Tom Morello Tells Howard Stern Hilarious Story About Meeting Chris Cornell For The First Time

Legendary rock n' roll guitarist Tom Morello was on Howard Stern earlier this week to plug his new show (Tom Morello's Maximum Firepower on SiriusXM), and in the midst of a great discussion about the early days of Rage Against The Machine, practicing guitar for four hours a day at Harvard, now voting on who makes it into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and more, the former Audioslave member told Stern a hilarious story about meeting frontman Chris Cornell for the first time.

As Tom recalls, he went over to producer Rick Rubin's house (along with fellow Rage members Tim Commerford/Brad Wilk) shortly after Zach de la Rocha announced he would be leaving the band in 2000 to figure out what they were gonna do next, and they wound up listening to Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden a bunch in the process....so eventually, Rick said, "Why don't we see what that guy (Chris Cornell) is doing?"

Soundgarden had been broken up for a few years by that point, so Cornell was more than happy to meet with the band; and when Tom and Rick ventured out to his house for said-meeting, they found out his environment very much matched the dark and sometimes haunting lyrics he penned....

"We're driving there, and it's darkening ... and we get up to the top and there's [Chris Cornell's] kinda spooky mansion. 

There's some motorcycles out front, and there's this long sort-of traipsing staircase; then Rick [Rubin] and I pull up, and the doors open straight-up Addams Family style. Like...with nobody opening the doors. 

Then here comes Chris - 6'2" of frame, dark of countenance - and he comes kinda slowly loping down these steps, and Rick turns to me and goes, "Let's get the FUCK outta here!"

You know how spooky and Transylvanian that shit had to be for THIS GUY to be overwhelmingly frightened by it?! 

Shareif Ziyadat. Getty Images.

Dude looks like a horror movie villain at this point! Rob Zombie, get on casting him in your next movie!

Luckily, though, things smoothed out quickly and that meeting went well - which led to a rehearsal where Morello later stated….

"[Chris] stepped to the microphone and sang the song and I couldn't believe it. It didn't just sound good…it didn't sound great…it sounded transcendent. And when there is an irreplaceable chemistry from the first moment, you can't deny it."

Cornell, Morello, Commerford, and Wilk then wrote 21 songs over the next 19 days, and put out their self-titled debut album under the name 'Audioslave' the following year….

It remains one of my favorite records of all time to this day (almost twenty years later!), and is now certified triple-platinum in the United States alone. 

Give it a listen if you never have today - or even if it's just been a while. You'll be noddin along to 'Cochise' immediately.

Still sucks beyond belief that Chris Cornell ain't with us anymore. There will never be another like him. RIP.

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P.S. Kinda off topic but Tom Morello inducting KISS into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame is as MUST WATCH a video from a hall of fame induction ceremony could possibly get….

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Gotta love that guy.

h/t Billy Blanton