RIP Chris Cornell - 52

Tad Doyle is going to outlast them all.

He hung himself? GAAAHHHHH! Why?!

I was a bit too young and too late getting into non-christian music (there's a story there) to fully understand why people were freaking out over Kurt Cobain's suicide. I get it now. This hit me so much harder than I ever thought it could. I don't think I went a week in high school without listening to Superunknown or at least hearing Black Hole Sun on the radio.

...anyone check on Eddie Vedder lately, because after last night I'm pretty sure he's the last grunge front man left.

Awesome artist, RIP Chris! This was my go to music back in the 90's and on. Scott Weiland, now Chris. Really bummed

Rat Boy wrote:

...anyone check on Eddie Vedder lately, because after last night I'm pretty sure he's the last grunge front man left.

Jerry Cantrell is still out there making music. He is, technically, the front man in AiC. Co-frontman, I guess.

Also:

Jayhawker wrote:

Tad Doyle is going to outlast them all.

I started wondering if we missed any other grunge era rockers who died over the last few years. Sad to say, when I typed "grunge rockers" in the search bar, the autofill predicted "who died."

There was a lot of drug use in Seattle.

garion333 wrote:

There was a lot of drug use in Seattle.

And I think the really authentic grunge came from a lot of pain. So the singer/songwriters who broke new ground were suffering from depression and medicating with heroin. Back in a time when depression was dismissed as 'teen angst.'

fangblackbone wrote:

He hung himself? GAAAHHHHH! Why?!

Depression lies.

I never really listened to Soundgarden apart from the early 90's singles. While grunge was taking over the world I was listening to other things.

Audioslave was formed right around the time my mental health issues started getting really bad. I had their albums on autorepeat for years. Cornell's voice got me through a lot of really hard times. Something about that voice and Audioslave's performances just reached right into my soul.

I had no idea they did a video for Jesus Christ Pose. Some insane video editing going on.

Just did one of my music trips down memory lane. Started with Watchmojo's top 10 Soundgarden songs which was very good but did not include "Burden in My Hand" which probably got shunned because it was mainstream. I then looked at the top 10's of Alice n Chains and Stone Temple Pilots which were good but very hard to not list the dozen other great songs that did not make the list.

AIC is definitely the band that you cannot define in 10 songs.
STP I invalidated the list because it did not include "Army Ants".

I read a story that Cornell's wife is saying it was not intentional suicide. She spoke with him that evening and he said he had taken extra Ativan (Lorazepam, anxiety/sleeping disorder medication). One of the side effects is suicidal ideation. She and others confirmed that he had not been acting depressed, and that he had been talking about and looking forward to upcoming shows.

However... one of the issues with chronic depression is that a depressed individual becomes very good at concealing their true state of mind, due to a desire to appear "normal" and not bring others down. Even if an autopsy reveals high levels of some medication, that isn't really conclusive proof of Cornell's mental state.

Suicidal ideation is a super rare side effect to lorazepam. In fact I don't think it's really considered a side effect of the drug so much as stemming from the underlying reason the person was prescribed the drug. Meaning, you're already depressed and anxious and an episode can lead you to be suicidal. The drug may cloud your judgment, but the way the family is talking about the drug sounds like they're grasping a bit. Rightfully so, certainly. I would be too.

Withdrawal from a benzo is highly correlated with suicidal ideation and suicide though. If he was getting off it or changed dose or the actual type of medication then all bets are off. Crazy bad stuff can happen. Crazy bad.