Interview: ‘Total F*cking Godhead’ Author Corbin Reiff on Chris Cornell’s Life, Music, and Legacy

It seems silly to say that Chris Cornell is underrated. As the vocalist for Soundgarden and Audioslave, he sold millions of records around the world and played to huge audiences for decades. Yet despite the ever-growing library of books about the Seattle music scene in the ’90s, there hasn’t been a biography of Cornell until now.

Music journalist Corbin Reiff’s Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell is a comprehensive look at Cornell’s life and enduring legacy. While Cornell’s former bandmates and family did not participate, Reiff dug deep into primary sources from the era including old zines and interviews to construct a narrative that relies mostly on Cornell’s own words, along with a slew of interviews from his collaborators, friends, and even Artis the Spoonman himself.

What shines through the most in Total F*cking Godhead is the sheer hard work that Cornell put into his songwriting and performances. While Seattle musicians from the era were often thought of as slackers, Cornell worked incredibly diligently over the years to hone his voice, from starting off as Soundgarden’s drummer to eventually leading the band to multi-platinum album sales with his inhuman four-octave vocal range.

While much of Cornell’s music was brooding and introspective, Total F*cking Godhead goes beyond the stereotype to reveal a funny and thoughtful person who never lost the desire to experiment and reinvent himself. Following his tragic death in 2017, this loving tribute puts the focus back on Cornell’s music and showcases the breadth of his discography, from the down-tuned heaviness of Soundgarden to his intimate solo career.

We caught up with Reiff to discuss putting the book together, his favourite Soundgarden albums, and Cornell’s musical legacy. Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell is out on July 28th via Post Hill Press.

Bad Feeling Mag: How did this book come about? What inspired you to tackle this story?

Corbin Reiff: I woke up that morning Chris had died, and that news just sent a shockwave through me, you know? He’s one of those guys who seemed so together. He seemed, not immortal, but he was such a presence, he was one of those guys you wouldn’t expect that to happen to. And I was finishing up my first book, Lighters in the Sky, and the editor hit me up knowing I was a huge fan of [Cornell’s] music saying, “Hey, would you like to write something about him?” And at first, I didn’t know that I wanted to do that. You know, it seemed so soon, but as I thought more about it, and I paid my respects to Chris’s grave, and then I went out on this drive and did some thinking about it, it started to dawn on me that there really just wasn’t much out there about Chris and Soundgarden. There was this one book about Soundgarden that was written in 1997, before they even reunited, and it was just woefully out of date. And it just seemed like, you know, someone had to stand up and say, “Hey, this band and this person meant a lot to music and to Seattle.” And I wasn’t seeing anyone else step up to that challenge. And I just decided, I’ll take this on and try to write the story as best and as accurately and as empathetically as I could.

It’s sort of emblematic of the band that there aren’t more books about them. Soundgarden never really fit into a certain category; do you think that made it more complicated in terms of thinking about their legacy, and especially Chris’ legacy?

I think so. I think that Chris was a very forward-looking person. His life, as you kind of experience his music, it’s kind of constantly evolving as the years go on, from the indie post-punk stuff to psychedelic rock to Audioslave, Temple of the Dog, to Scream with Timberland. He kind of had his eyes fixed on the horizon, but Soundgarden as a band weren’t very fussy people it seemed. And even when they reunited, one of the reasons they first got back together was because there was massive amounts of Pearl Jam and Nirvana and all this merchandise out there, and it was impossible to find even a Soundgarden T-shirt. So they kind of realized, “Hey, you know, we gotta take care of our legacy a little bit here.” But yeah, it wasn’t something that occurred to them until much later. And I think that might feed into it for sure.

When did you find out that you wouldn’t be able to speak to the members of the band or to Chris’ family for the book? Was that something that seemed like it was a possibility at one point and then It sort of fell through? When you realized that, did you have to reformulate any ideas you had about the book?

Yeah, definitely. I can’t recall specifically when it happened, but it did seem like you know, there were some things that we could have worked on, but it just didn’t work out in the end. And that’s great. You know, I understand everyone’s position on that. And once that did happen though, I decided the best course of action, if I was going to tell Chris’ story, was to try to allow Chris himself to tell as much of it as he could. So I went through the archives and found basically every interview he ever did in every zine, and every video and every radio interview, I went into even concert banter to try to find quotes from him just so that I could let him speak for himself on the page as much as I possibly could. So yeah, it was just leaning on Chris to kind of tell his story as much as I could.

How difficult was finding some of those materials? I mean, I’m sure RIP magazine from the ‘90s isn’t available digitally. How did you go about getting your hands on that stuff?

Yeah, it was definitely hard. You know, the Wayback Machine on the internet is a beautiful thing, I used that as a resource to try to find old archived MTV News stories. I went to the Seattle Public Library and pulled like, every single issue of this local zine called The Rocket they had, and found old ads and concert listings and things like that. I went on YouTube and listened to whole concerts to try to listen for what was going on at the concert. I was also trying to find some in-between banter because Chris liked to explain some stuff, especially in the Songbook tour he did. He kind of explained a lot of the genesis from certain songs. So that was very helpful. Just really whatever avenue I could use to find what he said I was willing to do, and I hope that kind of shines through as people read the book.

Now that the book is almost out, have you heard any feedback from any of the people you interviewed or you approached for interviews?

I’ve sent some copies out to some people but haven’t heard back from them yet. Largely, the response has been very positive and I’m encouraged by that. I think that I approached this thread from the perspective of someone who admired his music, first and foremost. But as I started learning more about him, I grew to respect him as a person a lot. And, you know, it’s so sad the way he died, but I just didn’t want to be mired in that tragedy, and [wanted] to give as much as I could a full picture of the person he was.

I grew up on Soundgarden, and I never really delved too deeply into Audioslave. I know they were a huge band, but for a band that popular, it seems like a lot of people sort of missed the boat on Audioslave, or just didn’t pay attention to them; do you think they deserve a re-evaluation?

1000% I do. You know, that first Audioslave record, you kind of have to go back in time a little bit. When Audioslave formed, Rage Against the Machine had just ended, Soundgarden had just ended, I think two or three years earlier, maybe four years earlier. And you know, all of a sudden, these two entities are meeting, and people are kind of suspect of supergroups in the first place, for good reasons. There are a lot of bad supergroups out there. I’m not going to name names. [Laughs] So I think that the media were looking at [Audioslave] a little askance. And Pitchfork gave that first record a 1.7. And I don’t think that an album that has, you know, “The Last Remaining Light,” “Getaway Car,”  “Like a Stone,” “I am the Highway,” “Cochise,” all those songs on the 1.7 record. So yeah, I definitely think that through the modern lens of what we know about that album, and kind of letting that filter fall away, that it definitely deserves a re-evaluation for sure.

The book really gives you an appreciation of Chris as a vocalist, regardless of the genre. Do you hope that the book points people to work of his that they haven’t heard or appreciated before?

Absolutely, yeah, I do. I think that there’s obviously those foundational Soundgarden records, Badmotorfinger, Superunknown, people know Temple of the Dog, people know that first Audioslave record. But, you know, dig up Ultramega OK, Scream is a definite left turn and the album he did with Timberland, it may not be for you, but it’s a really interesting album. Higher Truth, his last album, is really great, he did it with Brendan O’Brien and it’s fantastic. And it’s really weird. I talked a lot of engineers and producers who worked with Chris and I was always kind of blown away because he has this incredible four-octave range voice and when one of the engineers told me that he recorded that vocal for “Cochise” just kind of sitting down on a stool, that absolutely melted my brain, I just can’t even fathom a human being able to do that. But he did, and he was, and that’s just part of his greatness.

What surprised you the most about Chris when you were putting this book together? Was there a story or a particular interview subject that made you think of him in a new way?

Yeah, you know, I talked to a lot of people that knew him in the early days, Eric Johnson, aka Gunny Junk, who was their roadie back in the day, Stuart Hallerman, and Artis The Spoonman, I talked to him too. And it was just interesting, you have this vision of Chris as brooding, you know, “Fell on Black Days,” “Like Suicide,” a dark person, but he was a funny, goofy person, who had a great sense of humor and was very intelligent. And kind of learning more about that facet of him and that side of him was really, really cool. You know, I would say that you can’t write a song like “Big Dumb Sex” and not have a sense of humor, and learning more about that part of it was really cool.

I know you ranked every Soundgarden song ever, which is an insane endeavor, so I was hoping you could rank the Soundgarden albums for us, in order of your personal preference.

Okay, so here’s the thing. Here’s the designation a lot of people sometimes mix up. There’s a very big difference between best and favourite. Favourite is more interesting than best. Yeah, so my favourite Soundgarden album is Badmotorfinger, I love the aggressive tone of it. Those first four songs, I mean, the first four songs on Badmotorfinger are “Rusty Cage,” ”Outshined,” “Slaves and Bulldozers,” and “Jesus Christ Pose.” I mean, I would put those first four songs against any first four songs on any album, it’s just a punch to the face.

After that, it’s Superunknown. I mean, if you read the list, I’ll spoil it for some people, but I think the greatest Soundgarden song of all time is “4th of July” on Superunknown. Just heavy, dark, menacing, it’s just a fantastic song and then you have “Fell on Black Days,” “Black Hole Sun,” “Mailman,” there’s just so many songs on the album. It’s a masterpiece, it’s one of those things where it’s like, it’s so perfect that it’s hard to talk about.

It’s tough for number three. I really, really like Ultramega OK. I know it’s not everyone’s favorite Soundgarden [album], but it has “Beyond the Wheel” on it, which is just a fantastic cut. “Flower” is fantastic. You know, it’s the one they made with SST which is when they were kind of young and starting out on Sub Pop, and the biggest thing they could fathom in their musical career was signing to Black Flag’s SST label, and they did it and then they accomplished it. I would say Ultramega OK, and then probably Down on the Upside after that, their last album before they broke up, and Louder than Love, and then finally King Animal.

What do you think about King Animal? There’s not really another band from that era that was gone for so long, and then comes back and sort of just picks up the pieces from there.

Yeah, it’s a savage record. Like, it’s actually pretty amazing though to go from Chris’ perspective, to go from Scream with Timberland to the Songbook tour that he did, where he was just playing acoustic by himself, and then immediately to go into a Soundgarden record, which actually sounds like a Soundgarden record. I don’t know how he managed to kind of juggle that in his brain, but that song “Rowing” the kind of ends the album that he wrote with Ben Shepherd is just peak Soundgarden to me. I mean, even to this day, it’s just a fantastic song.

Now that the book is almost out, what do you hope people take away from Chris or from your take on him with this book?

I think everyone’s going to come away with their own conclusions. I know for me, I’m a music writer first. That’s kind of where my focus usually goes. And I think I was just surprised at how hard and how much he worked to become a good songwriter. You know, in those early days of Soundgarden, he was originally the drummer, and they were a 3-piece with Hiro Yamamoto on bass and Kim Thayil on guitar, and Chris was playing drums. And to go from being the drummer in the band to being someone who writes all these weird tunings on the guitar, weird time signatures, becoming a lyricist of, you know, extreme depth. He had the ability, he could obviously sing his ass off, but he worked really, really hard to become a great songwriter. And I hope people see the effort he put forth in his craft. It wasn’t just something accidental. He really was constantly looking for new ways to make songs within his own personal limitations. And he really succeeded at that. And I think that if you read the book, you kind of see that evolution.

Is there anything else you want to let people know about the book or anything you’re going to be working on next?

Yeah, we live in weird times. I’ll say that the future is very murky. I protect the present moment. I just hope that people find the book and if they’re a fan of Chris Cornell, I hope that they learn more about him. If they’re not a fan of Chris Cornell, I hope that they can read it and find a great story. And hopefully, learn more about this person who affected so many people with his music, made songs that will last long, long after you and I are and a lot of people are gone and, really enriched a lot of people’s lives and work. And that music was there for them in times of trouble, in times of happiness, in times of sadness. And that’s the legacy he left behind. And I hope that comes through as they read the book.

Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell is out on July 28th via Post Hill Press.