RIP Chris Cornell

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Not remotely a fit with BOC or electronica but one of my early music heroes died today aged just 52. Chris Cornell, singer, songwriter and guitarist with Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog was an old school Rock god. A voice perhaps only rivalled by Jeff Buckley in his generation while his later material could be a little too sugary for my taste, his early work with Soundgarden was incredible and was my first foray into Grunge, alternative rock and that led me to indie, and subsequently BOC and electronica. Sad day. Rest in peace. Say Hello 2 Heaven I guess?
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What the fuck? Oh no that's sad. Man, I tell you what, I can count on one hand the number of male singers who's voice I can stand to listen to and he was one of them. Soundgarden and then Audioslave did some great stuff, I never felt like he really got the props he deserved. Playing "Burden In My Hand" now.

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Lovely chap too. Met him and the rest of Soundgarden back in 1991 and he was a gent. Still got my signed copy of Badmotorfinger on vinyl. Hammered Superunknown with the volume far too loud this morning.

'No one sings like you anymore.'
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One of the greatest rock voices of all time. Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog were a huge part of the soundtrack to my teens.

https://youtu.be/PMSVLCXsT34
Soundgarden -- "Overfloater"

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Wow, so sad and shocking. I remember being in 7th grade sporting the Superunknown t-shirt with pride. And that same long, hot summer with no AC, up at 2 am trying to fall asleep with MTV on and the Black Hole Sun video playing once every hour. Still remember that time so clearly.

A voice for the ages. RIP.

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Being reported as possible suicide. I feel sick.
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If true that's horrific. When I heard earlier I presumed heart attack or something similar. Superunknown is one of my favourite albums period

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Mexicola wrote:Being reported as possible suicide. I feel sick.


So bizarre. Making a new album, played a show, then tweeted he was excited to come to Ohio, a few hours later, dead of possible suicide.

So sad, especially to think of the wife and kids.

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Badmotorfinger is easily one of my favourite albums of all time (talking top 30 territory) so this is quietly shocking for me. Weirdly I never liked the massive Superunknown half as much.

A bit trippy really, why would he kill himself? Seems strange....

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I knew he had alcohol problems going back years. Only learned today he suffered from anxiety, depression and agoraphobia. The black dog can bite us all. Fell on black days etc.
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Taken from another board;


This rock star is not from LA and had deep ties to his home town and lots and lots of friends in the music scene there. The girl he married also worked as his band’s manager, and was instrumental in getting the band signed. She also worked with a number of other bands and helped them get signed and also kept them from getting completely screwed over by record companies. She was well respected on their home turf for protecting the musicians from there and also for being a pretty decent human being.

Anyway, early on, this band was very successful both critically and financially. Right before the band hit it big, the rock star and his wife had a child. This couple were so down to earth that they even remained living in the same small house they had purchased early in their relationship, and planned to raise their child in that environment, as to not lose touch with what was real. Of course, things didn’t go as planned.

The rock star started to enjoy his success and the stuff that came with it. He started to become rude, obnoxious and greedy. As is often the case, he changed. His band mates noticed the change and didn’t like it either. This resulted in a lot of fighting in the band- and eventually the band broke up over this difference in values. There was no reason given for the breakup, but anyone who had been paying attention could see what was happening there. It was the classic story of the lead singer who gets a fat head, corrupted values and thinks they no longer need their band or the people who were with them in the lean times anymore.

At the same time this happened, the marriage between the singer and his hardworking wife started to unravel. There was cheating and also the singer was away more and more and was not spending any time with the wife or their child. The singer eventually met another woman from a family notorious for being greedy social climbers. People who knew this woman and her family from years ago say that her mother planned for years to marry her off to someone rich and famous and was "training" her from a young age with that goal in mind. (A version of PMK before her time.) The training apparently worked because once this woman had this singer in her cross hairs, she was determined to break up his family and was successful in doing so.

No one close to the singer could figure out what he saw in her, though. She was rude, mean, and notvery attractive. Her lack of personal charm also made her appear even uglier and friends around him had funny nicknames for her, one of which was ‘troll’. This woman sealed the deal by getting pregnant very quickly so that a divorce would be initiated by the long suffering wife. While destroying this guy’s marriage wasn’t enough, the new girlfriend also convinced the singer that his estranged wife (who remember was also his manager) had cheated him and his band mates out of millions of dollars. He bought this hook line and sinker and not only was the divorce bitter but other litigation dragged on for years, and the accusations of financial mismanagement by the wife publicly smeared her reputation.

The singer tried to drag his former band mates into the litigation fray as well– even though they knew the estranged wife had not done anything deliberately wrong. The ex wife was dragged though court to the point where she was bordering on bankruptcy when things were finally settled. The new girlfriend was just hell bent on dragging the ex wife through the mud. Not long after things were settled legally, the singer and the girlfriend finally got married. One of the attendees of the marriage ceremony also saw the true colors of the bride and expressed concern about her and her family’s shady vibe to people around the singer. Sadly, she died herself under mysterious circumstances later. The singer’s new wife gave birth to several children pretty quickly. She also became involved in management decisions for the singer’s career and finances.

Rumor has it that a series of poor decisions were made there including getting the singer to invest a large sum of money into a business run by her family. Bad idea. Meanwhile, the child with the first wife didn’t see the singer very much, because the new wife made sure he was touring and involved in as many moneymaking projects as possible. The singer also showed off the "new" family publicly with no mention of the child back home. Fans noticed.

When the former wife was forced to go to court about parenting related issues, the singer chose to litigate her more and even accused her again of stealing his belongings. The ex wife has stayed true to her roots and has not spoken out publicly against the singer, even though she’s been bullied and smeared by him and his new wife for years. She is just trying to raise her child in peace. The irony in all this is that this singer also tries to fund raise for children’s charities.

The people around him laugh behind his back at the hypocrisy, considering the situation with the child from the first marriage. The best part in all this is that the current rumor is that he’s met someone else and will be dumping his current wife soon. What is even funnier is that his current wife and her family are so financially shady that the singer has no idea how badly he’s been ripped off. Yet.

So its looking like karma is real and the wrongly accused former wife is going to be laughing her ass off when the details about the current wife and her family’s financial shenanigans come to light. It will get ugly too. The current wife and her family will not go quietly and I would not be surprised if she exposes and blames the singer publicly for smearing and wrongly accusing his former wife.

Singer: Chris Cornell
Group: "Soundgarden"
First wife: Susan Silver also managed "Alice In Chains"
Troll wife: Vicky Karayiannis
Family: brother Nicholas Karayiannis (also known as DJ Nick Blast) and the offspring of a renowned New York restaurant executive
Venture: "Black Calavados" restaurant, now closed
Lawsuit with ex-wife: Guitar collection

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Hmmm. You can't legally slander the dead can you? Not saying this isn't true, he was married to the people mentioned, but I'd be wary of sources appearing with stories like this today. Why today? Axe to grind? Also, how does it square with the apparently amicable reunion? Money talks but didn't appear strained. I guess we'll never know what goes on behind closed doors. Two things are sure. He was incredibly talented and apparently had demons he hid. I see no winners today.
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Mexicola wrote:Hmmm. You can't legally slander the dead can you? Not saying this isn't true, he was married to the people mentioned, but I'd be wary of sources appearing with stories like this today. Why today? Axe to grind? Also, how does it square with the apparently amicable reunion? Money talks but didn't appear strained. I guess we'll never know what goes on behind closed doors. Two things are sure. He was incredibly talented and apparently had demons he hid. I see no winners today.



Yeah, no idea. Was on the fence about posting that but just thought it could shed some light into dark day.

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Mexicola wrote:Being reported as possible suicide. I feel sick.


Hung himself.

Another violent grunge suicide.

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Paneye wrote:
Mexicola wrote:Being reported as possible suicide. I feel sick.


Hung himself.

Another violent grunge suicide.


One thing that's a weird point is; it was on the same day and same way as Ian Curtis..

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Interesting reading. I vaguely remember reading years ago about him having a nasty piece of work as a wife.

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North by North wrote:Wow, so sad and shocking. I remember being in 7th grade sporting the Superunknown t-shirt with pride. And that same long, hot summer with no AC, up at 2 am trying to fall asleep with MTV on and the Black Hole Sun video playing once every hour. Still remember that time so clearly.

A voice for the ages. RIP.


I was right there with you that summer. Virtually identical experience.

Sad. He was easily the greatest singer out of that whole scene.

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Didn't think I'd see this topic here. But i guess we all have varied listening experiences, which is a good thing. Tremendous talent. Tremendous voice. You have to respect the power in his voice. He was an actual singer, just listen to the clip of him doing Ave Maria!!

The other "grunge" singers were wrecks and not surprised or shocked at all when they passed. But Chris looked so healthy and vibrant, and seemed like he had it all together. Especially at his age, it seemed like even with the trophy wife that he had enough money, kids, and success so0 that he could play and do as he wanted.

When i heard it was suicide i just listened to "Corsair" on repeat for about 5 hours thinking of his soul leaving this earth and going to another place.

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I might be ignorant to the more intimate details of his life than some of you, so maybe his death came as a greater shock to me than to others more informed. I knew he had demons and substance abuse problems in the past, but by all appearances it looked like he was out of the woods and really embracing the role of an elder statesman of rock. I guess appearances aren't always what they seem.

I never saw him live, which I regret, but he left us a lot of material both live and studio that I will always cherish and enjoy.

It's really hard for me to comprehend the world without him. Mostly because he was so active right up until the end and there weren't any obvious signs that things were going wrong.

Bowie was 69 and had done more coke and smack than just about anyone. A huge loss, but not hugely surprising.

Scott Weiland's death wasn't a surprise to anyone who knew anything about Scott Weiland.

Prince's was pretty shocking, but he didn't mean as much to me personally as Chris.

Anyways, it sucks. Hard. Sorry for rambling. RIP.

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No need to apologise Josh.
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