Performing with Temple of the Dog at the Paramount in Seattle Chris Cornell was enjoying a career resurgence.
UPDATE 11:45am
The Associated Press reports that the medical examiner has determined Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell committed suicide by hanging in Detroit.
Original Post
Chris Cornell, whose grunge rock icon status grew out of Seattle and West Seattle where he lived for years has died. He was 52 years old. The cause of his death is not known at this time but according to press sources suicide is suspected.
He had been on tour with Soundgarden, the band that propelled him to fame and performed with the band Wednesday night in Detroit according to his representative Brian Bumbery in a statement to the Associated Press.
Bumbery called the death "sudden and unexpected" and said his wife and family were shocked by it. The statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and asked for privacy. Police were called to the MGM Grand Hotel in Detroit at midnight in response to an emergency call from one of Cornell's associates. Press reports claim that upon entry to the bathroom Cornell was found unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Cornell formed Soundgarden in 1984 with Kim Thayil and Hiro Yamamoto and would go on to international fame that really began with the band's third album Badmotorfinger. When Superunknown came out in 1994 the band hit the stratosphere selling five million albums. Cornell also worked with other Seattle rockers including West Seattle's Eddie Vedder in the band Temple of the Dog which performed a triumphant sold out tour last fall including two dates at the Paramount in Seattle. Soundgarden broke up in 1997 and Cornell went on to solo projects, and later rejoined Soundgarden in 2010. In 2001, he joined Audioslave, a supergroup that included former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford. That band broke up in 2007. Cornell and Soundgarden were again on tour this month.
Cornell was married to Sue Silver and lived on Gatewood Hill in West Seattle but the couple divorced in 2004. They had one daughter. Cornell remarried Vicky Karayiannis, lived in Paris and had two children. The couple formed the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation in 2012 to protect vulnerable children living in poverty and abuse.