During a recent appearance on SiriusXM, Heart vocalist Ann Wilson talked about late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, saying (via Alternative Nation):
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“He knew what I felt about him. I don’t think we ever sat and went, ‘You know, you babe, no, you babe!’
“I don’t think we ever did that, but we’d hug, and we’d look at each other, and we’d laugh, and just be comfortable together. That way of just trusting each other, and being with them.”
Wilson added:
“I was not surprised when he died. No, I was not surprised. I don’t know why I say that – it’s just something that I feel from Chris. He was so complicated. He always struggled with mundanity. He was really in another dimension, and for him to be normal was really hard.”
Earlier this year, Ann said about Chris:
“That Audioslave number [‘I Am the Highway‘ off Audioslave’s 2002 self-titled debut album] is my favorite Chris Cornell song. It’s just all about, ‘I’m not the thing, I’m the bigger thing, I’m not your magic carpet ride in the sky.’ It’s a really great song, it has a lot of particular meaning to me because Chris was my friend.
“The words in ‘I Am the Highway’ talk about dissatisfaction and alienation, and someone who is just on their way. They’re not going to hang out with the friends and liars.
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“Whenever I hear that song, I think about Chris a lot, because he was always at odds with his success. The expectations that were put on him being the voice of a generation, and a superstar of the ’90s and 2000s and stuff was too much for him. It was really uncomfortable, and he wasn’t just bragging about being uncomfortable, he was. It was too much.
“He basically was a real pure being – and complicated, but really pure, childlike. He had one foot in wanting to be famous, and one foot in just being so uncomfortable there, that he was caught somewhere in the middle. He was so beautiful, and handsome, but tender. He was a really, really good person. But this world was just, he went as far as he could go.”