To say that I was a HUGE Soundgarden fan would be an understatement. They were hands down one of my biggest inspirations as a musician. Soundgarden was my Led Zeppelin.
I briefly met Chris Cornell during Lollapalooza 2 a SPAC -- it was my first concert, and during Pear Jam's set, it started pouring rain and everyone on the lawn ran in to the amphitheater and shared seats with everyone already inside. I got separated from my older brother, so after PJ's set I decided to return to the lawn to see if I could find him. It was still raining and the lawn was quite muddy. There weren't a lot of people out there, just small clusters of people grouped here and there. As I was walking across the lawn, a voice came from one of the clusters. It was Chris Cornell. He had decided to hang out in the rain and mud and enjoy Pearl Jam's set from the lawn. I was completely star struck and kind of just stood there stammering and acting weird. When it became obvious that I had nothing cool to say, he cut the tension by saying "careful with those Air Jordans-- you don't want to ruin them in the mud." We then had a ten min conversation about sneakers, and he told me that "Eddie (Vedder) is a nut about sneakers". I offered the pair I was wearing to him to give to Eddie, but Chris declined. We talked about music, but all in all it was a weird conversation in which I acted like a total fan-boy. But Chris Cornell was incredibly cool and kind. To this day, I think about how awesome it was that he chose to come out into the rain to watch his friends' band and chat with fans and talk with a 13 year old about music and sneakers.
