Warren Haynes posted his remembrance of the late Chris Cornell on Facebook, noting that he once reached out to the Soundgarden singer to collaborate on a recording.

“He was on my short list of singers that I reached out to during the making of Shout! I was very excited that he was interested and that he was even thinking of writing lyrics for one of the songs to create a ‘real’ alternate version which I was very excited about as I’ve always dug his lyrics.”

Ultimately, the collaboration didn’t happen but Haynes remembered Cornell’s impact on the music scene, calling bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Nirvana “a breath of fresh air” when they came along.

Read his full statement below.

Damn! Another great loss-way too soon. Great singer, great songwriter, great front man. After not really connecting with most of the music that immediately preceded it I thought it was a breath of fresh air when the scene came along that was bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Alice in Chains. This music was real-being created by people with something to say who were gonna say it regardless of what the current state of the music business and audiences thought. Just turns out that it was so strong that they changed everything by doing what felt natural without second guessing how it would be received and by giving a voice to a whole cross-section of people who were looking for theirs. That’s true art!

I didn’t really know Chris. We communicated via email at one point because he was on my short list of singers that I reached out to during the making of Shout! I was very excited that he was interested and that he was even thinking of writing lyrics for one of the songs to create a “real” alternate version which I was very excited about as I’ve always dug his lyrics. As happens so often in the music business, life prevails. He received some bad news involving a family tragedy and wasn’t able to do it and I will always wonder what it would have sounded like.

“Say Hello to Heaven”. Maybe not be the interpretation he intended, but fitting.