Serj Tankian Joins Prophets of Rage to Honor Chris Cornell With ‘Like a Stone’ in Auckland
Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk have moved from their days in Rage Against the Machine to Audioslave to Prophets of Rage, and in their latest iteration, the trio will still pull some from the music of their past. During a performance Tuesday (March 20) in Auckland, New Zealand, the band decided to perform "Like a Stone" from their onetime band Audioslave in honor of late vocalist Chris Cornell.
In order to do so, they needed someone with some vocal strength to accomplish the feat and welcomed System of a Down's Serj Tankian to the stage to sit in with the band.
"Not too long ago we lost a very good friend of ours, Chris Cornell. Please show him some appreciation," stated Tom Morello, giving way to extended thunderous applause from the crowd at Auckland's Spark Arena. "We miss him very much too and we'd like to do this song in his loving memory and we'd like to bring up one of our favorite kiwis, Serj Tankian," added Morello.
After some hugs and fist bumps, the band delivered the song with Tankian's unique vocal stylings giving it its own stamp while still honoring the original as performed by Cornell.
Morello and Tankian have a long history that includes their collaborative activism as part of the Axis of Justice organization. Tankian also had formed a bond with Chris Cornell, as the pair were both involved with the music for last year's film The Promise.
Chris Cornell filled out the Audioslave lineup for three albums in the early 2000s after the trio had moved on from Rage Against the Machine. The singer had reunited onstage in January 2017 with Prophets of Rage and had been open about the idea of potentially recording with Audioslave again prior to his death last spring.
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