Current Daily Story: Soundgarden Hit Inspired by Mistake

You know how sometimes you misinterpret the lyrics of a song and you get it completely wrong? Like Jimi Hendrix in “Purple Haze” where some people hear “Excuse me while I kiss this guy?” The real lyrics are “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”

This kind of mistake is known as a “mondegreen” and it’s not just music fans who experience these moments.

Chris Cornell was watching the news one night and thought the anchor said, “Sun, black hole.” He was with someone at the time and asked the person, “Sun, black hole? What is he talking about?” Chris was corrected (I have no idea what the anchor actually said) but the phrase stuck in his mind.

The images began to form and Chris ended up writing the lyrics to what would become one of Soundgarden’s biggest hits. What bothers me is: what did the announcer say?