CHRIS CORNELL Says He Has Started Writing Material For SOUNDGARDEN's Next Album

SOUNDGARDEN singer Chris Cornell has revealed to RollingStone.com that he has just started coming up with ideas for songs for the follow-up to 2012's "King Animal". He said: "I can't describe the direction it's taking, though. There's no album we've ever made where I would have been able to describe a direction it was taking while making it. Like [SOUNDGARDEN's 1994 LP] 'Superunknown', I understood what it was near the end. 'King Animal' was that way, too. I really didn't understand the personality of the record until it was almost finished. Then I thought, 'Oh, it's this. Awesome.'"

SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil told a Washington D.C. radio station that his group will play before NINE INCH NAILS on the two bands' upcoming co-headlining tour. Thayil explained: "It makes sense that we perform before them. NINE INCH NAILS is a production-heavy band... We're more of a live rock act, and they use a lot of production, both in the audio performance and the visual performance. If we were to play after them, it would be a long wait while they struck all their equipment and gear and they cleared the stage for us. It's a lot easier for us to play before them."

As for whether there was a chance that the two bands would collaborate onstage at some point, Cornell told The Pulse Of Radio it was hard to say if that could happen. "We tend to be really open, and we've toured with bands that are and we've toured with bands that aren't, and then there are some bands that like are completely just not even set up for that, so it's hard to say," he said. "You never know. Some bands kind of have a thing that they have to do, and the idea of a collaboration might sort of open the curtain so people can see behind it. [laughs] You never know."

SOUNDGARDEN's North American tour with NINE INCH NAILS will kick off of July 19 in Las Vegas.

SOUNDGARDEN will perform its 1994 album "Superunknown" in its entirety at a special show on June 2 at the intimate Webster Hall in New York City.

This will be just the second time that the band performs the album live from start to finish, following a similar show at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas this past March.

The show will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of the album, which is being reissued in a deluxe edition on June 3.