Chris Cornell speaks about touring with GN'R in the 90's

On the eve of his first solo acoustic tour of Australia, Chris Cornell chatted to Triple M's Lee Simon about striking out on his own and the future of Soundgarden.

"It's really different for me," said Chris of the acoustic thing. "It's different approaching these songs from my entire career, learning new songs, and taking requests [from the audience]. It's the perfect contrast to Soundgarden."

Touring wise beyond Chris being out here for the Songbook tour there's interest in whether Soundgarden will also play Australia next year. Is there anything that is firming up in that regard?

"We're trying to put together an Australian tour right now," he said. "I can't give you the 100% confirmation of 'yes, we're doing it now', but we'll definitely get there. It will be sooner rather than later."

The intimacy of his acoustic tour is something he wants to keep going with Soundgarden. Chris doesn't want a repeat of the insanity that ensued when they toured with Guns N' Roses on the Use Your Illusion tour. Was it weird being on the road with such a volatile act?

"The volatility played out on stage but it wasn't anywhere else," he remembered. "Everybody was friendly and supportive, even their crew, and that's not usually the case when you have a big band.

"Then [Guns N' Roses] would go on stage and… bad stuff would happen," he laughs. "There were times when their manager would tell us to get in our bus and leave because they might not play and there would be a riot and he didn't want us to get caught up in it.

"But it was an important time for Soundgarden because we saw [what happens] when rock music gets that big [and] we didn't want that. [It] didn't feel comfortable and it wasn't something that we wanted to achieve.

"The way that Soundgarden does it now makes sense. Doing festival shows is fun, doing a headlining show I think there's a limit on how big it should be for what we do and getting that across."

His acoustic shows will be something special. And, of course, we can't wait to see Chris return with Soundgarden next year.

Chris Cornell begins his Australian tour on October 7 before making his way around the country. A new record of live songs from his acoustic tour will be released in November.