Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were longtime allies, and their members collaborated way back in the early '90s as Temple of the Dog. Now, Pearl Jam have shared their favourite memory of late Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell, who died in 2017.
During a Reddit AMA session yesterday (April 9), Pearl Jam members Mike McCready and Stone Gossard were asked about their favourite Chris Cornell memory. This led them to share a hilarious story of a time that Cornell pranked sound engineer Matt Bayles during a mid-'90s recording session.
According to the PJ dudes, they had left a human dummy (nicknamed Safety Man) at Gossard's own Studio Litho after they recorded 1996's No Code. The dummy had been left on the couch and remained there while Soundgarden recorded 1996's Down on the Upside. One day, Cornell snuck in early and dressed up in Safety Man's clothes. He then spent 20 minutes sitting quietly, pretending to be the dummy, before suddenly jumping up and terrifying the engineer.
In Pearl Jam's own words:
Fav Chris C story ... SG recording at litho for down on upside. The month before Mike had left a human dummy called a safety man at studio while we had recorded No code(?) .. People had been using Safety Men to cheat in the SUV lanes by having in passenger seat.. Long story short.. Safety man had been on the couch the whole time SG record and one day Matt Bayles arrived and was getting ready to record and as he turned around Safety man stood up and scared the shit of him...Chris has snuck in and put on all of safety mans clothes and sat there for 20 mins waiting ... so funny...
Pearl Jam recently released their new album Gigaton. Their postponed tour is one of many affected by coronavirus.
During a Reddit AMA session yesterday (April 9), Pearl Jam members Mike McCready and Stone Gossard were asked about their favourite Chris Cornell memory. This led them to share a hilarious story of a time that Cornell pranked sound engineer Matt Bayles during a mid-'90s recording session.
According to the PJ dudes, they had left a human dummy (nicknamed Safety Man) at Gossard's own Studio Litho after they recorded 1996's No Code. The dummy had been left on the couch and remained there while Soundgarden recorded 1996's Down on the Upside. One day, Cornell snuck in early and dressed up in Safety Man's clothes. He then spent 20 minutes sitting quietly, pretending to be the dummy, before suddenly jumping up and terrifying the engineer.
In Pearl Jam's own words:
Fav Chris C story ... SG recording at litho for down on upside. The month before Mike had left a human dummy called a safety man at studio while we had recorded No code(?) .. People had been using Safety Men to cheat in the SUV lanes by having in passenger seat.. Long story short.. Safety man had been on the couch the whole time SG record and one day Matt Bayles arrived and was getting ready to record and as he turned around Safety man stood up and scared the shit of him...Chris has snuck in and put on all of safety mans clothes and sat there for 20 mins waiting ... so funny...
Pearl Jam recently released their new album Gigaton. Their postponed tour is one of many affected by coronavirus.