Chris Cornell‘s death has been ruled a suicide, US officials have confirmed.
The Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman took his own life in his a Detroit hotel room, according to the city’s medical examiner.
“He was found on the bathroom floor, our medical unit were called and he was pronounced dead on scene,” a spokesperson said.
“A family friend went to go check on him and observed him on the bathroom floor. The body was transferred to the medical examiner’s office.”
A full autopsy report has not yet been completed.
The prolific 52-year-old singer was widely regarded as one of the icons of the 90s grunge music scene, with one of the most recognisable voices of all time. As well as fronting incredibly successful and influential bands, he also released a number of solo albums.
He’d spoken candidly in the past about his experiences of depression, telling Rolling Stone in 2015 that his first solo album, 1999’s ‘Euphoria Morning‘ (originally titled ‘Euphoria Mourning‘), was about a particularly difficult time in his life.
“It was a pretty dark album lyrically and pretty depressing, and I was going through a really difficult time in my life – my band wasn’t together anymore, my marriage was falling apart and I was dealing with it by drinking way too much, and that has its own problems, particularly with depression,” he said. “So I titled the album Euphoria Mourning, but right before the record came out and I was doing interviews over the radio for example, if you say “Euphoria Mourning”, the listener doesn’t know if it’s mourning with a “u” or morning without a “u”. And that started to bother me.”
Tributes are flowing in for the late musician.
RIP @chriscornell and thank you pic.twitter.com/BBHq5gu6tv
— JARED LETO (@JaredLeto) May 18, 2017
RIP Chris Cornell
Incredibly Talented
Incredibly Young
Incredibly Missed. pic.twitter.com/pKNI4tKiXz— Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) May 18, 2017
Very sad news about Chris Cornell today. A sad loss of a great talent to the world, his friends and family. Rest In Peace. pic.twitter.com/BlgxE6cJLH
— Joe Perry (@JoePerry) May 18, 2017
“What I look forward to the most…is the camaraderie. It’s what we missed when we weren’t a band.” – @chriscornell pic.twitter.com/yMPqJefoGo
— Soundgarden (@soundgarden) May 16, 2017
Cornell’s 2015 cover of Prince‘s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U‘ is going viral in the wake of his death, as a devastating reminder of the range and beauty of his voice.
RIP.
Photo: Buda Mendes / Getty.
If you or someone you know is dealing with a mental illness, call BeyondBlue on 1300 22 4636. If you are in distress, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
