During a recent interview with Eddie Trunk’s podcast on SiriusXm, Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello expressed his feelings about Chris Cornell and his tribute show “I Am The Highway”.

On how he felt that show, he said:

“It was a really emotionally complex night. At points I didn’t even want to be in the room and just wanted to watch it on the TV monitors. Chris’ death is really hard. Many times I just wanted to cry.

I had, perhaps kind of unhealthily, put all those emotions in a drawer and for this show that drawer came all the way open. Some of the Audioslave songs we hadn’t played for like 12 years, and a few we played in 2017 for the “Anti-Inaugural Ball” where we rehearsed with Chris. For this show we rehearsed with these singers, so we had this sort of odd mirror image of him just missing.

With all the people backstage, and even my mom being there, I was able to avoid getting too emotional, but I watched the Temple of The Dog set and couldn’t help but shed several tears.”

On how he was influenced by Chris Cornell, he said:

“He was a huge influence on Rage Against The Machine. The two cassettes that were formative when we made the first Rage record were Badmotorfinger and Cypress Hill’s first album. If you listen to the first Rage record in that context, it’s exactly those two records put together.

It was that kind of unapologetic embracing of metal that guys from the punk world said ‘you know that music kicks ass if you could just take out the silly element.’ And we love that music too! So no offense, we listen to all of it. Chris’ approach showed a different way though.

It showed you didn’t have to take this one lane approach. You didn’t have to be this cliched rock star. You could be real and punk and yet still have the Sabbath and Led Zeppelin riffs that kick ass.”

Click here to source of the statement via Alternative Nation.