We always thought Chris Cornell (right), lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave, was just a talented hottie. Now we’ll have to call him a righteous babe: On Thursday, the grunge rocker was hanging out in the Alaska Airlines lounge in Seattle’s Sea-Tac airport when he overheard a businessman call another passenger a “queer” for supporting President Obama.
According to PerezHilton.com Cornell stepped in and read the bigot for filth:
“You’re a prick. You deliberately called him a queer to make him feel uncomfortable in front of a lot of people.”
Security came and escorted the man out of the lounge, whereupon the other passenger and Alaska Airline staffers thanks Cornell for intervening.
Ironically Cornell had just come from a Obama fundraiser in San Francisco that evening, where he paid tribute to Whitney Houston with an acoustic version of “I Will Always Love You.” Everyone from Nicole Scherzinger to Amber Riley has been covering that song, but it’s nice to see a dude from the rock world comfortable enough with his image to take it on in such a unique and heartfelt way.
If you want to give some love to Cornell, consider downloading his recent solo album, Songbook, and keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Soundgarden reunion album (the first since 1996), set to drop later this year.
Photo: Don Van Cleave, Ivo Kendra