In December 2008, Chris Cornell reported via his official website that he had finally won back his collection of 15 guitars after a four-year court battle with his ex-wife.  Cornell divorced Susan Silver, who managed his former band Soundgarden in 2004.  But the pair remained locked in a bitter dispute over his musical instruments, which was finally resolved through the courts this year.  Cornell was particularly happy that one of his guitars had been returned.  He said, “(It’s) the Gretsch I played in the Black Hole Sun video (pictured below). I wrote the song thinking the band wouldn’t like it - then it became the biggest hit of the summer.”

Cornell wrote on his official website, “Speaking of guitars. I was just dusting off the 15 or so guitars that I recently had returned to me after the end of a very long lawsuit where someone had decided that maybe the tools of my trade and guitars I played on my entire catalogue should be in their possession forever.”

“It seems to me that some strangely desperate people involved in the music business forget that they are not the ones that write these songs, spill their guts and expose themselves to the public on the most personal level. We invent this s%*t and f*&king own it and no matter what, nothing will change that.”

Here’s Some shots of Chris Cornell & Susan Silver in happier times…

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Andrew Wood lead singer of the band Mother Love Bone died here at Virginia Mason Hospital in downtown Seattle on March 19, 1990.  Andy passed away from “complications” from a heroin overdose because sources that suggest Andy survived the overdose, but rather was killed by an allergic reaction to drugs that were administered to him while he was in a coma in the hospital. He was only 24 when he died just before the release of Mother Love Bone’s debut album Apple.

His death closed the door on the future of Mother Love Bone but sent the doors wide open for Pearl Jam and the tribute band Temple Of The Dog founded by Andy’s roomate Chris Cornell.  After Temple of the Dog, ex-Mother Love Bone members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament founded Pearl Jam along with Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder and Dave Krusen.  So basically if Andy was alive today, Pearl Jam would never have existed.

Andy was living with his fiance, Xana La Fuente who discovered his overdosed body.  “He was dead when I found him, and I didn’t really realize it,” she remembers. “I flipped him over and was shaking him. I looked at his arm and dialed 911 . They told me to get him on his back and give him CPR. When they arrived, they pronounced him dead, made me sign this paper, and then told me to go to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, Andy was alive. He was alive for three days.

“He had an aneurysm in his brain that would have caused him to have a stroke eventually; so he did the drugs and probably had a stroke a few hours later, which knocked him out. They got his heart going again at the hospital, but his brain had swelled up from not breathing. They told me he could get worse, which he did. We had a meeting with the doctors on that Monday, and they said Andy’s brain was dying, and it wasn’t going to get any better. We had three hours to say goodbye to him.”

“His whole family was at the hospital, like 20 people. They all went in and saw him. Then all of his friends went in and saw him. Then I went in had cut his hair off and kept it. I played some Queen for him-they were his favorite band. The doctors turned everything off, and I just held him really tight and listened to his heart until it stopped. It took like 15 minutes.  God, it’s so wild. I can’t believe I went through that. When I think about it all, it freaks me out.”

He was sober for 161 days when he overdosed.  The heroin dose he overdosed on was extremely small and the Hospital had reported four other heroin over doses that evening Andy was brought to the hospital, so it was definitely a “bad batch” that had hit the streets and wound up in Andy’s arm.

Along with being the inspiration for all the songs on the Temple Of The Dog album and essentially kick starting Pearl Jam, the song Would? by Alice in Chains is dedicated to Andrew Wood.

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A special marketing campaign preceded Audioslave’s final album Revaltions release, when the art concept was featured on Google Earth as a fictional utopian island, AUDIOSLAVE NATION, created in the South Pacific. Google Earth is the downloadable virtual globe program that maps the earth by pasting images obtained from satellite imagery over a 3D globe.

The utopian island of AUDIOSLAVE NATION wass located in the Indian Ocean between South America and New Zealand at approximately 42 degrees longitude and -137 degrees latitude. Fans can access http://www.audioslave.com/audioslavenation to start planning their trip.

Despite the exposure to other forms of media and the positive critical buzz for their third album, Audioslave did not tour behind the release but the AUDIOSLAVE NATION website still works!!!

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Black Sun is a 1969 sculpture by Isamu Noguchi located in Seattle, Washington’s Volunteer Park. The sculpture looks down from Capitol Hill to the Space Needle and is the inspiration for the Soundgarden song title, “Black Hole Sun.”

“Black Hole Sun” was the third single released from the 1994 Soundgarden album, Superunknown, and most likely their most popular song. Coincidently, we had a previous post here on feelnumb.com about Soundgarden naming their band after this actual Sound Garden in Seattle’s Warren G. Magnuson Park.

A Real “Sound Garden”

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There are two versions floating around of almost the same song by two different groups but the groups are almost one in the same…

“Times of Trouble” by Temple Of The Dog and “Footsteps” by Pearl Jam.

“Footsteps” was written by Eddie Vedder as part 3 of the Mini-Opera at the same time that Chris Cornell was putting his “Times of Trouble” lyrics to the same Stone Gossard riff. So both songs eventually emerged. Technically speaking, Vedder’s came first. As Vedder says, “Chris has his version and I have mine…”

Pearl Jam - Footsteps - Eddie Vedder

The Pearl Jam “Footsteps” version was first. Eddie Vedder got of Stone Gossards songs that Jeff Ament and Mike McCready had recorded… just the music. At the very same time, they were putting together the Temple of the Dog thing and Chris Cornell heard that song and really, really liked it and semi-rearranged it to fit some words that he had and consequently there were two versions that were being worked on at the very same time.

Temple Of The Dog - Times Of Trouble - Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell from Soundgarden recorded his own vocal track over this for the Temple Of The Dog song “Times Of Trouble.” Temple Of The Dog was formed by Stone Gossard and Mike McCready as a tribute to Andrew Wood, the lead singer Mother Love Bone, the band they were in before Pearl Jam

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Chris Cornell responds to Trent Reznor Twitter diss

Former Soundgarden frontman, Chris Cornell has responded to Trent Reznor’s Twitter blast, with a bible-themed update on his own account.

As reported yesterday, Nine Inch Nails’ Reznor updated his status saying Cornell’s album makes him feel “uncomfortable”.

Cornell today wrote…

Could this be a Tupac vs. Biggie “beef” in the making???

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Soundgarden was formed in 1984 by Chris Cornell, Hiro Yamamoto and Kim Thayil.  They named themselves after this wind-channeling pipe sculpture, “A Sound Garden,” located on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration property next to Magnuson Park, Seattle.

“A Sound Garden” was created in 1982 by Doug Hollis. It is a towering installation on a hilltop overlooking Lake Washington.  It is constructed with a number of metal tubes on weathervane-like apparatus that catch the wind and moan eerily.  The pipes and reverberating metal create eerie but soothing music as the wind passes through.

Here’s the google earth view link of “A Sound Garden.”

Magnuson Park 7600 Sand Point Way N.E., Seattle; free (206-526-6163)

Warren G. Magnuson Park

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