Chris Cornell is being celebrated with a comprehensive retrospective, as well as a tribute concert in L.A. in January featuring Foo Fighters, Metallica, Ryan Adams and all three of Cornell's former bands - Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple Of The Dog.

Forbes spoke with Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil about the set, Cornell's evolution as a musician, how Soundgarden stayed humble in the face of their multi-platinum success and how he remembers Cornell the man. An excerpt from the interview follows.

Forbes: What do you want people to know about Chris as a person?

Kim Thayil: "Certainly the majority of the time I knew him he had a great sense of humor, he had a strong work ethic and he was strong in character. He was not someone who'd do anything he didn't want to do. You couldn't make him do stuff he didn't want to do. He was very resolute and decisive in his actions. And he also traveled light. He didn't carry a lot of things with him. He tended to try to dump baggage, whether it was material or even social or relationships. He traveled light, he didn't carry a lot with him."

Forbes: One thing that struck me about Chris was his humility. Talk about that aspect and how that was part of the Soundgarden dynamic.

Thayil: "We kept everything at arm's length. We didn't embrace, we didn't believe the things people said about us or each other, for the most part. I suppose that can wear you down if people keep blowing smoke up your ass, you might believe it. But we ignored most of that. We thought it was bulls**t and was probably very frustrating for record execs that they couldn't do their usual massage trick, try to get you to play ball and be professional in a capacity that helps them sell records. Our perspective was not one of embracing celebrity or stardom. It never was. For that reason we frustrated a lot of people in management and the record industry, but we kept ourselves happy. That was at least the way Soundgarden did things."

Read more at Forbes.com.

Tickets for I Am The Highway - A Tribute To Chris Cornell are on sale through Ticketmaster. Each ticket purchased online for the show will include a copy of Cornell’s self-titled career retrospective album. Visit ChrisCornell.com for additional details

The first ever complete retrospective of Chris Cornell’s career covering Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, Audioslave and his solo works, is out now. Order the new collection in Super Deluxe Box Set + Litho, 2LP + Litho, 4CD Deluxe, and standard CD formats at this location. Watch an unboxing video below.

The limited edition Super Deluxe Edition 4-CD, 1-DVD, and audiophile 180-gram 7-LP box set holds 88 tracks – 64 songs plus 24 videos, with 13 recordings previously unreleased overall – from all stages of Chris’ career including Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, Audioslave and his solo works. Creative Director for the project is Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam, Temple Of The Dog) who oversaw the project design including the 66-page hardcover photo book wrapped in linen with red foil signature, three artist lithos, three photochromatic lithos inspired by Cornell’s lyrical fascination about the sun, a vinyl turntable mat, a microfiber vinyl cleaning cloth, and a 36x48-inch wall poster. Liner notes contributions by Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Tom Morello, Mike McCready and Brendan O’Brien.

The centerpiece to the collection is the newly discovered, unreleased track “When Bad Does Good” found in Chris’ personal audio archive which was performed, recorded and mixed by Chris himself. A lyric video for the song can be found below. The Super Deluxe’s additional ten unreleased live performances include Cornell’s duet with Yusuf/Cat Stevens on “Wild World” and another duet with his daughter, Toni Cornell, on Bob Marley’s indelible classic, “Redemption Song.” Temple Of The Dog’s 25th anniversary reunion/first-ever-official tour in 2016 is highlighted with hometown performances of “Reach Down” and the Andy Wood/Mother Love Bone favorite “Stargazer,” Chris’ personal arrangement of “One” featuring the lyrics to Metallica’s song set to the music of U2’s song of same name, and a first ever album release of Audioslave’s 2005 ground-breaking performance on Cuban soil of “Show Me How To Live.” Also in 2016, one of Chris’ personal career-topping moments was performing at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London where he covered The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life.” The three additional live selections from Sweden in 2006 “Wide Awake,” “All Night Thing” and Led Zeppelin’s “Thank You” are from the very first show Chris performed by himself with an acoustic guitar in front of an audience which became the creative spark for his future, highly successful Songbook tours. Two unreleased music videos spotlight a solo acoustic performance of “Scream” and the newly edited Soundgarden video “Live To Rise,” showcasing the band only without The Avengers movie footage included.

Find the complete tracklisting here.

“Since Chris’ sudden passing I have put all my efforts and energy into sharing his music and legacy with his fans from all over the world. I felt we needed to create a special collection to represent all of him – the friend, husband and father, the risk taker and innovator, the poet and artist. His soaring vocals found their way into the hearts and souls of so many. His voice was his vision and his words were his peace. This album is for his fans.” - Vicky Cornell

Unboxing video:

"When Bad Does Good" lyric video: