Rocker Chris Cornell’s Connection To Country Music [Videos]

Yesterday, the music world was shocked to learn that Chris Cornell, singer of the rock band Soundgarden, has passed away. His death is being ruled a suicide, but an official cause of death has yet to be released. Country stars from Jake Owen, Jennifer Nettles, Brothers Osborne and numerous others expressed their shock and sympathies via twitter. What you may not be aware of is the pretty strong connection Cornell had with Country music.

In 1996, legend Johnny Cash released the album "Unchained" which feature a cover of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage". It's been a personal favorite of mine since it was released. It flat out rocks. Cornell had said of Cash's version of the song "When Johnny Cash sings, you listen to what he's saying. It's a whole different angle"

In 2015, The Zac Brown Band released "Jekyll + Hyde", an experimental album for the guys that featured many guest vocalist. One of those vocalist was, Chris Cornell. Cornell sang and played guitar on the track "Heavy Is The Head". The song was a hit, making it all the all to number 1 on the rock charts.

A year before the Zac Brown collaboration, Chris Cornell hit the stage with Jason Aldean during the "CMT Artist Of The Year" special. As you'll see in the video below, Cornell plays guitar and sings background vocals with Aldean for "Just Getting Started".