Pearl Jam share their favourite memory of their friend Chris Cornell
Pearl Jam took part in a Reddit AMA earlier this week, in which they recalled their favourite memories of long-term friend and occasional collaborator Chris Cornell.
- Read more: Pearl Jam – ‘Gigaton’ review: one of the biggest rock bands in the world return to semi-brilliance
Answering questions from fans to celebrate the release of their latest album ‘Gigaton’, the band’s guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard were asked to share their favourite memories of the Soundgarden frontman, who took his own life in 2017.
Gossard recalled a time when Pearl Jam had just finished recording their 1996 album ‘No Code’ at his Studio Litho, and had left a human dummy nicknamed ‘Sagety Man’ behind. Shortly afterwards, Soundgarden arrived at the studio to record ‘Down On The Upside’.
“People had been using Safety Men to cheat in the SUV lanes by having in passenger seat,” he recalled.
“Long story short, safety man had been on the couch the whole time SG record and one day [engineer] Matt Bayles arrived and was getting ready to record and as he turned around Safety man stood up and scared the shit of him… Chris has snuck in and put on all of safety mans clothes and sat there for 20 mins waiting… so funny.”
Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were long-term friends, and in 1990 released an album together as the supergroup Temple Of The Dog, later reforming for a 2016 anniversary tour.
Meanwhile, Pearl Jam released their eleventh studio album ‘Gigaton‘ on March 27, a record NME called “a return to semi-brilliance”.
A planned run of European shows to support the album was pushed back to 2021, one of many tours to be cancelled or postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
