Tom Morello Says Audioslave Are “No Closer” To Releasing Unheard Songs

It’s not the news Audioslave fans were wanting to hear, Tom Morello has confirmed that the surviving members are “no closer” to releasing the vault of unheard material recorded with Chris Cornell.

Unfortunately it’s not the update many long time listeners were hoping for, especially after years of speculation that a full collection of unreleased songs was sitting in storage waiting for the right moment. Audioslave were one of the early 2000s’ most unlikely success stories, Chris Cornell teaming up with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk to form a supergroup that actually lived up to the term.

Across three albums between 2002 and 2006, they carved out a distinct sound built on Cornell’s soaring vocals and Rage’s rhythmic muscle, leaving behind a catalogue that still hits hard nearly 20 years later.

In the background there has always been the lure of what didn’t make it onto those records, in 2019, two years after Cornell’s passing, Morello revealed they had “a record’s worth” of unreleased material and that it would surface “at some point.” Six years later, that point unfortunately doesn’t seem any closer.

“When bands are deciding what songs go on their records and what don’t, it’s not always sensible,” Morello told SNSMix. “It’s not like here’s the 10 best jams… So, we had from each of the three Audioslave records, we had songs left over, some of which are really great.”

Despite that, he says there’s still no movement. “It’s not for lack of anything other than that just we don’t have it together,” he said. “There’s no plan to not put it out. I would love for it to get in the world and hopefully it will one day.”

The timing makes the update feel especially bittersweet, given that Soundgarden (Cornell’s other band) are finally closing in on completing their final album, with the surviving members and Cornell’s estate finally aligned after years of legal battles. For Audioslave, though, that same alignment doesn’t appear to be happening anytime soon.

For now, their unheard material remains exactly that, unheard.