In a recent interview on Chris Akin Presents, Richie Kotzen was asked if he would ever consider joining Soundgarden if offered the chance to replace their late frontman, Chris Cornell.
“I don’t know, because I don’t think that’s something that would ever happen — I don’t,” the rocker responded. “I think that my pedigree, regardless of what you think I sound like, my roots are so deep in soul and R&B, and that’s why I sing the way I sing. I look at myself as more of a soul singer that sings rock as opposed to a hard rock, grunge singer. I know people hear it the way they hear it, which is fine.”
He also shared his thoughts on being compared to the late frontman. “And by the way, the comparison [to Cornell], I take it as a compliment because, obviously, I view him as one of the greatest of all time. But they say, never step in a great man’s shoes.”
Earlier, Kotzen shared his thoughts on the rumors about him possibly singing for Soundgarden’s comeback show. In another interview with Another FN Podcast, he was asked what his response would be if the band approached him with the right offer. “It doesn’t have anything to do with numbers; it would not be a numbers game,” Kotzen replied before mentioning the same sentence. “I think that it would be an honor for anyone to have that opportunity. And again, it goes back to the sentence I said earlier: ‘Never step into a great man’s shoes.’”
“But I think that that phone call, whether it was me or anyone else, would be a complete honor, and I think someone would have to be a bit of a fool to say no,” he added.
Kotzen performed Audioslave’s ‘Cochise’ at a ‘Soundcheck Live’ event in January 2017 at Lucky Strike Live in Los Angeles, California. Tom Morello, Nuno Bettencourt, Marty O’Brien, and Glen Sobel joined him for the performance.
Cornell passed away in May 2017 after being found unresponsive in his Detroit hotel room. Soundgarden had performed earlier that evening.