This One Time, At Lollapalooza, Soundgarden Covered Body Count

This past Sunday (May 18th) marked eight years since the untimely passing of grunge pioneer Chris Cornell, best known for his work with Soundgarden and Audioslave. While grunge may be better known as the punk-tinged cousin to nu metal, many acts in both camps were inextricably linked, particularly in terms of dealing with censorship complaints from pissed-off parents and radical conservatives. Picture it, Lollapalooza, 1992, and Soundgarden is on the stage. Cornell invites Ernie C, guitarist for Body Count to the stage. Ernie's band have just released their first album, and the song “Cop Killer” has everyone's knickers in a twist, to the point where the band pulled the song from future printings of the LP, though they didn't shy away from playing it live. Cornell then tells the crowd that while he “doesn't want to kill any cops personally, but I wanna make sure that anybody lets me write any song that I wanna write, and I wanna make sure that anybody lets you write any song that you wanna write,” then kicks off the hardcore punk-influenced track. It's an odd marriage for sure, but it works for a one-off. Cornell's message was clear, and the show of solidarity against censorship was a great thing to see, especially only a couple of years removed from the Satanic panic, as well as being mere months after the LA riots and the murder of Rodney King. So while Chris Cornell is rightfully remembered as a god of grunge, he had plenty of support for his compatriots, and openly so, as evidenced by the clip below.