When lead singer, Chris Cornell, was asked if there was a political message behind the visit, he said: "It's all about the music".
....Chris Cornell was formerly with Soundgarden.
Posted on 05/06/2005 11:44:41 PM PDT by Pro-Bush
Cuba rocks to concert by US band
By Stephen Gibbs BBC News, Havana
The American band Audioslave is to become the first US rock act to give a free open-air concert to audiences in Communist Cuba.
The event, on Friday night, has been given the rare approval of both the Cuban and US governments.
The two countries have been ideological foes for more than four decades.
The group has been playing at Havana's Anti Imperialist Plaza, which was purpose-built five years ago for mass protests against the US government.
It has been echoing to the sound of one of America's most successful exports - rock n roll.
Vast speakers were set up along the Havana seafront in preparation for what Audioslave said would be the loudest and longest concert ever heard in Cuba.
When lead singer, Chris Cornell, was asked if there was a political message behind the visit, he said: "It's all about the music".
"It's exciting to play music in a place that American bands haven't been to play," he said, "and it's exciting to be the first American band to come and play some loud rock music and it's all about that. The music is what it's all about, period."
Reaching Cuba's youth
Rock music was once viewed with a great deal of suspicion in Cuba.
Many of those planning to attend the concert remember the days in the 1960s and 1970s when having long hair or possessing a Beatles album was considered almost counter-revolutionary.
But times have changed.
Havana now boasts a statue to John Lennon.
When the British group, the Manic Street Preachers, played here four years ago Fidel Castro was sitting in the front row.
Perhaps the biggest surprise surrounding the concert is that it is been licensed by the US authorities.
Under President Bush, cultural exchanges with Cuba have been dramatically scaled back.
But the organisers behind this concert believe they got the go-ahead because both the Cuban and the US governments thought that this was their opportunity to reach out to Cuba's youth.
There's some Rage Against The Machine folks in Audioslave.
I bet they are all good conservatives..lol
Personally I always preferred Soundgarden to Audioslave.
I remember reading something that Cornell would only work w/ Tom "I'm a Commie!" Morello if Morello would drop the politics, at least in regards to their collaboration. Cornell is almost assuredly a moon-bat, but he doesn't seem interested in (and in fact he seems antagonistic towards) proselytizing his audience to the Moveon mindset, like Morello ravenously did w/ Rage. I also remember him complaining about Lollapoolaza becoming too much of a Leftist propagando machine. I can respect Cornell for at least wanting to focus on his product, his music, and not using it to preach a message, even though I could never get into Soundgarden and found RATM the more enjoyable guilty pleasure.
Rage Against the Machine is one of the funniest things in the history of the modern left, lyrics touting collectivism and lambasting capitalism, yet they couldn't collectively work together on a freaking rock band (imagine if they lived on a mundane collectivst farm which carries far less passion and fun), and the bandmembers ended up hiring lawyers to each protect his own personal interest in future profits from royalties. Bunch a phonies. And Manic Street Preachers makes George Galloway look like a Thatcherite.
Audioslave...
An appropriate name for a band playing Cuba.
Soundgarden was one of the better bands to come out of Seattle in the 90's. I thought they were the best band of the "grunge" era.
"When lead singer, Chris Cornell, was asked if there was a political message behind the visit, he said: "It's all about the music". "
I remain skeptical of this statement though.
Comrade Tommy Morello is a preening, beet-eating Bolshevik.
what happened to the lead singer of RATM? Why the break up?
I think the other band members felt that the lead singer's politics were becoming to radical even for them and was starting to conflict with being able to produce music. They told him to tone it down or they would leave.
Ahhh, Chris Cornell. (fanning self)(swoon) What a voice.
STP kicks ass in concert.
Neutral folks don't go to Cuba.
At least not in my time.
Rage was very political...far left.
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