Chris Cornell, singer for influential ’90s rock band Soundgarden, member of Temple of the Dog and frontman of Audioslave, was found dead in a Detroit hotel room early Thursday morning (May 18). Cornell, 52, apparently committed suicide by hanging, a medical examiner confirmed.
Cornell had been plagued with addiction issues for much of his life, although he had reportedly been to rehab to address his opiate and alcohol use. He also went through a contentious divorce in 2004, which apparently triggered his depression as well, but had been married to his current wife, Vicky Karayiannis, for the past 13 years.
While he is mostly known for being a pioneer of the grunge movement that was happening in the Northwest around the early ’90s, he also ventured into the Hip Hop realm when he collaborated with Timbaland on the track “Part Of Me” in 2009. In the subsequent video, Method Man pops up for a cameo.
During an interview with The Guardian that same year, he said he believes the sound of a heavy rocker encountering Hip Hop “has the potential to make some kind of cultural impact.”
A handful of iconic Hip Hop artists and fellow musicians took to social media to express their condolences, including Chuck D, Timbaland, Talib Kweli, Nile Rodgers, Thundercat, DJ Premier, Q-Tip, and Questlove. Check out the posts below.
Who dat who dat????
Typical wite boi way out. Ha money fame and din du nuffin foe him. Fucc jerry hella n dem wite supa powahs.
That’s the realest shit you ever wrote, now go ahead and slit your throat. Do it.
Fa66ot u confusin ya boi wit cho bitch a55 sucicdal wite boi ass. Hook ass muthafucca, fucc u wite boi and yo trashy bitch mom who u wanna kilt and yo pops dat touched yo sista wen she was se7en. Real spit doe. One less wite boi is coo wi me.
Do it.
I knew you were pussy. You wrote some Ill shit and didn’t follow through. I’m not impressed. You’re fakery is at an all time high. We don’t believe you, you need more people.
“We don’t believe you you need more people” now I know use a punk wite boi fo sho. No real mufucca ever wrote dat bull hit ass line befoe. Fucc u doin in our muxic bitch boi??? Kinney Rogers n willie Nelson still doin dat hillbillie muxic u liek go fucc wit dem. Stay da fucc outta mine. Kill ya sorry self foe u go n hurt innocent kids.
What language are you speaking?
I can’t even compete with you. Shame on me for puttin down the autistic. Too Easy.
It’s sad that you put so much effort into spelling like a fucking idiot.
Man that shit is tragic. Had a great voice that took over rock music for a time, while in Audioslave. In my lifetime I’ll lose both rappers and rockers who I listen to, but it doesn’t make it easy on my day. At the very least the music will live on.
Soundgarden’s “Superunknown” is the only Chris Cornell-related thing I own, but it’s a damn good album. Kinda makes me feel bad that I didn’t check out his other material sooner. Rest easy, no more pain and suffering.
The Audioslave shit is pretty dope. It’s basically Cornell signing with Rage Against the Machine band.
Thanks man, gotta check that out. Can’t believe I slept on that for way too long.
now we got all these Kylie Jenners tweeting “omg rip Chris Cornell i will miss u forever.. so tragic” ain’t none of these losers tweeting even heard of dude until now that he dead fuck outchea this is some bullshit.. every fuckin time some celeb dies it’s a Twitter circlejerk it’s like a competition who manages to blow the biggest load over the dead person coffin
+1
RIP the legendary voice of Chris Cornell, who along with Kurt Cobain/NIRVANA & Layne Stahley/ALICE IN CHAINS was the voice of MTV in 90’s & rocked MILLIONS of people’s hearts around the World with his soulful singing!
how was it a suicide by hanging when i read he was found on the bathroom floor? unless he was doing the whole autoerotic asphyxiation thing hanging from the doorknob, Robin Williams style.
Was he black? No? Then we don’t care. Only #BlackLivesMatter. We don’t care about some dead whitey!
People like you that are racist. He influences a generation like NWA did. So go stand in the fucking corner with Gene Simmons of you gonna blast someone.
The bible says the world will love it own. People forget that these guys made a deal to get where they have been and seen. We weren’t feeling sorry for him when he was supposedly getting high everyday. May God have mercy on the people that have ears.
RIP to a true Pioneer of good music. Drugs can careless what color you are especially opiates. But they are killing middle class white people up right now. Just because you can get a drug over the counter doesn’t make it less dangerous. Layne Stalley, Chris Cornell & Scott Weiland all suffered from addiction and are missed.