Today (July 20) would have been Chris Cornell‘s 58th birthday, and to mark the occasion, the singer’s daughter Toni Cornell has shared some home movies from her youth in which she and her brother Christopher receiving singing tips from the singer.
Within the clip, Chris is playing the hit Rihanna song “Love the Way You Lie” on acoustic guitar while Toni sings along. Cornell shares with his daughter, “Singing high is not the same as singing loud, though. You don’t have to sing it loud — you can sing it quiet.” In another part of the video, Cornell’s son Christopher has requested a rap from Eminem‘s “Not Afraid,” with the Soundgarden vocalist encouraging his son by telling him, “You’re doing really good! Just do it!” By the end, young Christopher is singing while his father taps along on his guitar.
In a moving tribute to her late father, Toni writes, “‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ is not just a song. It’s what I truly think when I look back at our life and memories together. You were always playing music for us, singing with us, dancing with us. Losing you was one of the hardest things we had to go through. They say it gets easier with time, but as the days and years go by, and since we last saw you, we are missing you even more.”
“Nothing Compares 2 U” was initially a Prince song, later covered with great acclaim by Sinead O’Connor. The song received another boost when a version of the track Toni sang with her father received plenty of attention following his death.
Toni offers, “Today, on your birthday, I think so so many join me in saying we miss you the MOST!!! The world would not be the same without you in it, and will never be the same with you gone. You wrote the soundtrack to not just our lives, but for millions, and we will forever hear it. We feel you with us as your words, love and all of the memories shaped our world, made us who we are and are forever ingrained in the fabric of our souls. On your birthday and every other day, we celebrate you and remember how very lucky we were that you were ours.”
She concludes, while including her brother Christopher in the message, “Happy Birthday to the greatest dad and most incredible human whose life continues to leave an incredible mark on everyone he touches. I love you, we love you. – Toni and Cball”
Cornell died by suicide on May 18, 2017 at the age of 52.
Toni also revealed that the Cornell family would be sharing some of their favorite stories about Cornell, who fronted Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog as well as releasing solo music, while appearing on SiriusXM today.