Cornell returned to the rehearsal space the next day and for 17 days after that. By then, they had written 21 epic rock tracks, 14 of which are featured on their recently released self-titled album. The songs, mostly aggressive screamers with a couple of ballads, sound like what you might think a blend of Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine would sound like, without any awkward moments.
During the writing process, Cornell would listen while the band jammed, singing notes and writing lyrics on the spot.
After a few months together, Audioslave — a name that came to Cornell in a vision (after their first choice, Civilian, was taken, Commerford admitted) — declared themselves a band and signed up to headline Ozzfest. But it turned out they had come together too quickly.
Four days after the Ozzfest announcement, Cornell quit Audioslave, only to rejoin six months later. The band won't go into detail about the split except to say it had nothing to do with each other and everything to do with their quarreling managers.
"As soon as we started talking to each other, person to person, it became very clear that this was a band that we were all proud to be in," Cornell said.
There's been speculation that Audioslave are still divided, but they look more like fraternity brothers than feuding bandmates, chatting about where Cornell bought his boots in between interviews and laughing frequently. Even their breakup has them joking around.
While discussing why the group hasn't yet performed live, Cornell said they didn't want to make commitments until they got their ducks in row. "We had duck lining-up problems for a minute there."
"We had a pond full," Morello added with a smile.
When Audioslave hired new management and mixed their album, their excitement returned to the level it was back in the rehearsal space. Morello becomes particularly enthusiastic when discussion turns to their songs.
MTV Schedule: 4:00—6:00 AM EST
![Under Construction [Hyper CD] [PA] *](http://web.archive.org/web/20021201094434im_/http://www.mtv.com/shared/media/images/covers/55/460/465692.jpg)
