On Wednesday, January 16th, members of Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog and Audioslave, as well as the long running list of special guests including: Foo Fighters, Metallica, Geezer Butler, Perry Farrell, Juliette Lewis and more performed at an all-star tribute concert in honor of Chris Cornell. The concert was held at The Forum in Los Angeles. The event was organized by Chris Cornell’s wife, Vicky, “I Am the Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell” featured a 42 song setlist lasting for five hours. The concert featured performances from a multitude of surprises guests.
Jimmy Kimmel served as the master of ceremonies, and many of Cornell’s friends appeared on stage over the course of the evening, including Brad Pitt and Josh Brolin.
The concert began with the Melvins, who performed a handful amount of songs including a cover of Soundgarden’s “Spoonman”.
Next the Foo Fighters took the stage to cover Soundgarden’s “No Attention”, along with Devo’s “Girl U Want” and Cheech and Chong’s “Earache My Eye”. Plus, Dave Grohl performed a solo version of Foo Fighters’ classic song, “Everlong.”
The remaining members of Audioslave, minus bassist Tim Commerford, played five songs with five different singers: “Cochise” (with Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell); “Be Yourself” (with Juliette Lewis); “Set It Off” (with Rise Against’s Tim McIlrath); “Like a Stone” (with Brandi Carlile); and “Show Me How to Live” (with Dave Grohl). Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler and Metallica’s Robert Trujillo were among the bassists who filled in for Commerford.
Next up was Metallica who played four songs, including covers of Soundgarden’s “All Your Lies” and “Head Injury” plus their own songs “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “Master of Puppets”. Jack Black came out to perform with James Hetfield a short but playful impromptu rendition of “One”.
Ryan Adams sang two songs, Soundgarden’s “Fell on Black Days” and Cornell’s “Dead Wishes.” The concert featured a number of artists performing one song each throughout the night: Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme (“Rusty Cage”); Miley Cyrus (“As Hope and Promise Fade”); Rita Wilson (“The Promise”); Alain Johannes (“Disappearing One”); Chris Stapleton (“The Keeper”); and Adam Levine (“Seasons”), who was accompanied by Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard.
Even Chris Cornell’s 14-year-old daughter, Toni, provided one of the night’s tearjerking moments when she sang Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” with assistance from Ziggy Marley.
Temple of the Dog’s Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament provided the second to last set of the night. They played seven songs and were joined by many guest singers, including Alice in Chains’ William DuVall, Fiona Apple, Miguel, Miley Cyrus, and Brandi Carlile.
Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd, and Matt Cameron shared the stage together for the first time since Cornell’s passing to close out the night. Taylor Momsen sang lead on three songs, including “Rusty Cage”, “Drawing Flies”, and “Loud Love”. Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins fronted the band for “I Awake” and “The Day I Tried to Live” alongside Melvins’ Buzz Osbourne. For the final performance of the evening, Soundgarden performed “Black Hole Sun” with Brandie Carlile and Peter Frampton.
Faith No More’s Mike Patton had been added to the lineup last week, but unfortunately had to drop out as he was still sick after canceling his national anthem performance at the Los Angeles Rams’ playoff game over the weekend.
Below is the setlist and videos clips from the concert.
The Melvins
1. Kicking Machine
2. With Your Heart Not Your Hands
3. Leech
4. Heart Of Honey
5. Spoonman
Rita Wilson
6. The Promise
Nikka Costa and Alain Johannes
7. Disappearing One
Chris Stapleton
8. The Keeper
Foo Fighters
9. No Attention
10. Earache My Eye
11. Girl You Want
12. Everlong (Acoustic)
Josh Homme
13. Rusty Cage
Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, and Stone Gossard
14. Seasons
Miley Cyrus
15. Two Drink Minimum
Audioslave (Tom Morello and Brad Wilk)
16. Cochise (with Geezer Butler and Perry Farrell)
17. Be Yourself (with Geezer Butler and Juliette Lewis)
18. Set It Off (with Chris Chaney, Sam Harris and Tim Mcllrath)
19. Like A Stone (with Chris Chaney and Brandi Carlile)
20. Show Me How To Live (with Robert Trujillo and Dave Grohl)
Toni Cornell and Ziggy Marley
21. Redemption Song
Metallica
22. All Your Lies
23. For Whom The Bell Tolls
24. Master of Puppets
25. Head Injury
Ryan Adams
26. Dead Wishes
27. Fell On Black Days
Temple Of The Dog
28. Preaching The End Of The World
29. Can’t Change Me (with Alain Johannes, Eric Avery, and Josh Freese)
30. Hunted Down (with William DuVall, Jerry Cantrell, and Josh Freese)
31. All Night Thing (with Fiona Apple, Brendan O’Brien, David Garza, and Matt Chamberlain)
32. Reach Down (with Miguel, Nikka Costa, and Brendan O’Brien)
33. Say Hello 2 Heaven (with Miley Cyrus, Brendan O’Brien, and Josh Freese)
34. Hunger Strike (with Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, and Brendan O’Brien)
Soundgarden
35. Rusty Cage (with Taylor Momsen)
36. Flower (with Marcus Durant)
37. Outshined (with Marcus Durant and Stone Gossard)
38. Drawing Flies (with Taylor Momsen, Buzz Osbourne, Matt Demeritt, and Tracy Wanamae)
39. Loud Love (with Taylor Momsen, Tom Morello, and Wayne Kramer)
40. I Awake (with Taylor Hawkins and Buzz Osbourne)
41. The Day I Tried To Live (with Taylor Hawkins and Buzz Osbourne)
42. Black Hole Sun (with Brandi Carlile, Peter Frampton, Tim Hanseroth, and Phil Hanseroth)
Here are some videos from the concert below:
