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Greg Upchurch From Three Doors Down Recounts The Time He Spent With Chris Cornell

Written by Johnson Stephen on May 5, 2020

Greg Upchurch, Drummer for the band Three Doors Down, recounts the time he spent with Chris Cornell to Mark Dean from Antihero Magazine.

What was it like working with Chris Cornell?

Greg Upchurch: It was intimidating, but he really made me feel comfortable. Because Chris is a drummer, that was his main instrument, his first instrument. We’d talk drums, we played a little bit together. We’d go see movies together on days off, like hanging out kind of thing. He wasn’t a Rock star, but you couldn’t look at him and not think of him as a Rock star.

The best way of talking about this, is I like to tell people a crazy story. Once we were on tour and we pulled our bus off to get gas at a truck stop in the middle of America at 2:00am, and we parked the bus off to the side while the driver is there putting in gas to the tour bus before paying for it. Whilst waiting for the driver to come back, another tour bus pulls up to get gas and our tour manager is like, ”Hey, there’s another bus. Go see who’s on that. That’s one of our buses, the same bus company.” He’s like, ”Go see who’s on that bus.” I was drunk and I was like, ‘Okay.” I ran out, and I didn’t have shoes on or anything. I’m banging on their door. I’m like, ”Who’ve you got on there? We’re on this other bus.” And I hear somebody go, ”Joe Strummer.” He goes, ”Who are you?” I said, ”This is Chris Cornell.” He goes, ”Well, get over here, mate.”

So, we pulled the buses over, and we all got on Joe Strummer’s bus and party with him for three hours. I’m like, ”This is crazy.” I’m sitting there with Chris Cornell and Joe Strummer watching them and I’m just drinking a bottle of cognac and no shoes. I’m just like, “”This is weird.”