More details have come to light in the tragic death of CHRIS CORNELL, who apparently committed suicide after a SOUNDGARDEN show last Wednesday in Detroit.
Chris' wife Vicky says that she talked to him on the phone after the show, and he was "different." He was groggy, slurring his words, and kept saying, quote, "I'm just tired." Then, he abruptly hung up.
She was alarmed, so she called his bodyguard and told him to check on Chris. The bodyguard busted into the room . . . but it was too late. According to the police report, he found Chris on the bathroom floor with "blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band around his neck."
Perhaps the most surprising thing about all this is how fast it happened. The concert ended at 11:15 P.M. Within 15 minutes, his bodyguard had escorted him back to his hotel room, and five minutes later he was on the phone with Vicky.
It's unclear how long they talked . . . but Vicky called the bodyguard at 12:15 A.M. It took him a little while to break into the room because hotel security wouldn't let him in.
By 1:00 A.M., the paramedics were there, and at 1:30 he was pronounced dead by a doctor who'd come to the scene. That's just over TWO HOURS after the show ended.
Vicky insisted that Chris was not suicidal or even depressed. She claimed Chris told her that he may have taken "an extra Ativan or two." Ativan is a prescription drug that Chris was taking for anxiety. (Read more about it, here.)
In a statement, she said, quote, "What happened is inexplicable and I am hopeful that further medical reports will provide additional details. I know that he loved our children and he would not hurt them by intentionally taking his own life."
The family lawyer said, quote, "The family believes if Chris took his life, he did not know what he was doing, and that drugs or other substances may have affected his actions." He also said Ativan can cause paranoid or suicidal thoughts.
Officially, the medical examiner has ruled it a suicide. TMZ says he used a red exercise band secured to the bathroom door with a carabiner. Chris' funeral will be in L.A. on Friday.
Naturally, there were a TON of musical tributes over the weekend.
(Just be WARNED, all of the links below are UNCENSORED)
Metallica paid tribute at a show in Boston on Friday night with their song "The Unforgiven" . . . and bassist Rob Trujillo did a few solo licks of "Black Hole Sun". U2 also did a tribute Saturday in L.A.
Tribute performances by Red Hot Chili Peppers and Scott Stapp.
Live and Bush both did tributes at the Rock on the Range festival in Ohio over the weekend. Soundgarden was supposed to be one of the headliners. In their slot, there was a tribute that included Corey Taylor from Slipknot leading the crowd in a rendition of "Hunger Strike".
Tom Morello wrote a poem for Chris and shared it on Instagram:
tommorelloYou're a prince, you're a snare, you're a shadowYou're twilight and star burn and shadeYou're a sage, you're a wound shared, you're maskedYou're a pillar of smoke, you're a platinum heartYou're a brush fire, you're caged, you're freeYour vision pierces, you do not seeYou are pieces strewn on the hillsideYou're open armed, you're armed, you're trueYou're a revealer of visions, you're the passenger, you're a never fading scarYou're twilight and star burn and shadeYou're the secret veiled, you're the secret revealed, you're surrounded no moreYou're not there, now you're always hereYoure a handsome groom, a loving father, a haunted stairwellYou're the clear bell ringing, the mountains echo your songMaybe no one has ever known youYou are twilight and star burn and shade