Christopher Cornell (born July 20, 1964) is a guitarist/ singer-songwriter most well-known for being the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave. He began his musical career as a drummer, before moving on to become a singer and guitarist.
Cornell was born in Seattle, Washington and lived there in his childhood. His Irish Catholic parents are Ed Boyle (a pharmacist) and Karen Cornell (an accountant). Chris's last name used to be Boyle, but after his parents divorced he and his siblings took his mother's maiden name. Chris suffered from a severe case of depression during his teenage years, leaving the house rarely. At one point, Cornell spent a whole year without leaving his house, during which time he would play drums and guitar.
"My lifestyle was transformed after many years of drinking a lot, isolating myself a lot and going into long periods of depression."
While in Soundgarden, he also recorded an album with members of Pearl Jam as Temple Of The Dog in 1991, in tribute to his friend and former roommate Andrew Wood, who had died of a heroin overdose in 1990. He also worked as a producer on the album Uncle Anesthesia by the band the Screaming Trees and featured as an actor in both a cameo role and an onstage performance in director Cameron Crowe's Seattle-based film Singles. In 1992 Cornell also turned up on the Alice in Chains EP, Sap, sharing vocal duties with Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney on the song "Right Turn." He was also part of the project called M.A.C.C. who contributed the song "Hey Baby (Land Of The New Rising Sun)" to the 1993 Jimi Hendrix tribute album, "Stone Free".