Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell Bio

Chris Cornell, born Christopher Jon Boyle (July 20, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer who is best known as the lead vocalist of the band Soundgarden and Audioslave. Cornell’s music career began in 1984 with Soundgarden which was formed by Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Hiro Yamamato with the later addition of Matt Cameron as their drummer and Ben Shepard as their bassist. The band was first signed to Sub Pop and released two EP’s, ‘Screaming Life EP’ in 1987 and ‘Fopp’ in 1988. In 1988, Soundgarden moved on to independent label SST Records in 1988 releasing their successful debut album, ‘Ultramega OK’, receiving a Grammy nomination in 1990 for Best Metal Performance. The band is best known for their fourth album, ‘Superunknown’ for their hit song, ‘Black Hole Sun’ which won a Grammy along with the album being nominated for Best Rock Album in 1995. Making music with Soundgarden for another 4 years, Cornell began to work on solo material and released his first solo album titled ‘Euphoria Morning’ in 1998 along with touring solo and as support for Aerosmith and Linkin Park. Whilst working solo work, Cornell was asked to work with rock band Audioslave and was a part of their debut album, ‘Audioslave’ in 2002. He continued to work with Audioslave until 2006 where he parted with them to continue his solo career, releasing his second solo album, ‘Carry On’ in 2007 followed by ‘The Roads We Chose’ in 2007 ‘Scream’ in 2009, ‘Songbook’ in 2011, ‘Higher Truth’ in 2015 and ‘Chris Cornell’ in 2018. Throughout his career, Cornell has won three Grammys and received 16 nominations. Moreover, he was voted number 9 on Rolling Stone on their list of ‘Best Lead Singers of All Time.’ Unfortunately, Cornell passed in 2017 due to suicide.