Pete Thorn, who toured with Cornell and played guitar on certain tracks from his 2009 album "Scream," has said that the late Soundgarden leader and himself almost collaborated on a single.
He stated on the podcast "The Mitch Lafon and Jeremy White Show": "There was a close friendship between them... Musically, Eddie has always hoped to collaborate with Chris.
He used to be all, 'Man, I love his voice,' and he really admired him. We often discussed the possibility of doing something together.
Thorn assisted in the "Scream" album tracks "Long Gone" and "Scream," and Cornell considered recruiting Van Halen during these sessions.
He continued: "I remember [Cornell and I] sitting in my car in a parking lot while we listened to them, and then Cornell turned to me and asked, "Hey, what do you think if we got Eddie to work on this?"
Thorn recorded guitar for "Scream" after meeting the late rock star at his 5150 Studios.
"I don't want to get people excited thinking that this ever got finished, because it didn't," he said.
Yet he did put forth effort into it. I went up there a few times during the next few weeks and saw that he had been playing on it.
"When I heard it, I thought, "I can't believe this is happening. Me and Eddie collaborated on a track together.
Cornell, however, never recorded his vocals for the track, despite the fact that "somewhere" at 5150 Studios, a reel containing Van Halen's recording may be found.
Furthermore, he said "It's a lengthy tale that was never narrated by Chris. That's exactly what it was, though.
"Around that time, Ed became quite preoccupied with producing the next Van Halen album and recording." Unfortunately, it was never completed.
Cornwell, who was 52 years old at the time of his suicide in May 2017, and Van Halen will both be dead by the year 2020.
