RIP Chris Cornell

gameoverman · Post by **gameoverman** » Thu May 18, 2017 4:24 pm

I liked Soundgarden about as much as Nirvana. Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam were more the type of bands where I liked some of their music, but I didn't like them per se. They were a little too overwrought for my taste.

Cornell though, he could wail, and he had a very distinctive sound. It's sad for him to die that young, I hope it wasn't one of those autoerotic asphyxiation things, that would be embarrassing.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu May 18, 2017 5:06 pm

It's so funny to me how people always seem to gravitate to some of the bands. I can't say I know anyone personally that liked or was into all of them equally. I never liked Nirvana and the AiC stuff I enjoyed wasn't liked by their hardcore/true fans - songs like I Stay Away back when EPs were a thing. Do kids these days even know what an EP is? Even better - not-really AiC but instead Mad Season's River of Deceit. I have a friend who's favorite grunge-era band is AiC and one thing I learned from him is just how much Jerry Cantrell is responsible for their sound. Not to take anything from Layne Staley, but Jerry does far more vocals on their albums than people realize.

I'm just reading now that Chris Cornell had three kids - 17, 13 and 12. Ugh.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu May 18, 2017 5:32 pm

I kept seeing this thread and thinking it must be an old thread reopened because of all the posts it had. Damnit.

Well this sucks. I remember the first time I heard Audioslave..was their video for Like a Stone or whatever its called. I liked it. I kept squinting thinking wait aren't they another band...wait that looks like..and finally looked them up. A supergroup...doh.

Sad.

Toe · Post by **Toe** » Thu May 18, 2017 5:35 pm

I really loved his 1999 solo album, Euphoria Mourning. But man, listening to songs like Preaching The End Of The World and When I'm Down, again, sheesh, that's rough

.

RuperT · Post by **RuperT** » Thu May 18, 2017 5:59 pm

I remember the very first time I heard Chris Cornell. I was hauling a self playing piano in a Uhaul over Lookout Mountain at 3 am, making about 10 miles an hour, when the dj played the just released single Outshined. Wow! I, too, eventually became more of an AiC guy, but that was a real watershed musical moment for a young metal head from the cultural wasteland of rural Georgia, where the radio didn't play that sort of thing (yet). Good years for the ears.
Tragic.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu May 18, 2017 6:38 pm

RuperT wrote: where the radio didn't play that sort of thing (yet).

Even as 120 Minutes rose and he had one of the first "edge" stations in the country (courtesy of Windsor), sound garden still never cracked the radio until Bad Motor Finger. Fortunately, the good clubs didn't give a crap what the radio found acceptable and we had a lot good clubs between Ann Arbor and Detroit as the 80s were drawing to a close and the 90s were starting. Specifically "Hands All Over" every Wednesday, all you can hold down for $7, at The Shelter was the best. Like clockwork, "She Sells Sanctuary" was when you knew it was time to hit the dance floor but "Hands All Over" is when you knew you can't dance to this crap, but who the hell cares, it's awesome music.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu May 18, 2017 6:51 pm

RuperT wrote:I remember the very first time I heard Chris Cornell. I was hauling a self playing piano in a Uhaul over Lookout Mountain at 3 am, making about 10 miles an hour, when the dj played the just released single Outshined. Wow! I, too, eventually became more of an AiC guy, but that was a real watershed musical moment for a young metal head from the cultural wasteland of rural Georgia, where the radio didn't play that sort of thing (yet). Good years for the ears.
Tragic.

You were in my part of the area

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Thu May 18, 2017 7:08 pm

I only got to see Soundgarden once but it was a great show. They were great at the show.

They opened for Voivod and Faith No More opened for them.

I even found the flier...

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu May 18, 2017 7:28 pm

Z-Corn wrote: Faith No More

Never got to see them but I did see Soundgarden a few times. I got on the wagon too late to see them at them at the Blind Pig but I did see them at Clubland/The State and then later at Lollapalloza. My car broke down on on 96 my way to see them and a friend happened to notice me on the side of the ride of the road. He also happened to be going to the show. So I abandoned my car and rode downtown in the bed of his pick up truck. Excellent times, mixed with the sad memory that he later died of cancer. Miss you, Joel. You were one of the good ones. Now you have Chris Cornell to keep you entertained.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Thu May 18, 2017 9:16 pm

Gruntruck, cmon!

(and Mudhoney was barely mentioned in this thread, and Melvins not at all)

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Thu May 18, 2017 9:52 pm

LordMortis wrote:
Z-Corn wrote: Faith No More
Never got to see them but I did see Soundgarden a few times. I got on the wagon too late to see them at them at the Blind Pig but I did see them at Clubland/The State and then later at Lollapalloza. My car broke down on on 96 my way to see them and a friend happened to notice me on the side of the ride of the road. He also happened to be going to the show. So I abandoned my car and rode downtown in the bed of his pick up truck. Excellent times, mixed with the sad memory that he later died of cancer. Miss you, Joel. You were one of the good ones. Now you have Chris Cornell to keep you entertained.

At this point Faith No More was newly with Mike Patton, and it was just before they blew up. They were pretty good, the highlight of their set was a cover of the current Nestle chocolate theme, "N-E-S-T-L-E-S makes the very best..."

They just crushed it.

I was into Voivod, having already seen them a few times but the dudes who drove were not so we left after a few songs into their set.

Again, Soundgarden was the highlight of the whole show. I wanna say it was a matinee show. Remember those?

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Thu May 18, 2017 10:02 pm

hitbyambulance wrote:Gruntruck, cmon!

(and Mudhoney was barely mentioned in this thread, and Melvins not at all)

The dudes I hung with were early Sub Pop devotees. They all had multiple subscriptions to the singles club, shit like that.

Grunge spoke to us. We dressed that way already. GR dudes played that kind of music in their bands already. Symbiosis between GR and Seattle.

We ALL believed Mudhoney was THE NEXT band to make it. They still should be...

McNutt · Post by **McNutt** » Thu May 18, 2017 10:05 pm

Smoove_B wrote:one thing I learned from him is just how much Jerry Cantrell is responsible for their sound. Not to take anything from Layne Staley, but Jerry does far more vocals on their albums than people realize.

I have no idea who wrote most of the songs from AiC, but after seeing them live on TV I had the impression that Cantrell was the driving force behind the band and Staley was along for the ride.

mori · Post by **mori** » Thu May 18, 2017 10:38 pm

I usually do not comment in the RIP threads, but this one hit me. I loved Chris Cornell and loved his voice. Soundgarden was my favorite of the 90's. They were harder and a bit more metal than the others. So sad to hear he took his own life. I was hoping he was past his demons. Too soon and he had so much more to give to his children and to his fans.

Xmann · Post by **Xmann** » Thu May 18, 2017 11:37 pm

Damnit man!!

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Fri May 19, 2017 8:29 am

While we're reminiscing about being old:

I started with R.E.M. I was a HUGE R.E.M. fan (and still am of their older material). But that was just a gateway drug.

When I hit high school, I was into all the big grunge bands: Nirvana, Pearl Jam (though they got popularity backlash towards my senior year), Soundgarden, STP, Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur Jr., Alice in Chains. I was also dabbling in mainstream metal at the time - Metallica, Ministry, Pantera, etc.

Alice in Chains was definitely my favorite of all those, however, The first CD I ever bought was Dirt.

I never got into the grunge look or anything, but I did have tons of AiC and REM shirts I wore constantly. My pride and joy was my shirt of the Dinosaur Jr. album cover for GREEN MIND that had the little girl smoking on it. I thought i was such a rebel because my mom HATED me wearing it.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri May 19, 2017 10:52 am

YellowKing wrote:My pride and joy was my shirt of the Dinosaur Jr. album cover for GREEN MIND that had the little girl smoking on it. I thought i was such a rebel because my mom HATED me wearing it.

The first cassette I ever bought with my own money was Van Halen's 1984. My mom made me take it back to the store because of the image of a baby smoking on the cover, and raised holy hell with the store manager for selling "inappropriate material" to a 10 year old.

I had a friend buy it for me the following week, took the artwork insert out of the cover. To this day, she never knew I owned it.

/derail off

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Fri May 19, 2017 10:56 am

I didn't look to see if this was posted already, but here's isolated vocals from Black Hole Sun.

It really shows how powerful his voice was.

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Fri May 19, 2017 5:48 pm

Marc Maron posted his WTF interview with Chris from 2014 today. I hadn't heard that. It was good to hear.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri May 19, 2017 8:01 pm

His family has already started the bullshit "prescription meds made him take his life" crap. Them trying to get money makes it even more difficult on those of us who take prescription meds to live.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri May 19, 2017 8:08 pm

Uhh...it's not bullshit. There's some evidence that certain medications for some people might actually increase risk of suicide. It's not a 1:1 relationship and certainly not conclusive, but it's not completely unheard of either. The brain is just a lump of chemicals. When you take pills to modify how those chemicals are processed, it's not unreasonable to think there might be unintended consequences.

wire · Post by **wire** » Sat May 20, 2017 1:50 am

hitbyambulance wrote:Gruntruck, cmon!

(and Mudhoney was barely mentioned in this thread, and Melvins not at all)

Most likely only those of us who are from Seattle are going to appreciate the lesser known 80/90's Seattle bands. There were tons of bands that were playing at the time Nirvana put grunge on the map. The Screaming Trees were always my favorite of the bunch and still buy anything Mark Lanegan puts out. Soundgarden and Chris Cornell in his other projects have always been my second favorite. I was never a fan of Alice in Chains.

I saw Soundgarden out of the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in 1994 and they were great. The highlight was when the band left the stage and a few minutes later Chris walks out on stage playing a guitar alone on stage and is just tearing it up. When he finishes he walks up to the edge of center stage and says "be nice" and tosses the guitar about 10 feet deep into the crowd. A few minutes later a small scrum of guys breaks out of the crowd surrounding their buddy who is cradling the guitar against his chest.

gameoverman · Post by **gameoverman** » Sat May 20, 2017 2:26 pm

Smoove_B wrote:Uhh...it's not bullshit. There's some evidence that certain medications for some people might actually increase risk of suicide. It's not a 1:1 relationship and certainly not conclusive, but it's not completely unheard of either. The brain is just a lump of chemicals. When you take pills to modify how those chemicals are processed, it's not unreasonable to think there might be unintended consequences.

Only speaking for myself, I think the 'bullshit' aspect of blaming the drugs is if the person committing suicide has issues serious enough to take those kinds of drugs in the first place, it's a bit disingenuous to try and play it off like the drugs were the cause.

It's common for family members to be angry at a time like this. What are their choices to target with that anger? Their loved one? No, that's not an option. So they point it at someone or something else.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sat May 20, 2017 2:38 pm

gameoverman wrote:it's a bit disingenuous to try and play it off like the drugs were the cause.

It's probably a bit disingenuous to judge them without really knowing any of the details too, no?

As for the drugs themselves, we don't know what drugs, do we? Many mood-altering drugs are taken for reasons when the patient is suffering from something that isn't being suicidal. Many of those mood-altering drugs are *very* explicit about possible side effects including suicidal thoughts and actions.

They don't try to warn people about that for funsies, it's because it can and does happen.

Ænima · Post by **Ænima** » Sun May 21, 2017 1:36 am

From Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... nt-w483179

"When we spoke after the show, I noticed he was slurring his words; he was different. When he told me he may have taken an extra Ativan or two, I contacted security and asked that they check on him," she continued. "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."

An attorney for the Cornell family, Kirk Pasich, reiterated Vicky's belief that an extra dosage of Ativan, an anxiety medication often employed by recovering addicts, altered Chris Cornell's mental faculties after the Detroit show. Pasich added that the Cornell family is "disturbed at inferences that Chris knowingly and intentionally took his life."

"Without the results of toxicology tests, we do not know what was going on with Chris — or if any substances contributed to his demise," Pasich said. "Chris, a recovering addict, had a prescription for Ativan and may have taken more Ativan than recommended dosages. The family believes that if Chris took his life, he did not know what he was doing, and that drugs or other substances may have affected his actions."

Pasich added that side effects of Ativan include "paranoid or suicidal thoughts, slurred speech and impaired judgment"; Vicky Cornell noted her husband's slurred speech following the Detroit concert in her statement.

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Sun May 21, 2017 7:03 am

It seems strange that there's a drug to give to recovering drug addicts. I would think you wouldn't want addicts taking any mood altering medication, especially one that can make you have suicidal thoughts.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Sun May 21, 2017 9:30 am

Sad of his passing. I really enjoyed his stuff. Based on the wife's statement not sure how he can't be blamed for his suicide and not those evil drugs he decided to over medicate on. I'm going to speculate that had he kept to the original prescribed amount the suicide probably doesn't happen. At least not that night. They don't prescribe you taking 2+ of those at once for a reason. My wife is prescribed that for anxiety. She takes Zoloft on a daily basis but on real bad days can take ativan (they're like Xanax). She almost always only takes a half and it knocks her out. Also, with any of those type drugs you go through a trial period to make sure it's the right one. My wife went through about 6 different ones until they found the right one. They do not work the same on everybody. So if hes been taking it awhile Id be surprised if at all the sudden made him suicidal. Now if you take 3+ who knows? The real question is why he felt the need to take an extra one or two? Lastly, based on my experience with drug addicts when they tell you they "may have taken an extra one or two" you can multiple that by 2 or 3. Again speculating but...

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sun May 21, 2017 9:44 am

morlac wrote:Based on the wife's statement not sure how he can't be blamed for his suicide and not those evil drugs he decided to over medicate on.

I find this to be such a strange sentiment. I don't normally find myself in the practice of figuring out who to "blame" suicide on.

The practice of finding out an explanation for why a loved one committed suicide? That's totally normal. And if someone is taking medication with a possible side effect of suicidal thoughts, and there is reason to believe that they over-medicated themselves with that medication - that's a natural start to try to explain what happened, no?

Is the wife saying "this seems like why my husband killed himself and abandoned his three children"? Or is she saying "ban Ativan so no one else can take it, even as recommended"?

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Sun May 21, 2017 10:09 am

RunningMn9 wrote:
morlac wrote:Based on the wife's statement not sure how he can't be blamed for his suicide and not those evil drugs he decided to over medicate on.
I find this to be such a strange sentiment. I don't normally find myself in the practice of figuring out who to "blame" suicide on.

The practice of finding out an explanation for why a loved one committed suicide? That's totally normal. And if someone is taking medication with a possible side effect of suicidal thoughts, and there is reason to believe that they over-medicated themselves with that medication - that's a natural start to try to explain what happened, no?

Is the wife saying "this seems like why my husband killed himself and abandoned his three children"? Or is she saying "ban Ativan so no one else can take it, even as recommended"?

I don't disagree on placing blame to be a strange sentiment even though it happens all the time with suicides.. I was reacting to Daehawk's comment "His family has already started the bullshit "prescription meds made him take his life"crap." and also the lawyer who said "An attorney for the Cornell family, Kirk Pasich, reiterated Vicky's belief that an extra dosage of Ativan, an anxiety medication often employed by recovering addicts, altered Chris Cornell's mental faculties after the Detroit show" It sounded like his family is blaming his suicide on Ativan and not the fact he decided to take a more than prescribed. It seems like their inquiries are misplaced. They need to be concentrating on WHY he felt the need to take so many. Not what could happen if you do. That is not a mystery....bad things can happen.

Also, I'm not the best one to discuss suicides with if your looking for sympathy. I think it's the most selfish act a person can commit and completely devastates everyone around them. I have seen it first hand too many times, it's not pretty. I apologize if I seem harsh.

Edit to add: They are absolutely looking to blame something on this. The alternative is that those left behind will start blaming themselves for not recognizing that he was still suffering and battling depression and not addressing it. Statements like "He would never do that to the children" "He seemed so happy", "He would never do that" etc. are pretty standard. All part of the devastation left behind.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sun May 21, 2017 10:14 am

morlac wrote:It seems like their inquiries are misplaced.

It seems like that is for them to decide, not us.

Suicide certainly can be an incredibly selfish act. It can also not be an incredibly selfish act, depending on the circumstances that lead up to the event.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Sun May 21, 2017 10:21 am

RunningMn9 wrote:
morlac wrote:It seems like their inquiries are misplaced.
It seems like that is for them to decide, not us.

Suicide certainly can be an incredibly selfish act. It can also not be an incredibly selfish act, depending on the circumstances that lead up to the event.

I hope they do figure it out. The quicker the better.

Of course there are exceptions, nothing is absolute. This does not really look like one unfortunately.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sun May 21, 2017 10:36 am

I mean, maybe you have access to a lot more details than I do, so I can't speak from your vantage point.

I can speak from mine though, and at the moment, it appears plausible that this might not have been a deliberate suicide. And this not necessarily a selfish act.

I don't know why he took additional pills. Maybe he was busy that day and decided to take the normal three doses for a day all at once to save time? Maybe he had been taking it for long enough time without any real side effects that he didn't consider the possibilities of that changing when tripling the dose?

Maybe the consequences of the addiction he was treating was particularly hard to deal with that day and he irrationally thought that more of the medicine he was taking to treat that would help more?

Maybe he was suicidal as fuck already and none of this mattered?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions (and I suspect neither does anyone else in this thread). But in the face of something like this, his family needs answers. They knew him on a day-to-day basis. They probably had a better idea of what he was dealing with in his life (maybe not completely but better than us). They believe that he wasn't suicidal and knowing him, he would never intentionally abandon his children. Maybe that's a delusion, and they just never saw the signs?

All I'm saying is that they have a bottle of medication that lists suicidal thoughts as a rare but serious side effect. And they know that he took too much of it, and that he committed suicide unexpectedly after taking too much of it.

I don't think they are out of line to start there when looking for an explanation.

Xmann · Post by **Xmann** » Sun May 21, 2017 12:45 pm

I believe he was taking Ativan and an article I read stated a body guard of some type gave him a couple additional doses before the show?

If so, that could be a problem on many accounts.

Edit- Just seen this was mentioned above.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun May 21, 2017 1:56 pm

If that's the case, that bodyguard is going to be in for a world of hurt when the feds get hold of him.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Sun May 21, 2017 6:35 pm

I was reading a tribute of sorts to Chris Cornell, and the author noted that Scott Weiland died of an overdose back in 2015. I had no idea (or totally forgot about it).

Xmann · Post by **Xmann** » Sun May 21, 2017 7:44 pm

Weiland looked awful his last couple years and his overdose was of no shocker.

There was a performance of Vasoline relatively close to his death where he was so high he could barely speak.

Something just seems off with Cornell's death.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Mon May 22, 2017 8:57 pm

hitbyambulance wrote:Gruntruck, cmon!

(and Mudhoney was barely mentioned in this thread, and Melvins not at all)

i actually used 'the guy from Gruntruck' in a list of 'Seattle rock singers from the late 90s and early 90s who are actually still alive', but no, he died from complications of diabetes in 2008.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu May 25, 2017 4:36 pm

Numerous bottom-feeder websites reporting that there were fresh track marks on Chris Cornell's arms when he was found. I'm waiting for a more reputable link, but it might not come out officially until the toxicology reports are published. If that's true, that's even more terribly sad.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu May 25, 2017 4:38 pm

Eventful sent me an email this morning the Soundgarden show tomorrow night.

gameoverman · Post by **gameoverman** » Fri May 26, 2017 3:16 pm

RunningMn9 wrote:
gameoverman wrote:it's a bit disingenuous to try and play it off like the drugs were the cause.
It's probably a bit disingenuous to judge them without really knowing any of the details too, no?

As for the drugs themselves, we don't know what drugs, do we? Many mood-altering drugs are taken for reasons when the patient is suffering from something that isn't being suicidal. Many of those mood-altering drugs are *very* explicit about possible side effects including suicidal thoughts and actions.

They don't try to warn people about that for funsies, it's because it can and does happen.

Imagine there was a dam somewhere, and it was leaking. So engineers go out there to patch it up. Then later the dam collapses and water floods the town downstream. Some people might blame the engineers for screwing it up, for not patching the dam correctly, or for causing worse damage to the dam while patching it. I'd say "Um, the dam was leaking, that's why they were working on it to begin with. So clearly the dam was already unstable, you can't blame the guys who tried to fix it. If anything, they bought the town more time than it would have otherwise had."

That's what I'm getting at with my comments about blaming meds for something like this.