And Finally

Cornell doesn’t think Kanye is retarded, official

By | Published on Wednesday 25 January 2012

Chris Cornell

So, it seems Soundgarden and Kanye West are not contenders for CMU’s Beef Of The Week, despite rumours the former’s frontman Chris Cornell had called the rapper “retarded” at the recent Big Day Out festival in Australia.

Apparently Cornell got a little pissed off when a Kanye West soundcheck could be heard during his band’s set, the rapper and his team being behind schedule at the fest, seemingly because of the rain (headliner West subsequently arrived on stage 45 minutes late). Noting that he and his audience could hear the West soundcheck, The Soundgarden frontman told his audience: “Sounds like there’s children playing music there. Retarded children. Retarded as in held back. There’s no other word for it”.

But Cornell insists he was dissing production staff and not West personally, tweeting: “My comments [at Big Day Out] were directed solely at inadequate tour production. Kanye had nothing to do with it! We love him”.

Big Day Out’s Adam Zammit, who could possibly count himself amongst Cornell’s “retards” as part of the festival’s production operation, laughed off the squabble, remembering to blame the rain in the process. He said: “We love Chris and Soundgarden, Kanye and all our bands; he loves Kanye, love is all around us. It’s a great show with big acts with big production. When rain plays havoc with production, we all have to play well together”.



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