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32 Years Ago Today: One of the Biggest Rock Songs of the 90s Was Inspired by a News Anchor’s Passing Comment

Chris Cornell wrote “Black Hole Sun” in the car driving home after mishearing a TV news broadcast.

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When Soundgarden released their 1994 album Superunknown, its overwhelming success was the result of three months’ worth of grueling recording sessions and being pushed to their creative limits. Producer Michael Beinhorn knew he could draw water from this stone, and while his hands-on approach wasn’t always appreciated, there’s no denying the results.

The combined effort of Beinhorn and the band led to international hits like “Black Hole Sun”. Chris Cornell wrote that song after Beinhorn pushed him to forget about writing just to please the fans. Instead, he urged Cornell to “write songs that you really love.” After two weeks, Cornell came back with demos for “Black Hole Sun” and “Fell On Black Days”.

Chris Cornell Found ‘Black Hole Sun’ Was Strange Enough That Its Popularity Didn’t Hinder the Band

Soundgarden was initially wary of the runaway success of “Black Hole Sun”. For some time, they didn’t even like to play it live. There was some fear that it would pigeonhole them, that they’d be expected to recreate that success with a similar song. But according to Cornell in 2014, that fear eventually abated.

“‘Black Hole Sun’ didn’t seem to corner us or create a problem,” said Cornell. “It provided a moment when a lot of eyes and ears were on us. We didn’t have to recreate ‘Black Hole Sun’, we never felt that need.”

How did such a monumental song come to be? Something with........

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