Chris Cornell's Best Non-Soundgarden Cuts

​Today is Chris Cornell's birthday, and the Soundgarden lead singer only seems to be getting younger, even at 47 years old. Seriously, last two times we have seen him, his voice keeps regressing back to the early Soundgarden days and he seems to be getting more spry. He lives in France with his wife and kids, so maybe the French air is doing something to his system.

Right now, Cornell is touring with Soundgarden across the country on their first full-scale reunion tour. Since they broke up in April 1997, (and ruined the month of our 14th birthday), we wished for another round from the band, anything. We scoured older Soundgarden albums, Temple of The Dog, everything that summer.

When Cornell went solo we went along with it, and we even got into Audioslave because of their Rage Against The Machine pedigree, and the fact that when we lived in San Diego they played "Like a Stone" every hour on the radio. We would sit in physical therapy on the Marine Corps base in town and hear it constantly as we regained the strength in our shattered hand.

We've been made fun of for defending Audioslave, but fuck it, they had most of Rage plus the one of the best rock singers of the past 30 years.

It just wasn't the same, though. On recent solo jaunts through Houston, both of which we covered, for SPIN Magazine and Rocks Off, there was an aching feeling in the crowd for things that he could only do with people like Kim Thayil next to him onstage.