Silke Jasso
Despite rumors that “something wasn’t right” with Chris Cornell leading up to his tragic suicide, some friends close to the singer opened up in a new Rolling Stone interview to express their shock over his passing.
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When Serj Tankian, singer in System of a Down, met up with Cornell in early April, Cornell was in high spirits.
“He had plans, man,” Tankian said, adding that he was in total “disbelief” when he found out that Cornell had taken his own life mere weeks later. “I’m like, ‘No fucking way.'”
A month before his death, Cornell performed on “The Tonight Show,” and guitarist Brendan O’Brien said he “didn’t seem any different,” adding, “I felt like we had a good time there. He was in good spirits.”
Guitarist Tom Morello, who played with Cornell between 2001 and 2007 as part of the band Audioslave, saw him earlier this year and noted that he was “shining.”
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Hours after performing in Detroit on May 17, Cornell was found in unconscious his hotel room with an exercise band tied around his neck. He was pronounced dead at the scene. While his death has been ruled a suicide, his family believes he may have taken more than the recommended dosage of his anti-anxiety medication, which may have caused suicidal thoughts in an otherwise happy Cornell.
“I always felt like Chris had a lonely place inside of him that he went to creatively,” filmmaker and writer Cameron Crowe said or Cornell. “I never thought Chris – given family and a certain sunniness, the humor and soulfulness in the way he talked about his life privately – would go all the way into the dark place. I thought he would access it, write about it and mock it too well.”
Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell said Cornell was the “the last guy in the world I thought that would happen to,” adding, “There is a space now and forever empty because of that. It’s never going to make sense. It’s never going to feel right. And it’s always going to hurt.”
