Louder Than Love || Chris Cornell

Susan Silver Management

Seattle, Washington
February 15, 1989

Chris walked through the main entrance of Susan's office, his cherry-burst Gibson in hand, to meet up with Kim and Matt to discuss who would become their new bass player. He walked down the hallway and arrived at Susan's office. It was so strange to be back here after so long. He used to come here everyday, just to see her. He hadn't been in her office since they broke up all those months ago. It had started to drag up weird awkward feelings left over from their relationship. He needed to stop thinking about it. This is business, not personal, but it was still hard to get used to.

Chris gently tapped on the slightly opened door and flipped his hair out of his face.

"Hi Chris, come on in," Susan called from the other side of the door. He opens the door further and gives a half smile as he enters. He sees Matt and Kim, sitting across from her desk which made him feel a little less awkward.

"Alright, so I called Ben and I called Jason. Ben couldn't make it in today to try out but Jason should be here any moment and we can head downstairs if you want him to play anything for you..." Susan said as Chris sat down beside Kim.

"Cool, sounds good to me," Kim says and Suddenly there was another knock at the door.

"Come on in, Jason," Susan says and Jason steps in through the door. His blonde hair was wild and curly just like Chris's but he looked much, much younger. He couldn't be more than 18 years old.

They all shake hands with him and it felt a little too formal to Chris, but he knows now that they are signed to a major label, they need to do things a little differently than before. Since Jason played for Nirvana the guys knew of him but didn't know him personally. So as they meet they make small talk to try to get to know him more. If he was going to be apart of the band, they need to get along, become friends. Chris remained mostly quiet just observing Jason and how he was. Chris had a weird feeling about him right away. Chris has no idea how he is able to tell how people are, he just gets a feeling. Much like how he fell in love with Andi, he just knew she was for him. This feeling on the other hand, was weird and awkward, slightly uncomfortable but he wanted to give Jason a chance.

They head down to the basement area where there was a rehearsal room that Susan had for the other bands she manages. Once they get to the room Jason immediately takes out his bass and plugs it in. Kim and Matt try to make Jason feel comfortable so Matt sits down behind the drum kit and Kim picks up his guitar. Chris takes out his guitar, plugs it in and begins to strum randomly to warm up a little.

"Um... ok... we'll start with Hands All Over?" Chris asks and looks at Jason. Jason nods quietly and they rip into the song.

After they finish jamming a few more songs out, Chris calls Matt and Kim over to confirm if Jason should join.

"Chris, he knows the stuff really well," Matt says quietly.

"But what about Ben? Should we see if Ben can come out tomorrow?" Chris asks.

"Chris, we have shows coming up and the album is getting set for release in a couple of weeks. We still need to shoot the video too... we need to decide now," Kim says. Chris nods and thinks it over in his mind for a few moments. He looks back and forth between Kim and Matt and glances over at Jason as Jason starts packing up his bass. Chris looks at Kim to look for some guidance. Chris and Kim had started this band back in '84 with Hiro. He's known Kim the longest and trusts his judgement the most. Kim was his best friend. Kim give Chris a re-assuring nod and Chris nods back.

"Uh... Jason?" Chris's voice cracks as he turns towards him. Jason stands up from packing his bass, turns to look at the guys and flips his hair out of his face.

"You're in," Chris says. Jason slowly spreads a smile across his face and walks towards them and they all shake hands.