Chris Cornell on the only supergroups that were actually good: “Most of them were complete shit”
The supergroup is always a tricky proposition for any rockstar to take on. The idea of making music with some fellow industry veterans could be fun for a one-off performance, but once everyone gets into the same room to make original material, it’s anyone’s guess whether it’s going to implode or make for some decent tracks. While most people did not doubt that Chris Cornell was going to have a stellar career after Soundgarden called it a day, he didn’t feel as much pressure as he thought he would going into the studio to work with Audioslave.
Granted, anyone who knew Cornell already knew that he worked well in the supergroup format. Even before the members were genuinely super, Temple of the Dog was the perfect example of him working in the framework of a musical giant, practically squeezing Soundgarden and Pearl Jam together for one album and managing to get a hit with it once ‘Hunger Strike’ introduced the world to Eddie Vedder’s voice.
That was the whole spirit of Seattle, though. The entire premise of every group revolved around friends getting together to jam, and even if that meant swapping out people mid-set to have a different lineup, it was usually worth it if it meant that everyone was having fun. But by the 2000s, the idea of a supergroup didn’t seem like the coolest thing in the world.
And it’s not like Cornell was jumping at the idea. The fallout of Soundgarden felt like a jumping-off point for him doing his own thing, and when Euphoria Morning came out sounding like one of the best acoustic albums Led Zeppelin had ever made, it was clear that Cornell wanted to make something that was a little off-the-beaten-path. Then again, no guitarist was more off-the-beaten-path than Tom Morello, especially given his unique approach to soloing.
When Morello approached Cornell with the idea, though, it wasn’t like he was ready to jump in with both feet. He had only just got the opportunity to work on his own, but there was also going to be a burden on everyone’s shoulders before they even started. Once Cornell looked at the competition of supergroups, he knew they had the power to smoke everyone else who tried to bring their collective star power together.
Despite having great moments throughout rock history, Cornell could count on one hand the number of times that supergroups actually worked out, saying, “The thing about supergroups is this: most of them were complete shit. Aside from Blind Faith – who were only together for about a year anyway – The Yardbirds and The Faces, the bar really wasn’t very high. But I was certain that I wanted to start writing music again in an organic fashion. And it didn’t get much more organic than writing in a tiny, dark room in North Hollywood.”
And the sad fact is that Cornell is fairly accurate when talking about the other supergroups that followed. While there were bands that only stuck around for one album, like Mad Season and Army of Anyone, the supergroups that were in it for the long haul, like Emerson Lake and Palmer, could get boring really fast, and the less said about Damn Yankees, the better off we’ll all be.
Audioslave’s debut may have come out only a few years before Velvet Revolver tore the roof off the place, but Cornell still proved why the idea of a supergroup was worth having around. None of the band members needed money or fame at this point, but would we really want to live in a world where ‘Like A Stone’ or ‘Cochise’ didn’t exist?
