Toni Cornell on Broadway, Grief, and Her Musical Path So Far
Words: Meg Walters | Photographer: Williejane Dent | Makeup: Ghost | Hair: Anastasiia Terebova | Styling: Brigitte Campbell | Set Design & Videography: Steph MacDonald
Make it stand out
Toni Cornell was just 12 years old when she stepped on stage to sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" alongside OneRepublic on Good Morning America. It was her first time singing on live TV, and millions tuned in across the US. It was a moving performance by any standard, but it was made remarkable by the fact that it was a tribute to her father, Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell, who had died months earlier at the age of 52.
Her mother had, understandably, been hesitant about letting her young, grieving daughter perform so publicly so soon, but Toni knew it was something she had to do. "I really felt it in my heart that I wanted to do it," she says. "I just thought that it was something that brings me closer to my dad." Now, she realises just how brave the decision was. "Looking back, I'm like, 'Wow!' It really kind of shows me my own strength," she says. "It's crazy. I don't even know if I would be able to do that now."
Now 21, Toni is on the precipice of her own music career. Her single "Little Bitch" delivers angsty, youthful energy à la Olivia Rodrigo, layered over a dreamy, hazy melody, while "Campari" is a riotous, moody anthem, equal parts punk and pretty. The accompanying music video is dream-like and playfully nostalgic – and there is, of course, just a hint of the raw, grungey feel of her father's music. Perhaps most striking about Toni's first two tracks, though, is their brazen theatricality – something she credits to her globe-trotting artistic upbringing.
Born in 2004 in Los Angeles, Toni and her family – mom Vicky and brother Christopher – were "always together as a unit" and spent their time bouncing between L.A., Florida, Rome and New York. It was there that Toni spent most of her time – and there that she fell in love with performing.
"I was, like, a Broadway kid," she says. This, of course, meant dance classes, singing lessons, acting classes and even opera lessons. "And obviously New York is the best place to do that," she says. "There's so much culture there and so many artists around you." Her favourite shows? Annie, Wicked, Hairspray and The Phantom of the Opera – "I wish I went into the more niche shows," she adds apologetically after excitedly rattling off the list. The gothic melodrama of Phantom is, she says seriously, "a core memory – that really shifted a lot of things for me."
But Toni's creativity went beyond the stage. "I started writing at the ripe age of seven years old," she recalls. "I loved stories and poetry." She wrote one poem – "it was about rain" – that caught her teacher's attention. "It was a little darker than the rest of the kids' poems," she laughs.
But her first love was always singing. "Obviously, I was around it my whole life. I would sing with my dad," she says.
"Grief at the end of the day is just love. It's unbearable at first, and then you are just remembering someone that you love. And I think that that's really beautiful."
Although her duets with her dad began with musical theatre karaoke, by the age of 10, she was playing guitar and had drifted away from her dreams of Broadway. "I didn't love being told what to do," she says simply. "I wanted to be able to create things on my own and be creative in the way that I wanted to."
Soon, her tastes broadened. "Oh my gosh. I discovered Queen. And from there, it just opened up a whole world. The Beach Boys, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Iggy Pop, Billy Idol, Generation X," she says, the excitement infectious. "And then folk, obviously: Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell. And then I discovered Lana Del Rey when I was like 12, and that obviously changed a lot of things for me, as it does for most 12 year old girls when they discover Lana Del Rey."
As Toni was discovering this profound love of music, her backdrop was all rock n' roll glamour as she hit the road with Soundgarden. "I would hijack their soundchecks," she recalls proudly. "Seeing firsthand – the talent and the artistry – it was incredible. But also, just the small moments. Just being backstage and being with my dad before the show. That's what I really carry with me."
Soon, she was allowed up on stage for more than the soundcheck. "I just loved performing." She famously performed a confident, soulful cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" alongside her father at the Beacon Theatre in New York in 2015 at the age of 11, but she'd actually already been performing the song for years. "The first time was when I was seven years old at my school's talent show," she says, explaining she'd found his demo of the song on his iPad. "I would listen to it over and over again. And it just kind of became a thing with me and my dad – it was our song."
Her father's unexpected death came just over a year later. Toni, who performed her now-famous GMA tribute in front of hundreds of his weeping fans, suddenly found herself going through her grief in the most public way possible. "I did not choose to go through this publicly. It was very brutal."
Then again, the community of fans were and still are an unexpected source of support. "The way people talk about him and his impact is incredible," she says. "His fans – I honestly don't know what I would have done without them. And hearing those stories about how he impacted people, it's like he's still here. And I am grateful for that."
Over the years, Toni has learned to "love" hearing and talking about her dad. "Grief at the end of the day is just love," she says. "It's unbearable at first, and then you are just remembering someone that you love. And I think that that's really beautiful."
Just last month, Toni performed in yet another meaningful tribute for her father, singing his song "Fell On Black Days" alongside Nancy Wilson and Soundgarden. "Anything that I can do for my dad, I will do it," she says of the performance. "Anything. It was beautiful."
Toni's first single "Far Away Places," was co-produced by her father before his death but wasn't released until 2019. Now, her new music is the first original work that she's done without him. "I'm like, 'Oh, I don't have him anymore to come into these rooms with me.' I'm doing it myself, and I'm figuring it out myself."
But she's working on it. The first step? Balancing a degree in social studies at NYU – "I really love school. I know how that sounds!" – with a burgeoning music career.
And, on that front, she's bursting at the seams with ideas. "With my music," she says excitedly, "it's been really difficult taking all these references and trying to mix them into one. I don't make rock music, but I'm very inspired by it. I'm like, 'How do I take my love for, I don't know, theatre, and take this and take that and take all these parts of myself and put them into a song?' And that's something that I'm still kind of trying to figure out as an artist."
"I'm not thinking about TikTok when I make music, because TikTok isn't gonna like the music that you're making for TikTok. That's the one thing about my generation that I love. I feel like we get a lot of shit, but we have so much depth. Kids my age just crave authenticity."
Hers is music that instantly speaks to her generation precisely because it isn't trying to. "Like, I'm not thinking about Tiktok when I make music, because TikTok isn't gonna like the music that you're making for TikTok," she says. "That's the one thing about my generation that I love. I feel like we get a lot of shit, but we have so much depth, and we have such a sniffer for bullshit. Kids my age just crave authenticity."
Speaking of TikTok and social media, Cornell is quick to clarify that she "hates" it. Well, she likes that she gets to connect with fans. But other than that, she says, "I just cringe at myself the whole time."
Her current mantra is ‘put the phone down.’ "It's really easy to get swept up in that world,” she says. “And I think everybody should just realise that, like, when you turn your phone off, so much noise goes away."
Soon enough, she's quoting Stevie Nicks. Or rather, a meme of Stevie Nicks. "Katy Perry asked Stevie Nicks, 'Who are your rivals? And Stevie Nicks goes, 'Katy, I don't have rivals. I have friends. And if you turned your phone off and got off the internet, you would also have friends.' And I was like, 'That kind of goes hard.'"
Toni, with phone down, bullshit sniffer activated and artistic impulses on overdrive, really could not be more rock n' roll. But although this may be her first big career step completely without her dad, he remains a guiding force. "I still take his advice now when I'm making music, because," she says simply, "I'm 21 and I obviously have absolutely nothing figured out in any way, shape or form."
