Chris Cornell rose to fame as the lead singer of the grunge rock supergroup in the 90s and moved on to front Audioslave in 2001. Cornell was found dead in his Detroit hotel room on Wednesday night. Despite Chris Cornell's history of substance abuse, suicide is the suspected cause of death.
Chris Cornell's death called "sudden and unexpected"
TMZ was first to report on Chris Cornell's death. According to their report, a rep for Cornell said that his death was "sudden and unexpected." While the cause of death is suspected to be suicide, the medical examiner is currently working to make an official determination about the Soundgarden front man's cause of death.
Chris Cornell's wife said there were no signs that her husband was suicidal. Just hours before his death, Cornell posted on Twitter about their show later that night. He also took to Facebook and shared a Soundgarden song with his fans. Chris performed with Soundgarden in Detroit last night before his death.
Footage of the last song Soundgarden performed onstage in Detroit was "Slaves & Bulldozers." The YouTube footage of that performance can be seen below.
Suicide blamed for death despite a lifetime of drug use
It's no secret that Chris Cornell suffered from drug abuse for most of his life. He was quite outspoken about his addictions and even revealed that he was a daily drug user by age 13.
Chris often referred to himself as a pioneer of OxyContin addiction, as he was one of the first to abuse the prescription drug when it became available. Cornell has been through several bouts of rehab, only to relapse afterward.
Despite his substance abuse issues, Chris was still a huge musical success. He formed Soundgarden in 1984 with guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Hiro Yamamoto.
Their 1991 album Badmotorfinger shot the group to super stardom with the singles "Rusty Cage," "Outshined," and "Jesus Christ Pose."
Soundgarden was a huge part of the 90s grunge rock movement and rivaled groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam in popularity. They got even more popular with the 1994 release of Superunknown, which contained hits like "Spoonman," "Black Hole Sun," and "Fell On Black Days." Back when MTV still played music videos on a regular basis, Soundgarden was in their regular rotation and there wasn't a single MTV viewer who hadn't seen at least one of their highly creative music videos.
Fans were crushed when Soundgarden broke up in 1997 but were thankful that Chris Cornell was still making music. Cornell pursued a solow career before joining Audioslave in 2001. As a group, Audioslave released three albums in just six years before splitting up in 2007.
That wasn't the end for Chris Cornell though and in 2012, Soundgarden reunited and released their sixth album called King Animal. Cornell had been touring and working with Soundgarden up until his shocking and untimely death on Wednesday night. Fans are still waiting for more information about what might have caused Chris Cornell's suicide.
