Chris Cornell has spoken about his recent collaboration with RnB producer Timbaland. In case you’ve not heard the fruits of this particular collaboration, check it out. You won’t believe your ears.

Classic Rock recently caught up with former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell to ask him about his recent collaboration with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado producer Timbaland. Words: Marcel Anders

One of Timbaland’s signature things is using Far Eastern influences in his songs. Is he aware that happens in so many classic rock tunes? Like in Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd…

Chris Cornell: “I don’t know. I was actually telling him that while we were making the album, I was telling him how he has a very psychedelic approach to his songs and to his beats. And it was so easy for me to get inside those worlds, to write lyrics and to sing, because I love that kind of music that creates an environment.”

“And, you know, he is not ignorant to bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, but I don’t think that that’s where he gets those influences from. One day I saw him walk in with this big, enormous duffle bag filled with eastern CDs that he would just sit and listen to. You know, music from India and other parts of Asia.”

In every interview there is always the question: “Are you alienating your audience?” But you’ve done everything – so who is your audience?

Cornell: “It’s been presented to me that way most of the time in interviews, as if I have kind of one audience. I tour a lot, and there are clearly different members of the audience that like me for different parts of my career. There’s always a big reaction to older Soundgarden songs and then as you get into obscure Soundgarden songs, you’ll see even less people who will react even more aggressively, you know, because that’s the one they wanted to hear. That tends to be an older audience. But sometimes it’s not, sometimes it’s really young guys who discovered Soundgarden recently and really got into it.”

“There is also what I think of as the Euphoria Morning audience, but it’s an audience that really just seems to like what I do solo versus anything else. They prefer that to the heavier rock that I’ve done – there’s more females in that group definitely [laughs].”

“And then there’s an audience of rock fans, but who are younger and they really focus on Audioslave songs a lot. You put all of those people together in a room and they all seem to enjoy the whole show, they just emote more during different particular songs.”

Chris Cornell will release his new album Scream on March 9th.