Late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell’s daughter Lily covered Alice in Chains’ “Black Gives Way to Blue” at Tuesday night’s (Dec. 1) MoPOP Founders Award ceremony.
The annual awards ceremony from Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture was held virtually this year, and featured performances from Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Mastodon, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, Heart’s Ann Wilson, City and Colour, Fishbone, Mark Lanegan, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Korn, Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil and many more.
Lily Cornell Silver made her public performance debut at the show, accompanied by Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo, for a rendition of the title track from AIC’s 2009 album (its first without original singer Layne Staley, who died in 2002).
Cornell Silver played the moving ballad on a baby grand piano, singing the emotional lines, “I don’t want to feel no more It’s easier to keep falling/ Imitations are pale/ Emptiness all tomorrows/ Haunted by your ghost/ Lay down, black gives way to blue/ Lay down, I’ll remember you.”
“So very honored and excited to be a part of this year’s Founders Awards honoring Alice in Chains and benefitting the Museum of Pop Culture,” Cornell Silver said in a statement. “These guys are, and always have been, my family, and I feel so lucky to be honoring them alongside so many amazing artists. I’m singing a song that is super meaningful to me.”
The night also featured a performance from AIC and a supergroup jam with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins and Jane’s Addiction’s Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney covering “Man in the Box.”
Watch Cornell Silver’s performance below.