Chris Cornell Passes Away Hours After Detroit Soundgarden Performance

By / May 18, 2017


The music world fell on black days in Detroit this week. Singer Chris Cornell died unexpectedly Wednesday night, May 17 while on tour with his band Soundgarden. He was 52. Cornell leaves behind his wife Vicky as well as three children, Toni, Lillian, and Chris Jr.

Cornell astounded audience members with his powerful four-octave vocal range. Born in Seattle, Cornell first joined a cover band with bass player Hiro Yamamato in the ’80s. By 1984, Cornell and Yamamato recruited Kim Thayil on guitar and formed Soundgarden.

He will always be remembered by Gen-X’ers as the voice of their generation with movies like Cameron Crowe’s, “Singles” cementing his image forever as one of the premier voices of the Seattle Grunge Scene, along with Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain. 

As the show at Detroit’s Fox Theater on Wednesday came to an end last night, Soundgarden opted to cover of Led Zeppelin’s “In My Time of Dying.” They have covered the song before but this particular version came with an eerie morbid twist. Just hours later, Cornell was found dead. Medical examiners have confirmed that the cause of death was by hanging.

The last song Soundgarden played last night was Slaves & Bulldozers with a “In My Time of Dying” refrain.

    In my time of dying, I want nobody to mourn
    All I want for you to do is take my body home
        -- In My Time Of Dying by Led Zeppelin"

Even while on the road, Chris made sure to send a loving message to his wife and the mother of his three children, Vicky.

Our world has gone black but we recall Chris’s last version of “Black Hole Sun” in Detroit last night.

YouTube courtesy of VideoGremmie
VideoGremmie

Recently Chris has released a new song, “The Promise,” with all proceeds donated to The International Rescue Committee.

Sadly Chris leaves this world too soon, much like his peers Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Layne Stanley of Alice in Chains, and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots.

The Melomaniacs leave you with Chris’ performance of Prince’s “Nothing Compares To You” from a performance at Sirius XM‘s Lithium Channel Studio in 2015.

Reactions from others:

We will continue to provide reactions by others as they become available.

About the author