Cause of death
Chris Cornell took his own life on May 18, 2017 at the age of 52 after a Soundgarden concert in Detroit. Police found his body in a room at the MGM Grand Hotel. A police report traces the final hours before Chris Cornell’s death. The “Detroit News” describes the events to which colleagues from the American ROLLING STONE refer.
According to Cornell’s widow, Vicky, Cornell called her shortly after the concert in Detroit and sounded dazed. The 52-year-old said on the phone that he had “one or two more Ativan” taken. After the Soundgarden gig at the Fox Theater, the musician drove to the MGM Grand Hotel around 11:30 p.m. His bodyguard Martin Kirsten accompanied him to his room to repair a computer. Cornell is also said to have received Ativan from Kirsten. When he called his wife, he repeatedly said how tired he was and then abruptly hung up. A short time later, Cornell was dead.
The autopsy report
Like the forensic medicine a few days later confirmedthe Soundgarden singer hanged himself. The competent authority in Michigan (Wayne County) released Chris Cornell’s autopsy report including the results of the toxicology examination. Accordingly, the Soundgarden singer died by suicide – and taking medication had no influence on the suicide. However, coroner Theodore Brown emphasizes in his report that he “takes the view” that he cannot be certain.
Seven drugs were found in the singer’s blood. Including, as reported, a high dose of the benzodiazepam Ativan. Also listed in the toxicology report are butalbital, pseudoephedrine, norpseudoephedrine, caffeine and naloxone. With the exception of caffeine, these are all medications, sedatives or digestive aids. Chris Cornell did not take drugs shortly before his death. He had been considered clean for many years.
Cornell’s widow emphasizes the influence of medication
Chris Cornell’s widow, Vicky, announced after the musician’s death that she blamed Ativan’s side effects for causing the suicide.
Coroner Brown states in his report that the dose in Cornell’s blood at 200 NG/ML is higher than the average daily dose of 30-50 NG/ML. Statistically, however, only a dose of 300 NG/ML can potentially trigger suicidal thoughts.
Statement to ROLLING STONE
Vicky Cornell sent a statement to US ROLLING STONE after the autopsy report was published. In it she once again asserts the influence of the substances found in the blood, which had a fatal effect after Chris Cornell’s years of abstinence:
“Many of us who know Chris well noticed that he wasn’t himself during his final hours and that something was very off. We have learned from this report that several substances were found in his system. After so many years of sobriety, this moment of terrible judgment seems to have completely impaired and altered his state of mind. Something clearly went terribly wrong and my children and I are heartbroken and are devastated that this moment can never be taken back. We very much appreciate all of the love we have received during this extremely difficult time and are dedicated to helping others in preventing this type of tragedy.”
“Many of us who knew Chris well noticed that he was not himself during his final hours and that something was very wrong. From this report we learned that various substances were found in his body. After so many years of sobriety, this terrible judgment seems to have completely affected and altered his mental state. Something clearly went terribly wrong and my children and I are shocked and devastated that this moment can never be undone. We greatly appreciate all the love we have received during this extremely difficult time and want to help others prevent such a tragedy.”
Doctor’s complicity?
The family sued Chris Cornell’s former doctor in November 2018, alleging that he was complicit in the musician’s suicide. The lawsuit was filed Nov. 1 in Los Angeles court. The relatives accuse the doctor of having prescribed psychotropic drugs to Cornell between 2015 and 2017 without any examination. These included large quantities of a powerful sedative. The artist has the medication “dangerous and impulsive behavior that he could not control and that cost him his life” driven, it says in the scripture. The doctor neither saw Cornell personally nor spoke to him during this time. He therefore bears complicity in the suicide.
According to documents obtained by The Blast news portal, Dr. Robert Koblin the allegations. The doctor defends himself and says that Cornell was well aware of the risks of the medication. He refused to consider the possible negative effects of the substances. According to Koblin, Cornell would be aware of the side effects of such medications “very well aware” been, but wanted “not informed about it” become. The doctor further claims that he did everything possible to inform the singer about the risks of the substances he consumed. Cornell is a “person prone to addiction” been.
What is Ativan?
Ativan is an anti-anxiety medication from the benzodiazepine group. In addition to curbing anxiety, the drug has an epilepsy-preventing, calming, sleep-promoting and muscle-relaxing effect. In addition to fighting epilepsy, it is often used in the short term to cure severe sleep disorders. The effect of the substance occurs after just a few minutes.
Ativan has significant side effects. Especially if the drug is stopped for too short a period of time, so-called paradoxical effects can occur that trigger increased aggression. In addition to tiredness and dizziness, the fears previously combatted can come back with increased intensity. Cornell’s widow suspects the drug overdose may have triggered suicidal thoughts.
Medical studies have not proven any connection between suicidal ideation and the use of Ativan. It is possible that Cornell suffered such severe psychosis that this was the only reason he considered this step.
Savior of Rock
After Chris Cornell’s death, ROLLING STONE editor-in-chief Sebastian Zabel remembered one of the biggest rock stars of the 1990s:
Clappers, feedback flickering, then a bitchy guitar riff, deeper bass drone and the beautiful man’s crystal clear, erotically charged singing: “And you stare at me / In your Jesus Christ pose”. I always understood “I’m your Jesus Christ pose,” and that was fair enough. Because the beautiful man standing around in the desert in the video for the song with his bare torso, curls blowing and that savior pose was Chris Cornell, leader of the band Soundgarden, innovator of rock and in the form of his life right now.
Back in 1991, Soundgarden began to conquer the mainstream. Just a month before “Badmotorfinger,” the album from which “Jesus Christ Pose” comes, “Nevermind” was released. Cornell and Kurt Cobain both came from Seattle, invented the sound that came to be called grunge, but didn’t have much to say to each other. Cobain made fun of the elder; there’s a shaky video recording of him aping Cornell’s singing style. Nirvana came from indie punk, Soundgarden from Led Zeppelin. And what made Nirvana the biggest band of the 1990s was what Soundgarden largely lacked: the feeling for pop. Both Cobain and Cornell were depressed.
On the way to “Black Hole Sun”
The child of divorce, Cornell initially sat behind the drums and since the early 80s, initially at Soundgarden, which he founded together with bassist Hiro Yamamoto and guitarist Kim Thayil in 1984. The first Soundgarden album, “Ultramega OK”, was released in 1988 – a year before Nirvana’s debut – on the ultra-mega-correct underground label SST, whose motto “Corporate Rock still sucks” was plastered on the bumper of every dented van between Detroit and Seattle. Barely a year later they moved to the corporate company A&M, but on “Louder Than Love” there was at least “Big Dumb Sex”, the song with the pithy “Fuck you” refrain. But it was only with “Badmotorfinger” and “Jesus Christ Pose” that the promise of a renewed hard rock, a metal band for hipsters, hotter, more beautiful, more elegant than a river of lava was fulfilled.
Chris Cornell raised his beautiful head twice more: a few months before the smart, feedback-rich six-minute “Jesus Christ Pose” (where he nails a mirror in which he sees himself – quite Freudian, isn’t it?) Cornell had founded the band Temple Of The Dog with members of Mother Love Bone and Pearl Jam, a temporary side project that referred to his love of classic hard rock and metal motifs much more clearly than Soundgarden. Their only album is a delicate pastiche, elegantly shimmering rock that didn’t actually exist at the time. Working with colleagues from the much more successful band around Eddie Vedder (who also plays a small part on “Temple Of The Dog”) may have rubbed off. With “Black Hole Sun” in 1994, Soundgarden created one of the most beautiful hard rock ballads, a croaking, feather-light, yet bassy-heavy staple blues monster that has stood the test of time well. (“Superunknown”, the accompanying album, rather not in full length.)
Cornell’s eternal longing
Almost a year later, Cobain shot himself. And grunge was quickly over. Also with Soundgarden. Chris Cornell did not become the new rock messiah, did not fill the void left by Cobain – quite a few (especially in the music industry) had hoped so. Nobody followed at all. Pearl Jam were big, but Vedder wasn’t an idol. The noughties came and Cornell had now formed a new band, Audioslave, with musicians from Rage Against The Machine. They sounded a bit like Cornell’s eternal longing, the hard rock dreams of the seventies, and didn’t survive the noughties.
Cornell recorded solo albums and a James Bond song, he reformed Soundgarden and played at Lollapalooza. But of course all of this was just the aftermath of a great moment in the early 1990s, when Cornell stood in the desert sands like the savior of classic rock music. The fact that the song was allowed to end in a feedback improvisation after an incredible number of minutes also made the difference to the others. Both to those on mainstream radio and to the neighbor from Seattle who so mercilessly aped his rock pose in his own bathroom.
You can talk about it again in heaven now.