Chris Jericho Reflects on Chris Cornell’s Death + Legacy: ‘His Tone, His Power and Range Were Unlike Anybody Else’ [Exclusive Interview]
The reactions continue to come in concerning the sudden death of Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell. Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho dropped by the Loudwire studios shortly after learning of the news of the singer's passing and shared his thoughts on the death of one of rock's truly unique voices.
In our chat, Jericho told us that he woke up to a text about Cornell's death and had to research it to make sure that the news was true. It took him by surprise, especially after crossing paths with Soundgarden just last week at Northern Invasion.
"It blows my mind that four out of the five big five grunge band singers have passed away," stated Jericho, who added, "I always liked Soundgarden the best out of all them because of the vocals. He was basically a heavy metal singer."
The vocalist reflected on his introduction to Soundgarden through Cornell's "crazy vocals" on the song "Jesus Christ Pose," and even though he was very much a metal guy and grunge was taking over, he couldn't deny the power of Cornell's voice.
"No one ever really sounded like Cornell and no matter what projects he did whether he was singing and belting it out or doing a song like 'Like a Stone' from Audioslave where it was more introspective, his tone and his power and range were unlike anybody else," says Jericho.
"I don't know if Cornell influenced my vocals per se, but there is some similarities there," says the singer. "He's one of those guys where whenever I hear him sing it's like, 'Oh, what a great, great singer' -- just a beautiful, powerful, kick you in the f--king face type of a voice, which is very rare because nobody's really sang like him before. Maybe nobody ever will."
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