During a recent interview with Metal Hammer, ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan’s frontman Greg Puciato shared that he saw Chris Cornell the night before he died.
The Dillinger Escape Plan split back in 2017, but to this day, they are fondly remembered as one of the most technically interesting and ferociously wild live acts in all of heavy music. Along with his work in Dillinger, Puciato has made one hell of a solo career for himself; in 2020 he released a solo album titled Child Soldier: Creator of God, and this year he has released another record, titled Mirrorcell.
At one point during this interview, Greg Puciato spoke to the struggles involved with the band calling it quits. He speaks to how sad and difficult it was to tour, and he spoke to the trauma that came with the passing of the late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell.
The Dillinger Escape Plan were actually touring with Soundgarden during the time Chris passed away; Puciato says he actually saw him the night before he died. Speaking to Chris’ passing, and the trauma that took place during this Dillinger tour, Puciato shares the following:
“Yeah, it never ended. From the time we announced we were splitting, it seemed to ramp up the bummer; we had the bus accident [in Poland in 2017], Chris Cornell killed himself while we were on tour with them. What the fuck?! At first, we thought touring with Soundgarden was proof that cool shit could still happen, we had a moment where we were inspired again.
“Then Chris went mid-tour, I saw him the night before, even that is tied to that tour. The bus accident as well, it felt like the universe was telling us to stop, like this is not the energy that we should be bringing. It got to a metaphorical sprint to the finish line, ‘Get this shit over before we get in a plane crash.’ It spooked us a little bit.”
That is horribly tragic to have experienced; we can’t imagine how devastating that must have been for Greg to go through. We love and miss you Chris, and hope you are at peace <3
You can purchase Mirrorcell today (here is the Bandcamp link to the record).