In 2002, I joined a street team for this new project from Chris Cornell of Soundgarden with Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilke of Rage Against The Machine. I was ecstatic because after both bands had broken up or went into hiding, this meant there was music still to be made. I never got to see Soundgarden or Rage Against The Machine before they disappeared, and so this would mark an opportunity to see at least 1/4 and 3/4 of both of them. It’s not the same I know, but at the time it’s all we had.
The Audioslave street team was fortunate enough to receive CD singles of Cochise and Audioslave stickers to pass out, as well as a note from guitarist Tom Morello and the bands first press photo.
20 years ago today (as I write this), the first album was released. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard. It was the voice of Soundgarden and the power of Rage Against The Machine. Each song a sonic assault from beginning to end. Morello soared to new heights with solos and riffs, and Cornell’s voice was as captivating as anything he had ever done. The sounds of these songs felt like the band jacked their instruments straight into your heart with both emotional content and ass-kicking songs that never let up.
I remember watching the dvd of the three videos “Cochise,” “Show Me How To Live,” and “Like A Stone,” which would all become major hits from the record. I always find it amusing that myself, Timmy C and others all thought it was a love song when we first heard the words from “Like A Stone” out of Chris’ mouth. Instead, it was a song about a guy in a hotel room thinking about death and where you go and what it means. He’s sitting there as all his friends around him are dying, and he’s waiting for death to come get him next. The Seattle story came to life in this song.
After the release of the record I knew I needed to see them live. March 15th, 2003 Audioslave played the Joint in Las Vegas on their first tour as a band. I waited four months since the album released, and those four months I waited felt like an eternity. But, once the night came, everything changed. I met a group of fans who were as die hard as I was. I met Tim Commerford before the show, and while he signed my ticket, he signed it on the stub part and the usher needed to take it. That part didn’t feel so good, but that didn’t stop me from having one of the greatest nights ever. I was in the pit up front for the show with this group of people that would become lifelong friends, and also Audioslave super-friends. We rocked out as hard as we could, and sweated along in a packed crowd. To my delight, I also was able to snag the set list from that show. It was an epic first night that I have yet to forget.
From there I traveled from Vegas to Phoenix for Lollapalooza. I took two friends that I had met at that first show at the joint, and we packed up my 1994 Jeep Wrangler and drove our way into Arizona during a huge rainstorm where my top was down at least part of the way. We did make it and we enjoyed the show from side stages to the main stage. This also happened to be the first day I ever met Tom. I was as nervous as could be. While the meeting lasted less than a minute, it was great finally coming into contact with someone I looked up to for many years. Both professionally and personally.
I began to champion this band as the greatest on the planet. I had not felt this way in a long time since I first heard RATM or Wu-Tang even, and I knew my love for the band was only going to get stronger. I started collecting everything I could from promo posters, to buttons and even a program, signed by the band the first night they ever performed live.
There was this entertaining moment when I encountered Tom the second time and met Brad for the first time. It was at the Billboard Music Awards in 2003. Audioslave was up for an award so I thought I’d head down and maybe see the guys on the red carpet. Much to my dismay, this never occurred. So my friend gave me his seat filler ticket to go inside and escort his mom to the awards instead of him. If anything, I could meet them inside. At this point yes, all of this does sound a bit stalkerish, so apologies on being a raging fanboy. So as the night progressed I saw the guys nowhere to be found. Then the band was up for their award and lo and behold Brad and Tom appear from the 2nd row off the floor where they were sitting to accept the award. After their acceptance speech they disappeared and that was that. I was ready to leave but stayed for the show. I decided to get a snack and on my way back down to the seats, Chingy was talking to Outkast and traffic was backed up. I looked to my left and immediately did a double take. Tom and Brad were sitting right there. I just launched into “hey guys! I’m such a huge fan. Would you sign this for me?” Tom then asked my name. “Jon Bonham.” Brad of course did not believe this so I showed him my id and they both signed my cd. Even Big Boi and Andre of Outkast looked back and asked what was going on and I had to tell thme that Brad didn’t believe I was named after a drummer and said I was also a big fan of theirs. So, everything worked out in the end at the award show and I walked away with two signatures on one of my favorite records, including my favorite guitarist on the planet. I was on cloud nine.
I would need to wait another 2 years until Audioslave released new music and toured again, but the 2 years of waiting brought with it more surprises around every turn.
Coming up on part 2: New music from Audioslave, the death of my grandfather and how “Be Yourself” helped me in the grieving process, a new Audioslave tour, making new friends, falling in love and helping run the official Audioslave message boards.