Just a few words about my European tour that is already under way.Played Pinkpop and Bochum already, both great shows. Tomorrow isGroningen! Here is a link to the rest of the dates.

Follow me on Twitterto win tickets to the non festival events. I will pick 5 winners pershow starting with Brussels. If you twitter me song requests I've beenknown to add them to the set. Just remind me and I will check in. I'mplaying 2 plus hours - everything from early days through Scream andeverything in between. Sorry that I missed last summer's dates but Ipromise it will be worth the wait.

See you at the shows!!

CC

The other day running back, Ryan Moats was detained by a police officerjust outside the hospital entrance where his mother was dying.

Isaw Heraldo Rivera ( Jerry Rivers) on a cable news talk show callingthe incident "racial profiling" which it may very well have been.Having said that though, the very same thing once happened to me.

12 noon midsummer day wake boarding in Garbage Bay Lake Washington justoff the U.W. Huskies football stadium. I jump the wake and when I landmy left foot popped out and the ass end of the Board flew up and hit mein the side of the head on impact with the water. Next thing I rememberI am having a nice conversation with friends somewhere far away in anice place that is drowned out by the sound of a motor boat prop, whichwakes me up, and I realize where I am and have been knocked out in thewater.

I was wearing gloves. I put my hand to my head and thenlooked to see tons of blood mixed with the nice brownish green water ofGarbage Bay.

Somehow I convinced my buddies that I was fine todrive myself to the E.R. alone and that they should continue to enjoytheir sunny day of boarding. That was a mistake.

I got lost on theway to the hospital cause I had a concussion and drove around bleedingfor a while, when finally I saw a big blue H sign. I came to a redlight, stopped and waited. And waited. And waited. (And bled some more)I looked around, saw no fucking cars anywhere, took my fucking leftturn against red.

If you have seen the footage of Ryan Moats thenyou know exactly what the next scene looked liked. Car parked to theleft of the E.R. entrance, police car pulls up behind me.

The nextthing that happens is a Police Man threatening a man with blood allover his face to return to the back of the car or I will be forciblydetained. He told me I had run a red light and was under suspicion ofbeing a driver under the influence (at noon). I pleaded my case that itwas likely I was under the influence of a bad head injury. He didn'tlike that response. He started to threaten me and try to get me to do asobriety test. I decided in a daze to start wandering off into the E.R.thinking maybe a doctor could talk some sense into him. My limitedmedical knowledge did include that there was a possibility of internalhemmoraging which could kill me.

Next thing, Police Man puts hishand on his gun and starts making intense threats that I don't reallyremember, but I wasn't able to make it inside. I was however doing mybest to say the alphabet backwards with blood in my eyes when I wasfinally rescued by guess who????? A different Police Man who rode up ona bike to see what was going on. He must have had seniority orsomething, cause he took one look at me and picked me up and ran meinside where they then started asking me what year it was and who wasthe pres. of the United States.

I have always thought of myself as a patient person, but remember my mother wasn't dying.

Ryan Moats is a gentleman and when put to the test showed the worldthat he is a asset to society, to his team, and most of all, a creditto his mother and family.

Thought I should say something about my friend Rory and his amazing poem.

I have had a friendship with him by telephone and email for a whilenow. I was made aware of his story and that he wanted to talk to mebecause my music had been important to him and his family through whatI think of as an unimaginably hard time. After speaking to him I knewwe would stay in touch. I think he is an extremely brave man and hasbeen nothing but a gentleman in every conversation we have had, neveronce complaining even when I know he may be having a bad day. To thecontrary, he has sent me messages that have lifted my spirit at timeswhen I was down and without knowing, reminded me how trivial my fewtroubles really are.

What he did to lift my spirits the most was tosend me his poem. What I read gave me such a sense of relief that Roryhad an insight. A strength and hope that was inspiring beyond measure.

It was a pleasure to put it to music and an honor that he ask if I would ever consider it.

It was with his permission that I posted it for people to listen to.

If you want to know more about his story it is best told by a close friend of his on the news page here on my site.

Thank you all. C

I am starting to. I want to but I haven't set it up right. I will though.

Just watching Flight Of The Conchords which is on HBO. If you don't have it where you live you can buy it in iTunes.

The shows are great. The Monkees meets Extras.

Peace out! C

Hi people. Here is an open question. Since I got my guitars back I havebeen considering playing guitar live again. Who thinks I should pick itup again? I play guitar all day every day as I am always working onnew songs. Let me know if you think I should hit it live. The king isdead. God save the king.

Justfinished a Canadian tour. Very cool. I introduced my wife to Kamloopsand other somewhat remote places that even I hadn't been to in years. In Montreal I found out a friend of mine Denis D'Amour (Piggy) from theband Voivod died of cancer. It made me sad. He was a fantastic guitarplayer and a wonderful person. Gentle and very talented. I was so movedby his playing that I gave him a brand new Les Paul which his bestfriend told me is still with his sister all these years later. Speaking of guitars, I was just dusting off the 15 or so guitars that Irecently had returned to me after the end of a very long law suit wheresomeone had decided that maybe the tools of my trade and guitars Iplayed on my entire catalogue should be in their possession forever. Itseems to me that some strangely desperate people involved in the musicbusiness forget that they are not the ones that write these songs,spill their guts and expose themselves to the public on the mostpersonal level. We invent this shit and fucking own it and no matterwhat, nothing will change that. Back to Canada. I like theirmoney. It's colorful and on the backs of the different notes are littlepicture postcards or travel brochures for the country. One bill haspeople playing hockey! Why can't we have football? They have the Queenon the 20, which they may not like, but it could be much worse. She wasnever a slave owner. We have those on some of our notes. Overall wehave cool guys, though.Lincoln ended slavery and saved the union.Washington was the first pres. And was part of a war of independencethat could have easily resulted in his death. Franklin was a truegenius. He invented an instrument, charted the gulf stream, discoveredelectricity, co-founded a republic, and did a bunch of other amazingshit I don't remember. We loved J.F.K. So much that they came up with anew, somewhat useless half dollar coin so he would have something. Ithink Obama should get a coin for being the first African Americanpres. What an amazing accomplishment in the history of Americanpolitics and social reform! My vote would be for a 2 dollar coin. Wewill need one soon since the dollar bill is worth less every day. Thereis a 2 € coin. The U.K. Has a 2 £ coin. I also feel there is and shouldbe a place to recognise George W. Bush for his efforts. My idea wouldstart with a stamp. It would cost a lot and could only be used to sendout bills or return them. In fact I would propose a system where nobills could be mailed out or returned with any other stamp. The nextoption which I think should be added is to have the feds create auniform billing statement format that has his ugly face on it, whetherit is a mailed paper form or an online page. All tax forms acceptrefunds should have his ridiculous grin on it. In fact anytime, and inany case that requires an individual to part with their hard earnedmoney, his wretched likeness should be visible! I'm off to the White House. It's my son's birthday. God bless America! C

The essence of a dream can follow you all day long. Sometimes two or threedays. I have had dreams as a little kid that I remember like they wereyesterday, though as time goes on these dream are sometimes hard totell from actual events as they survive in my memory. I amfascinated with the essence factor of dreams, period. They are as realas the essence felt from the ambience of an actual place, like a houseyou grew up in. Your favourite bar, or your school. The first Christmastree you see every year, the smell of it, and especially songs. Somefeelings these environments evoke are awful, some magical. All of themcompletely real. Real enough that numerous cultures throughouthistory have believed that the dream world is every bit as importantand substantial and a vital part of human life as the conscious state.Some mysticisms actually look at the world of dreams as being the "trueand only world" and everything else an illusion. For my money, if youput an ice pick through your hand, I think it will prove to be a prettyfucking good illusion. Last night I had a dream that has beenfollowing me all day like a sick dog. I was in a hotel near the house Igrew up in. I was in a cafe that happened to be the lunch court of myelementary school. Various friends from my past were walking up andtalking to me. In the middle of this scene walks Layne Staley. Helooked much like he did the first time I met him. Shoulder length hair,clean shaved. Clear eyed and looking about 20 years old. I was sohappy. Confused a little, but in a dream like this, I just wanted toaccept the idea that there was some mistake and he was alive and well.He seemed happy and said was working on some new music project. I woke up not long after that with the feeling that I had really just talked to him and he was somewhere doing just fine.My next thought was one that has plagued me for years. Sitting in KellyCurtis' living room with about 30 people, all sobbing. We had just comefrom Andy Wood's extra weird funeral-wake thing at the ParamountTheatre. It had these new age overtones that didn't fit Andy's life atall. There was an amazing film of Andy with Mother Love Bone bandmates. All of Andy's friends and family were there, mixed with a bunchof fans who I didn't like but knew Andy would have loved. The fans wenthome. His friends went to Kelly's.We were crammed in a smallishliving room with people sitting on every available surface. Couch arms,end tables, the floor. I was leaning on the back of one of the couchesthat face away from the rest of the room and toward the front door. Iremember Andy's girlfriend looking at everyone and saying "This is justlike La Bamba" then suddenly I heard slapping footsteps growing louderand louder as they reached the front door and Layne flew in, completelybreaking down and crying so deeply that he looked truly frightened andlost. Very child like. He looked up at everyone at once and I had thissudden urge to run over and grab him and give him a big hug and tellhim everything was going to be OK. Kelly has always had a way of makingeveryone feel like everything will turn out great. That the world isn'tending. That's why we were at his place. I wanted to be that person forLayne, maybe just because he needed it so bad. I wasn't. I didn't getup in front of the room and offer that and I still regret it. No oneelse did either. I don't know why. Years later, at Layne'sfuneral, I was angry. I kept hearing the "twice as bright, half aslong" speech and the "he was just too special for this world" nonsensethat I had heard at so many other funerals for so many other friendsthat were so young and talented. I'm not sure why I was that angry.Angry at Layne? Angry at all my other friends for leaving me? Angry atthe people running around in circles saying "I knew him best" or "I wasthe only one he really trusted", angry at all of them for squanderingwhat I thought of as brilliant futures that would make the world feelto me like a place worth living? Or maybe I was just mad at myselfbecause he was dead, and one time I had a chance to pick him up, dusthim off and let him know that there was a person who cared about howmuch pain he was in and I didn't do it. If I ever run into him in a dream again, I hope I remember to apologise. Night all. Sweet dreams. C

Sohere I am on the 7:05 pm Virgin America flt to Seattle to go into courttomorrow as I am being sued for my own guitars. Fun times! I was justthinking that you have to be smart enough to know that I am me and notsome dude that writes Chris' blogs because if I were paying someone todo it they would have to do it every god damn day.

It's been a weekof meeting and talking to super cool fans. From the guy I just talkedto in a store at the airport to my new friend Rory Dela Rosa fromKilleen, Texas and his amazing family. I was telling Rory about whatit's like for me as a songwriter, a recording artist, and a performerin the context of being inspired by fans and that whatever I havebrought to him or other fans I get back one hundred fold.

So here'sto all the fans. And if you aren't, you are stupid for wasting yourtime reading this. Best to all. C (or the guy who writes Chris' blogs)

If someone was smart enough to find "Two Drink Minimum," bravo!

Itwas mastered with the rest of the album and was meant to be a hiddentrack. I thought I was the only one who got it but obviously I waswrong.

It’s amazing to me how hard the record business tries to keepsongs from leaking and then puts out "Watch Out." a song three minuteslong with an eight minute file and doesn't notice!

Oh well. I wrotethat song at about 6:00 am to an organ melody played by Jerome Harmon.He's the guy playing the super sick Hammond B3 on it. I sang it whenthe sun was coming up about 10 feet from the mic. Just screaming it inthe room. If you listen closely, you will hear papers rattling. May youall find your bliss "As hope and promise fade." C

Hi.Wow. What a day. I'm rehearsing a new album front to back without anybreaks in the music. No talking. No breathing. The album as it is meantto be heard recorded or live.

This is unlike anything I have everdone, which was the whole point in the first place, and at a time wheneveryone seems to want to consume one song at a time it seems crazy totry and bring an album that is the most album oriented record I havemade.

Thus far it has been a huge challenge for the record biz tofigure out how to present it. Makes me long for the old days wherepeople would go to a planetarium and watch lasers chase themselves toentire Pink Floyd or Rush records. Punk music killed that but I can'tthink of anything more punk rock then bringing a modern version of thatback now during a time of sound bites and 20 second itunes auditions.

It was mine and Timbaland's hope that the first time anyone heard thisit would be a one hour experience. Well, for some of you the first timeyou hear it live it will be just that. In addition I have been workingon some songs that have not been played for years or maybe never and amgoing to throw it out there to you guys. Who wants to hear what??? Imove forward at such a crazy pace, why don't you point me back to a fewdark corners and I will drag out some old friends as well.

I lovemusic. I love writing songs. Making records. Changing my own game.Meeting my old friends and making new ones. My family and this. Nothingelse matters. I was gonna talk about the stock market and the debatebut fuck it. I don't feel like it anymore.

God help us. X0 C

"Hey, this is Cornell. Welcome to my new website! This is the place togo to find out what I'm doing, where I will be appearing, and hear newsongs from "Scream" before anybody else does. Don't besurprised if I rant on this site. I have been keeping my mouth shut fora while about a lot of things that I intend to smear all over the pagesof my new site with you, the viewers as Victim.Enjoy! Peace+CC"

There is a new Message online from Chris Cornell himself to his Fans:

Check it out:

"Hello everyone.

I am on a plane from Cape Town to Johannesburg, then back home to Paris. Just played South Africa for the first time ever and as I leave I again feel very lucky to be able to do what I do as my life?s work.

The country is beautiful. The weather, the water, the mountains, but as usual, for me what really matters is the people. The fans and the South Africans that we met have all been amazingly warm and friendly. Getting this kind of reception so far away from home always moves me. This has been another on a long list of firsts for me in the last year.

As a solo artist I can finally move unencumbered; making my world as big as possible and playing music for as many people around the world who will show up to listen.

I have been working on a lot of new stuff that I will tell you about later.

Peace. CC"