Chris Cornell Snaps at Kanye West and Festival Organizers
Chris Cornell, Soundgarden's lead singer, defended harsh statements he made during Australia's Big Day Out festival, claiming they weren't aimed at rapper Kanye West.
Cornell was one of the headlining acts for the BDO festival, Sunday, at the Gold Coast Parklands in Australia. However, his performance was interrupted by Kanye West's, who was scheduled to perform on a nearby stage. The time conflict arose because West's showed up nearly an hour late for his performance, leading to West's sound-check drowning out the sounds of Cornell's performance.
Cornell's fans, clearly annoyed, began booing and the lead rocker responded by taking a shot at the rapper and the mentally ill, according to TVNZ.com.
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"Sounds like there's children playing music there, retarded children, retarded as in held back ...There's no other word for it," he said.
After reports began to surface that Cornell was taking shots at West and that there could be a growing trouble between the two, Cornell defended himself, saying that the insults was aimed at festival organizers for inadequate tour production.
He used Twitter to explain himself.
"My comments @ BDO were directed solely at inadequate tour production. Kanye has nothing to do with it. We love him," Cornell tweeted.
While fans, as well as Cornell, were annoyed by West's tardiness, BDO organizers claimed that the delay was due to equipment damage from an earlier storm. BDO promoter Ken West defended the delay and the late performance, saying that fans still enjoyed West's show.
"The fact that he had the biggest crowd of the day and delivered an incredible performance with a huge crowd staying to the end of the set, even though it was 45 minutes later than scheduled, is a testament to what a great artist he is," West said.
Cornell has also suggested that he used the term, "retarded" to mean delayed. Cornell could receive some kind of backlash for being insensitive to the mentally challenged.
There has been no response for Kanye West or anyone else in his camp.
