In defense of Chris Cornell, the singer/songwriter has used negative reviews of his new album Scream and Trent Reznor’s diss as a way to make some mature, insightful comments about the music industry that you rarely get from artists embittered by a critical backlash.
In a great interview with the Washington Post, Cornell responded to Reznor’s below the belt tweet, saying, “That’s kind of childish. To be honest, if I wanted to go out to blast records that I hate, I would be sitting on Twitter 24 hours a day blasting 96 percent of what comes out — maybe 98 percent of what comes out. (Laughs.) There’s a lot of music that I don’t like.” It’s possible the talk happened before Reznor’s April Fools’ Day follow-up, but we think this was a pretty graceful comeback.
On the critical consensus that his collaboration with Timbaland was incongruous, Cornell told NY Post that he knew his new sound would be tough to swallow, “but experimentation leads to unpredictability. Most artists stay in their comfort zone — not me.” I suppose we’re a bit jaded by most musicians’ bitterness toward criticism, but this is very refreshing, not to mention the live version of “Part of Me” holds up much better than the studio take.
For more from Cornell, including talk about the recent 75% Soundgarden reunion, click here.