'Spoonman' stunned by death of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell 'He had the greatest voice, truly' said street performer immortalized by 1994 hit

The Seattle-based group Soundgarden displays the two Grammys they won for Hard Rock Performance with "Black Hole Sun" and Metal Performance with "Spoonman" backstage at the Shrine Auditorium during the 37th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Wednesday, March 1, 1995. less The Seattle-based group Soundgarden displays the two Grammys they won for Hard Rock Performance with "Black Hole Sun" and Metal Performance with "Spoonman" backstage at the Shrine Auditorium during the 37th ... more Photo: Associated Press Photo: Associated Press Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close 'Spoonman' stunned by death of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

A 68-year-old man in Port Townsend is taking the death of Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell particularly hard, and if you know his name you won't need to ask why.

Artis the Spoonman, the Seattle street performer immortalized in Soundgarden's 1995 hit "Spoonman," awoke to word of Cornell's death at the age of 52 after a friend called him at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. He said he was stunned by the news.

When asked for his initial thoughts about Cornell's passing, Artis struggled before settling on what will undoubtedly be a familiar sound around Seattle over the next days and week's: Cornell's inimitable voice.

"Chris just .... who sings like that?" Artis said. "I think he had the greatest voice, truly. It wouldn't have mattered if he was singing opera or standards."

It had been more than two decades since Cornell and Soundgarden changed his life.

Artis performed in relative obscurity in Seattle starting the 1970s before earning some notoriety while collaborating with Frank Zappa in early 80s. He was asked to play a "tweener" set in between The Melvins and Soundgarden at the Paramount Theater in March 1992.

After the show, Susan Silver, Soundgarden's manager and Cornell's wife from 1990-2004, asked Artis if he would play on the record. A year-and-a-half later, he recorded with the band at Bad Animals Studio in downtown Seattle. The song was released in February 1994 and quickly raced up the rock charts.

Spoonman would never be the same, transforming into a grunge-era Mr. Bojangles.

"(Cornell) introduced me to the whole freaking planet," Artis said. "It was years after I started, and I'd already done a lot of things. I'd recored with Zappa by then and did the Letterman show and a lot of national TV shows in other countries — Japan, England and such. But nothing like that of course, really. Who gets that?"

A nod to Artis' pure passion for performance, the song would go on to peak at No. 3 on Billboard's mainstream rock chart and win a Grammy for best metal performance in 1995. Suddenly, Artis' self-styled moniker made him instantly recognizable worldwide and people started traveling from around the globe to watch him perform.

"This is like a hugely celebrated multi-platinum record throughout the world," Artis said. "Everywhere I go, if I say something, if I even mention that that's who I am -- boom, they know."

Cornell explained the meaning of the song in a 1994 interview.

"They think he's a street person, or he's doing this because he can't hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently," Cornell said."The lyrics express the sentiment that I much more easily identify with someone like Artis than I would watch him play."

Artis, who struggled with suicidal thoughts in the past, had a hard time getting his head around the idea that Cornell took his own life shortly after finishing a show at the Fox Theatre in Detroit.

"You can really be pretty freaking high on the energy when you come off the stage," Artis said. "Things can really affect you. I wonder if something... you never know."

The two last saw each other about a decade ago when Artis performed "Spoonman" with Cornell and Audioslave. When asked about about a specific memory of Cornell he would most cherish, a personal touch came to mind.

"He picked me up one time on stage, hugged me," he said. "Just picked me right off the ground. I was flabbergasted."

Seattlepi.com reporter Stephen Cohen can be reached at 206-448-8313 or stephencohen@seattlepi.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @scohenPI.