“Inspiring to anybody”: Chris Cornell on the universal brilliance of Prince
All music is going to be subjective depending on the listener. Even though there are some people that claim that a tune like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ is one of the best things that rock and roll has ever spit out, there’s bound to be a few people out there who either simply don’t get it or don’t care for the style that Led Zeppelin usually goes for. That kind of tension is the beauty of music, but Chris Cornell felt that certain artists have the power to rise above anything that their competition can do.
But it’s not necessarily shocking to think of Cornell as an eclectic artist. He had been born from the grunge scene, and while he did have a mile-high voice that could tear through any soundproofing, it wasn’t out of the question to see him listening to anything from soul music to the dirtiest metal songs ever written. That’s half the reason why the Seattle scene worked so well, but that didn’t mean everything gelled perfectly.
Every band will have those moments where things fall apart, but listening to what Cornell was doing on records like Scream, it was clear that he bit off a little more than he could chew. The idea of working with Timbaland may have been an inspired choice, but there were also a handful of moments where things either went downhill fast or were built off an idea that was doomed before it started.
Then again, that kind of adventurousness was all part of the way that Cornell looked at music. He never wanted to be good at only one genre, and listening to what he did with Audioslave, it was clear that he could do the stadium-rock gig as well as the more progressive sides of Soundgarden’s catalogue.
“Honestly, I can’t say I’m a huge fan but whether you’re a fan or not, you should be able to appreciate Prince.”
Chris Cornell
But that kind of approach to rock and roll was Cornell trying to emulate what someone like Prince did naturally. There are many moments in Prince’s lifetime where he seemed genre-fluid, and looking through many of his albums, it wasn’t shocking to see him working on a rock album one minute, an R&B album the next, and able to scrape together a decent jazz jam by the end of the day.
Most people would be lucky to conquer only one of those, but Cornell knew he was looking at a master at work even if he didn’t fully understand it, saying, “Honestly, I can’t say I’m a huge fan but whether you’re a fan or not, you should be able to appreciate Prince. There’s a uniqueness to what he did, and I’m continually inspired by how great a performer he was. His songwriting was extremely varied, and he was so proficient at every instrument he played; that would be inspiring to anybody.”
And judging by the number of people that showed their support following his death, it’s clear that ‘The Purple One’ was beloved on every piece of the musical globe. It’s commonplace nowadays to bring up the longstanding rivalry between Prince and Michael Jackson, but while the public outcry after Jackson’s death was huge, the same could be said amongst the music community following Prince’s passing, almost looking like we lost a musical superhero in real time.
But the phrase “musical superhero” in that last line isn’t hyperbole by any stretch. Throughout every piece of his career, Prince pulled off the kind of shapes that don’t even feel human, and while Cornell has earned his position as a rock god himself, there’s no reason to think that people weren’t going to bow at Prince’s feet.
