Guitarist Pete Thorn (former Chris Cornell) talked about the unfinished and abandoned collaboration between late guitarist Eddie Van Halen and late singer Chris Cornell.
During a recent interview, Thorn said that he had produced a couple of “acoustic, stripped-down” rock songs for the album, which ended up being the title track and the lead single “Long Gone”. More, he mentioned Cornell’s collaboration with Eddie Van Halen.
He said:
“Well, one day, my good friend, Dave Friedman, who did all this pedalboard work and rackwork and stuff. I was in his shop. And he said, ‘I’m on my way up to Ed’s up to 5150 to do some work.’ And I said, ‘Can you do me the biggest favor? Can you just ask? Say Chris Cornell floated the idea of you maybe working on a song, and would you be interested in something like that?’
“And he said, ‘Yes, sure.’ And 45 minutes later, he texted me, said, ‘Ed wants you to call him, here’s his cell phone number… And I left him a message, and, you know, I’m nervous as hell.
“I left him a message, and he called me back a couple of days later. And we spoke, he says, ‘Well, how soon can you come up to the studio and play me this stuff?’ And I was like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening!’ So we set up a date. I drove up to 5150 and he was just so cool.
“I get out of the car and there he is. And he gives me a big hug. And, he said, ‘Okay, let’s go to the studio and take a listen.’ Before that, he said, ‘Come into the house, you know, hang out, I gotta eat something.’ He was eating a chicken salad, I remember that [laughs]. I was just like, ‘This is my hero,’ you know?
“And he took me in 5150. And he was so humble, in many ways, and sort of unassuming… So anyways, we put on the track. And we sat there at the console, and listened to the song.”
He added:
“I don’t want to get anybody excited thinking that this ever got finished, because it didn’t. But he did work on it. And I would go up there over the next couple of weeks, and he had played on it. And I would listen to it and just be like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ But this is, you know, myself and Eddie on a track.”