Chris Cornell - Biography

Last Editor: sarahapril2				Chris Cornell Biography -   Name : Chris Cornell Profession : Singer/ Lyricist Birth Details : born July 20, 1964

Chris Cornell Trivia -

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Chris Cornell Detailed Biography -

Christopher Cornell (born July 20, 1964) is a guitarist/singer-songwriter most well-known for being the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave. He began his musical career as a drummer, before moving on to become a singer and guitarist. Cornell was born in Seattle, Washington and lived there in his childhood. His Irish Catholic parents are Ed Boyle (a pharmacist) and Karen Cornell (an accountant). Chris's last name used to be Boyle, but after his parents divorced he and his siblings took his mother's maiden name. Chris suffered from a severe case of depression during his teenage years, leaving the house rarely. At one point, Cornell spent a whole year without leaving his house, during which time he would play drums and guitar. "My lifestyle was transformed after many years of drinking a lot, isolating myself a lot and going into long periods of depression." While in Soundgarden, he also recorded an album with members of Pearl Jam as Temple Of The Dog in 1991, in tribute to his friend and former roommate Andrew Wood, who had died of a heroin overdose in 1990. He also worked as a producer on the album Uncle Anesthesia by the band the Screaming Trees and featured as an actor in both a cameo role and an onstage performance in director Cameron Crowe's Seattle-based film Singles. In 1992 Cornell did some back up vocals for the tracks "Brother" and "Right Turn" on the Alice in Chains EP, Sap. He was also part of the project called M.A.C.C. who contributed the song "Hey Baby (Land Of The New Rising Sun)" to the 1993 Jimi Hendrix tribute album, "Stone Free". Cornell himself gained nearly as much fame as Soundgarden during this time, chiefly due to his exceptional singing abilities and vocal range. His ability to soar into falsetto and through head voice effortlessly often defies many a normal singer's natural timbre, giving him a high harmonic overtone or timbre to his voice. Indeed, his ability to "belt" a note, almost screaming it is also well utilised, giving his Baritonal range an often much louder, or "higher" sound than is actually tonally present. This is shown to much effect on Ultramega OK's "Beyond the Wheel" and Badmotorfinger's "Slaves & Bulldozers". In late 1994 after touring in support of the album Superunknown, doctors discovered that Cornell had severely strained his vocal chords. Under medical directive, Soundagarden had to cancel several shows to avoid permanent damage to Cornell's vocal chords. During this time he also collaborated with shockrocker Alice Cooper on Cooper's album The Last Temptation, and together with him wrote the song "Stolen Prayer", in which he also sang.