As the incredible I Am The Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell at The Forum in Southern California rolls on, more and more footage of once-in-a-lifetime collaborations and covers is available. Earlier tonight, singer-songwriter Ryan Adams offered his take on one of Soundgarden’s darker songs, “Fell On Black Days.” He also performed a Cornell solo track, “Dead Wishes.”
Adams’ own songs are full of emotion and examining mental health issues, so it’s not a huge leap for him to tackle one of the most breathtaking tracks in the Soundgarden catalog. Taken from their most successful album, Superunknown (which also features “Spoonman,” “The Day I Tried To Live” and of course, “Black Hole Sun”) deals in plain terms with the kinds of demons that Cornell was facing even as he became one of the biggest rock stars in the world. This quote he gave Melody Maker around the time of the album’s release is frankly chilling in light of his tragic death:
“It’s a feeling that everyone gets,” he said. “You’re happy with your life, everything’s going well, things are exciting—when all of a sudden you realize you’re unhappy in the extreme, to the point of being really, really scared.”
Check out the incredible cover below. Continue further for a video of the original.
Here’s “Dead Wishes.” That song came from his 2015 album Higher Truth.
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