As you should all know, ChrisCornell, along with his band Soundgarden, was one of the key instigators for grunge music. But now the singer joins fellow fallen Seattle grunge architects like Kurt Cobain and Layne Stanley with his recent passing on Wednesday night in Detroit; mere hours after Soundgarden had performed at city's Fox Theater venue.
According to a statement from the Detroit-Wayne County medical examiner’s office from Thursday afternoon (U.S. time), Cornell's death has been called a suicide by hanging but also stated that a full autopsy has yet to be completed. Furthermore, Cornell’s representative, one Brian Bumbery, said that the singer's death was “sudden and unexpected.” Which usually means some form of freak accident, a sudden heart attack or stroke, or suicide, sadly.
As The Detroit Free Press reported earlier, local authorities received a 911 call from a hotel just after midnight from a family friend of Cornell, who was apparently conducting a well-being check on the singer (not a good sign, really). This friend then found Cornell unresponsive on the apartment's bathroom floor with a band around his neck and dialled 911 accordingly. The Detroit police media relations director, Michael Woody, told The Detroit Free Press that, "Based on our observations at the scene, we are investigating it as a possible suicide", adding that, "We’re not saying specifically why.”
Eerily now in retrospect, a post to his Twitter account announced that the group had arrived in Detroit.
Come Friday/today over in Columbus, Ohio, the band was scheduled to headline the first day of the Rock On The Range festival, alongside Stone Sour, Korn, The Offspring, Bush, Sum 41, Thrice, and more. Norma Jean's singer, Cory Brandon, whose band was also set to play the festival's first day, lamented the singer's death over social media, saying:
"Just now waking up to the news about Chris Cornell. We are all getting up to head out to our show at Rock On The Range tomorrow where they were set to headline. It would have been my first time seeing them. What an amazing singer and musician we just lost. This sucks."
