{"id":221017,"date":"2025-06-28T09:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T09:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/221017\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T09:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T09:52:12","slug":"chris-cornells-awkward-first-encounter-with-prince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/221017\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Cornell’s awkward first encounter with Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chris<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Press \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Sat 28 June 2025 2:00, UK <\/p>\n

Soundgarden<\/a> are now a part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame almost a decade after Chris Cornell\u2019s passing. Through his unique vocals and musical work in Soundgarden, with the band Audioslave, and in his own solo projects, Cornell carved out a unique space for himself in the contemporary musical landscape that continues to draw fans from all over the world. <\/p>\n

While considering a retrospective of his body of work, a standout is his tribute to Prince with the song\u00a0\u2018Nothing Compares 2 U\u2019. Prince made this song famous, and it received a second wave of acknowledgement with a cover by Sinead O\u2019Connor. When speaking about Prince\u2019s music, Cornell said,\u00a0 \u201cPrince\u2019s music is the soundtrack to the soulful and beautiful universe he created, and we have all been privileged to be part of that amazing world.\u201d<\/p>\n

They say to never meet your heroes, and though Cornell never formally met Prince<\/a>, he did have an encounter with him at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He spotted a shirtless Prince pushing his room service cart into the hallway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome because he looked, you know, he looked like Prince, he looked like he was on stage, but he was just pushing the cart out.\u201d He recounted in an interview with KROQ. \u201cAnd he did that thing that you do when you have no shirt on and you\u2019re pushing the cart out. You don\u2019t want to see another human being. And he saw me and he just started wrestling it out there and slammed the door and didn\u2019t want to see me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A picture of two of the world\u2019s most notable artists, in a mundane encounter. Cornell was able to find significance in ordinary moments, and that is what made him such a great artist, even taking that strange meeting with his idol and turning it into a memorable anecdote. <\/p>\n

While Cornell didn\u2019t consider himself a huge fan of Prince, he deeply respected his artistry. \u201cHonestly, I can\u2019t say I\u2019m a huge fan, but whether you\u2019re a fan or not, you should be able to appreciate Prince. There\u2019s a uniqueness to what he did, and I\u2019m continually inspired by how great a performer he was.\u201d The incredible range and diversity in Prince\u2019s musical approaches inspired Cornell on multiple occasions, despite the fact that Prince\u2019s music may not always have been up Cornell\u2019s alley. <\/p>\n

That first meeting isn\u2019t really something to write home about, especially because Prince didn\u2019t even exchange words with Cornell, who considered the late artist to be among his personal heroes in the world of music. However, Cornell understood the inherent comedy in the encounter and did not take it personally, resulting in a fantastic story that goes straight into the music history books for fans of both artists to enjoy. <\/p>\n

Much like Prince, regardless of whether you\u2019re a fan of Chris Cornell or not. His musical footprint has impacted the world in a tremendous way. And this year, the Hall of Fame helps us remember part of his legacy with the induction of Soundgarden.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n

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Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Press \/ Alamy) Sat 28 June 2025 2:00, UK Soundgarden are now a part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,57213,77,7794,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-221017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-chris-cornell","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-prince","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}