool's goal.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Chewed up, spit out now the most myopic definition of
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: quote unquote grunge and quote unquote Seattle being sold for
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: thousands of dollars in the New York Times, this glossy
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: fashion supplement. And when the circus packed up its tents
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and skipped town and they left it all to rot,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a once vibrant, authentic thing drained of its color. And
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: there were real casualties too. One month after super Unknown
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: was released in April of nineteen ninety four, Kurt Cobain
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: put the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth and
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: pulled the trigger. Losing kerk heard as much as losing
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Andrew Wood did three years prior. Andy wasn't just a
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: friend at one time, he was Chris's roommate. Chris processed
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: his grief partly by writing songs and then recording and
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: releasing those songs as Temple of the Dog, a Seattle
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: supergroup he formed with members of Andy's band, Mother Lovebone.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: But the physical and emotional release provided by Chris's four
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: octave voice wasn't going to cut it forever. Not this time.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Chris lost it. He self medicated with a bottle. He
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: became the cliche he'd avoided for so long, exactly what
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the Dea thought he was, and out of control rock
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: star fuck philosophy discussions backstage that shit was in the past.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: That was before Kurt and Andy. Chris and the guys
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: in Soundgarden were now channeling Keith Moon and Joe Walsh,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: ripping steel doors from their hinges, turning tables into kindling violence, destruction.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Zero Fox, their r manager, got scared. He called up
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Susan Silver from Europe. Out on the road and asked
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: for her guidance and what the hell was he supposed
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: to do. Susan's answer was simple, leave them alone. But
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: struggling with great loss wasn't the only issue. Chris began
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: to experience problems with his voice. The band was forced
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: to cancel shows. He drank more pills oxy value cocaine.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Those would come soon enough, too. Tensions rose, tensions within
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: the band, and tensions threatening to split up Chris and
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Susan's marriage. So Soundgarden doubled down, producing their fifth studio album,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Down on the up Side, by Themselves one hundred percent them,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: one hundred percent Uncompromised, one hundred percent killer. Chris wanted
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: that to be enough. He wanted the answer to be
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: that simple. That music, the thing he had given his
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: life to, saved it all in the end. But music
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: wasn't saving anything. Grunge, alternative, whatever you wanted to call it.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: The thing Soundgarden was at the center of had successfully
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: killed all that hair metal that previously dominated the charts,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and now it mutilated the dead body and was wearing
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the celebrity skin suit. Axel rose with a flannel shirt
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: tied around his waist, Kurt's widow, Courtney, ready for her
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: close up, and all that other nonsense. In a roundabout way,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: it was Chris's greatest fear coming to life. He and
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Soundgarden had sold out, just not of their own accord.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: It was enough to drive you back into your own
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: head to those black days, the ones you first encountered
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: almost two decades prior, back when you were just fourteen,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: high on PCP, scared, confused, the whole world rewinding now
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: back through A and M and then sst all the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: way to subpop and beyond the spoon man, spoons rattling
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: the shell, making its way back inside Kurt Shotgun, all
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the way back to when there was only one snare drum,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: before any thing made any sense at all, any real sense,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: until the tape rewound all the way off the reel
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: and unspooled itself and collapsed to the floor in a pile.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Chris Cornell was, by most accounts, a really solid dude, kind, caring, thoughtful,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: that rare breed of rockstar who is refreshingly down to earth.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: He's the guy who made a Chicago kid by way
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: of San Diego feel at home in Seattle, welcoming a
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: young Eddie Vedder into the fold with open arms while
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: recording the Temple of the Dog album. Because of Chris's generosity,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Eddie Vedder was able to hear himself on record for
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the first time. That in part imbued Eddie with a
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: confidence to make even greater records with his new band,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Pearl Jam, and, as Eddie later said, I'm indebted to
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Chris Time Eternal. Chris Cornell was also the guy who
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: opened his own wallet to make sure Uhlan Johanna's band
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: eleven could open for Soundgarden on tour that never happens.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: And Chris Cornell was the guy who convinced Richard Patrick
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: of the band Filter to stick it out and rehab
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: all that Jesus talk rubbed an atheist like Richard the
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: wrong way. He felt like checking out after a few days,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and Chris told him to stay. Chris also told him,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: you don't have to think of God as the helper. Instead,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: think of God as a group of drunks. And these
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: other people here, Chris included, they were your helper, your
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: higher power. You needed that. You needed them because you
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: can't do it alone. Of course, Chris knew what he
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: was talking about. He was here in rehab because the
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: people around him saw that he needed help. His drinking
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: was out of control. He developed an addiction to oxycon
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: He was using value coke, even crystal math, not eating
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: for days, losing weight. He and Susan had a daughter,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: but their marriage was now going through the same strains
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: that had resulted in Sound Gardens break up five years prior.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: It was two thousand and two, the year of the
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: debut of Audio Slave, the rock and roll juggernaut that
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: partnered Chris with Tom Morello and the rhythm section of
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Rage Against the Machine. They were the ones who stepped up,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: along with Susan and told Chris he needed to do
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: something or he'd be dirt in the ground with Kurt
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and Andy. So he did. He put in the work
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and came out on the other side. Just like he
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: once pushed past his own perceived limitations to reveal a
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: four octave voice, he was now pushing into a new
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: stage in life, a stage that included divorce, then another marriage,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: more kids, more music, a bond theme song, solo albums
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: that found him outside his comfort zone, or more like it,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: his comfort zone had shifted a bit, and this was
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: who he was now Like Scream, his third solo record,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: produced by R and B mainstay Timberland, probably the last
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: person anyone expected to work with Chris Cornell. The critics
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: hated it even worse than they hated Audioly, which the
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: time was not as well received as it is now
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: in hindsight. Even worse than the critics were his own peers,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Trent Reznor of nine inch Nails logging on to Twitter
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: to write, you know that feeling you get when somebody
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: embarrasses themselves so badly you feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell's
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: record Jesus. Chris shot back a quick response, what do
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: you think Jesus would Twitter? Would he come back? Aside?
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: That shit stung to have someone you respected and admired
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: shit all over your music for doing the same thing
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Trent Resnor was doing, making art the way he wanted
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: to make it at that moment, humiliated for being what
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Chris thought was authentic, and once again asking himself if
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: he had finally become the thing he feared if next
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: up he'd be buying blimp for a spectacle of a tour,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Frantically shoving a room service card into a hotel hallway
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: to avoid interaction with the common people. It's impossible to
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: know if any of these things were going through Chris
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Cornell's mind in the early hours of May eighteenth, twenty seventeen,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: when he stepped into the bathroom of his MGM Grand
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Hotel room in Detroit and took his own life. But
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: whatever he was thinking was undoubtedly clouded and complicated and
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: far from simple, and that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and this is Disgraceland, all right, disco's thanks for stepping
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: into the black hole sun with me here. Apple podcast listeners,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: make sure you have auto downloads turned on. That way
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: you won't miss any episodes. This week's question of the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: week is which artists follow a band was better or
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: more impactful than their breakthrough band. I'm obviously asking because
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: of Chris Cornell six one seven nine oh six six
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: six three eight. With your answers, can you might just
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: hear yourself my responses in the afterparty bonus episode coming
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: up in your podcast feed right after this. Hit me
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: at disgracelampod on the socials and leave a review for
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and win some free
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: merch all right, here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of disgracelan
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: ad free, Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: early access to merchandise and events. Let visit disgracelampod dot
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: com slash Membership for details, Rate and review the show,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Rock and Roller he the bed Down Man