Expect surprises — and guitar — in Chris Cornell's concert

Chris Cornell still rocks. Just not all the time.

It's no comment on quality. It's just that the born-and-bred Seattleite — who cut his chops as frontman of grunge kings Soundgarden and went on to head Rage Against the Machine remake Audioslave — has a long career of loud and proud. But with his third solo album "Scream" (Interscope), Cornell drops the power chords in favor of a dance-ready electro pop.

Though "Scream" is a chameleon move, live Cornell is a fan's performer, happy to serve up thrashers such as Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" alongside new cuts. Cornell is returning to Seattle (he now splits his time between Los Angeles and Paris) next week, and fans lucky enough to have scored a ticket to Monday's sold-out Showbox SoDo show can expect a true Cornell rock concert: full of surprises — and guitar.

"I'm sort of a strange beast ... I get away with a lot in the context of a rock show because of the different styles of music I can go into," Cornell said, calling from a tour stop in Chicago. "I want to make sure that I am never in a situation where I'm on a tour and performing live where anything is so patterned. I just want to do anything I want whenever I want, and I want to have a show and have a set list and then go and deconstruct it immediately and derail it."

That flexibility as a musician is what made the idea for the new album so appealing.

"I just wanted to look at music from a different place," Cornell said. "It wasn't any kind of serious statement or career move or career change at all, it was just wanting to kind of rinse myself of all habits and knowledge and comfort of where I live as a songwriter."

Consider those habits rinsed. Cornell definitely heads in a new direction with "Scream," produced by the ever-inventive Timbaland. The prolific producer is known especially for his R&B and rap work, which includes notable collaborations with Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott and Nelly Furtado.

The Cornell/Timbaland matchup came unexpectedly. Cornell had hoped Timbaland might remix some tracks. It turned out Timbaland is a Cornell fan — quoting lyrics from the buried "Euphoria Morning" track "Disappearing One" to Cornell on the phone — and said he'd rather work on something original.

"It suddenly seemed great to me, like in six weeks I'll have a whole new album and it will be completely different than anything I've done and it will be this challenge," Cornell said.

"Scream," which came out last month, has been met with mixed reviews, and it certainly is an odd pairing — Cornell's hard-edged, octave-spanning vocals against skittering club beats. But there's also something exciting about how different it feels. And Cornell said that excitement adds a new dynamic to his live show.

"The biggest concern I had when I was wrapping up recording 'Scream' was, 'How am I going to fit this in?' It's already such a diverse group of songs that I bring live anyway. Not only was it not a problem, it actually was a bonus. It brought a new energy to the stage," the singer said.

"I guess in a sense I am still the old-school Seattle musician that believes that the live show is really about music more than anything else."

Joanna Horowitz: jbhorowitz@gmail.com