Eddie Van Halen and Chris Cornwell came so close to collaborating
Written by worldOneFm on October 13, 2022
Eddie Van Halen recorded guitar parts for a planned Chris Cornell collaboration.
One of the late Soundgarden frontman’s former collaborators Pete Thorn – who toured with Cornell and played guitar on some songs from his 2009 album ‘Scream’ – has claimed the two rockers came close to working together on a track.
Appearing on ‘The Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White Show’ podcast, he said: “They were buddies… Eddie always wanted to do something with Chris, musically.
“He loved his voice and he used to be like, ‘Man, I love him. We were always talking about doing something together.’”
During the ‘Scream’ sessions, Thorn helped produce versions of ‘Long Gone’ and the title track, and it was at this point Cornell thought about getting Van Halen to join them.
He added: “[Cornell and I were] in a parking lot listening to them in my car, I remember, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Hey what do you think if we got Eddie to work on this?’ ”
Thorn met Van Halen at the late legend’s 5150 Studios, and he ended up laying down guitar for ‘Scream’.
However, he explained: “I don’t want to get anybody excited thinking that this ever got finished, because it didn’t.
“But he did work on it. And, you know, I would go up there over the next couple of weeks, and he had played on it.
“I would listen to it and just be like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening. This is me and Eddie on a track.’ ”
However, Cornell never laid down his vocals on the song, although “somewhere” at 5150 Studios exists a reel with Van Halen’s recording.
He added: “It’s a long story, but it never got a vocal on it by Chris. You know, that was what it was.
“Ed got busy doing the next Van Halen record right around then and producing things… It just never ended up getting finished.”
Cornwell tragically took his own life aged 52 in May 2017, while Van Halen passed away in 2020.
