Guitarist Tom Morello talked about Chris Cornell and Soundgarden and their influence on Rage Against the Machine to Alternative Nation. Take a look:
“I met Chris, I think, backstage at Lollapalooza in ’92 and maybe at a barbecue at my house, and he was just a lovely dude. Huge fan of his, [1991’s] ‘Badmotorfinger’ was a cornerstone album for Rage Against the Machine.
“The intelligence of the lyrics, the sort of poetic indirection and the huge uncompromising metal riffs of it was – that was a brand new thing. Chris sings great and they’re one of the great grunge bands.
“They predated Pearl Jam, they predated Nirvana. They redeemed metal – they and Jane’s Addiction. But Soundgarden redeemed metal in that it made intelligent content a possibility with super heavy music.”
