(via Gibson.com) Although he’s been busy working up new Soundgarden material with his reunited bandmates, Chris Cornell is also preparing for a solo acoustic tour in April. As previously reported, his Songbook Tour begins April 1 in Austin, Texas, and continues through May. Cornell recently spoke to Spin.com about unplugging and going it alone.

“An acoustic show is all about you, and any little nuance or mistake is amplified,” he said. “I think Johnny Cash was quoted as saying, ‘It’s the scariest thing you could do as a musician.’ I’m very nervous about it, but I love the intimacy. Once you sit in front of people and start playing songs, it’s all on you. No matter what happens, it’s entirely your responsibility the entire time. I like that intensity.”

Cornell said that Soundgarden never played MTV Unplugged because there are only a handful of the band’s songs that would have worked in that format. Still, he had high praise for some Unplugged installments.

“One of them was Elton John, because he has the ability to just sit down at the piano and play for three hours and blow you away. It’s just him and a piano. I prefer watching his MTV Unplugged than any of his other concert footage,” he said. “The Nirvana Unplugged was more band oriented, but it didn’t matter because it’s an incredible performance. They were so aggressive and dirty and stripped down as an electric band, so it was a big difference in sound.”

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