Kelly Clarkson Pays Tribute to Soundgarden With Epic Kellyoke Cover: Watch

No one sings like you anymore, Chris Cornell. But if anyone could do justice to the late singer-drummer-guitarist, it would be Kelly Clarkson, who performed a passionate cover of Soundgarden‘s “Black Hole Sun” for the Friday (Oct. 28) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show.

For the latest installment of her show’s Kellyoke live music series, Clarkson and her band, My Band Y’all, transformed from country-pop vocalist and her daytime talk show’s in-house musicians to a full-on grunge rock group as they performed Soundgarden’s biggest hit. Everyone dressed in black, they made it rain with the sounds of razor-sharp electric guitars as the “Stronger” singer soared through Cornell’s famous lyrics.

“Black hole sun / Won’t you come and wash away the rain?” Clarkson belted, lit by flashing blue-green stage lights. “Black hole sun / Won’t you come / Won’t you come / Won’t you come?”

“Black Hole Sun” was released in 1994 at the height of Soundgarden’s popularity. A single off their Billboard 200-topping record Superunknown, the track spent seven weeks in the No. 1 spot on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and earned the Seattle rock band a Grammy Award for best hard rock performance and a nomination for best rock song.

Clarkson may be on a rock kick this week; just one day prior to the Soundgarden cover, she and My Band Y’all performed a charged rendition of Jimmy Eat World’s 2001 smash “The Middle” for Kellyoke. Three days before that, she opted for a softer approach to the genre, singing Peter Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way.”

Watch Kelly Clarkson take on Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” above.