On May 3, 2010, my son’s dream came true! He went to see his idol Chris Cornell at a benefit acoustic concert at The Roxy, on Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood, California. With his girlfriend Logan, they pushed their way to the front of the crowd. Cornell was playing acoustic guitar with only a cello as back-up.
Arnie and Chris Cornell at The Roxy, May 2010
At a pause between songs, Arnie shouts out, “Hey, Chris, I have a question for you” and gets his attention, to which Chris asks, “Yes, what is it?” Arnie then shouts, “It’s been my lifelong dream to jam on one song with you.” Cornell says, “Well, what do you play and do you have a song in mind?” Arnie replies, “I’ve been playing guitar for 6 years and I want to play “Fell On Black Days” at which point the crowd is shouting to Chris, “Let him, Let him!”
Chris smiles, laughs, and says, “Why not? You could probably do it just as good as me.” Arnie starts toward the stage, but Chris says “Wait until we get to the song.” Arnie is convinced it’s not going to happen. When it came time for Arnie’s song, however, Cornell did ask Arnie to come on stage. By now, the crowd is getting into it and Logan is screaming her head off and trying to take pictures.
Arnie climbs on stage and Chris introduces him and then gives him his own acoustic guitar. He asks his roadie for an electric guitar. Arnie sits down, waits for Cornell to begin, and follows perfectly along with him. The crowd even thinks, as Logan related afterward, that this was all planned as Arnie and Cornell played perfectly in sync, especially during the solo when they were playing identically. See for yourself with the videos below.
Afterwards, Cornell hugged Arnie and said, “You were really on top of it. Good job” and gave Arnie his pick. Later, another person gave Arnie a set-list.
Dreams can come true!
Another fan, Tenacious Libbs (Thank You TL!), video’d their whole performance, and here it is on YouTube:
It’s Logan you hear screaming, “I love you Arnie Sallan!”
