When Four Broken Pieces Created Something Powerful

Audioslave didn’t begin because four musicians were looking for another hit record. It began in the wreckage of two enormous bands. When Zack de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine in 2000, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk still wanted to make music together. At almost the same time, Chris Cornell was living through his own uncertain chapter after Soundgarden had broken up in 1997. Producer Rick Rubin helped bring Cornell together with the three remaining Rage musicians, and what could have sounded like two famous bands awkwardly stitched together instead became something completely different. Morello later recalled that they never held traditional singer auditions—they got together with Cornell and it simply worked. In an astonishing early burst, the musicians reportedly produced roughly three albums’ worth of ideas in only 24 days. AllMusic

But behind that explosive creativity, Chris Cornell was fighting a much darker battle. Years of addiction and personal turmoil were catching up with him. During Audioslave’s early period, Cornell entered rehab, and he later spoke openly about how Morello, Commerford and Wilk stood beside him when his life was falling apart. He credited those friendships with helping him recognize how serious his situation had become, and at Audioslave’s first live performance in 2002 he publicly thanked his new bandmates for helping him through it. That changes the way you hear some of those records. Audioslave wasn’t simply a supergroup built from famous names. For Cornell, the band arrived during a period when he was trying to rebuild himself. Louder

Their self-titled debut arrived in November 2002 and became a multi-platinum success. Songs such as “Cochise,” “Show Me How to Live,” “I Am the Highway,” and especially “Like a Stone” showed exactly why the combination worked. Cornell didn’t try to become Zack de la Rocha, and Morello, Commerford and Wilk didn’t try to turn Cornell into another version of Soundgarden. Cornell brought that enormous, wounded voice and introspective writing; underneath him was one of the tightest rhythm sections in rock, while Morello made a guitar sound like machinery, turntables and something from another planet. Audioslave had pieces of both previous bands in its DNA, but it developed an identity of its own. AllMusic

Then came one of the defining moments of their career. In May 2005, Audioslave traveled to Havana, Cuba, where they performed a historic outdoor concert by an American rock band. That same month they released Out of Exile, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. Songs including “Be Yourself” and “Doesn’t Remind Me” pushed the band even further into the mainstream. Their third album, Revelations, followed in 2006. In only a few years, four musicians who had entered the project carrying the endings of other bands had created three successful albums and an entirely new chapter in rock history. AllMusic

But success couldn’t guarantee that the four men would stay together. In February 2007, Cornell announced that he was leaving Audioslave, citing personal and musical differences. Rage Against the Machine was also preparing to reunite. Just like that, after only three studio albums, Audioslave was finished. Yet there was one unexpected final chapter. On January 20, 2017, Cornell reunited with Morello, Commerford and Wilk for a performance at the Anti-Inaugural Ball in Los Angeles. For fans who had waited a decade, Audioslave was alive again—even if only briefly. AllMusic

Four months later, everything changed permanently. On May 18, 2017, after performing with Soundgarden in Detroit, Chris Cornell died by suicide at 52. There could now never be the full Audioslave reunion people had imagined. Morello has continued speaking with tremendous affection about Cornell, remembering not only his extraordinary voice and dark poetic quality but also the loving and generous person behind it. There is even unreleased Audioslave material that Morello has said he expects will eventually be heard. Louder

That is what makes the story of Audioslave bigger than the label “supergroup.” They were born from endings. Rage Against the Machine had fractured. Soundgarden had ended. Cornell was battling demons away from the stage. Yet for six years, those four men took pieces of broken chapters and created something none of them could have made alone. Sometimes an ending isn’t the end of your story. Sometimes the wreckage becomes the material God allows you to build the next chapter with. Audioslave proved that something powerful can rise after everything you knew has fallen apart.