Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell first married Susan Silver, the manager of ‘Soundgarden’. They divorced in 2004. His second marriage was to Vicky Karayiannis, a Paris-based American publicist. He has two daughters and a son from his marriages.

In 2012, he and Vicky created the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation to protect the most vulnerable children, to mobilize support for children facing tough challenges including homelessness, poverty, abuse and neglect.

He was found dead in his hotel room at the MGM Grand in Detroit on May 18, 2017. He had performed at a show with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre just the previous evening. The cause of his death was determined to be suicide by hanging. He was 52 years old.

Cornell was born to Ed Boyle, a pharmacist, and Karen Cornell, an accountant in Seattle, Washington. He has five siblings— Peter, Patrick, Katy, Suzy and Maggie.

He studied at Christ the King Catholic elementary school and Shorewood High School and loved listening to ‘The Beatles’. He was uncomfortable around people and was able to overcome the problem through rock music.

Before becoming a successful musician, he worked as a sous-chef at a restaurant named ‘Ray's Boathouse’. In the early 1980s, he was member of a band called ‘The Shemps’ where he met bassist Hiro Yamamoto.

Soundgarden’ was formed in 1984 consisting of his jamming partners, Thayil and Yamamoto and himself. Later, Matt Cameron joined the band as its permanent drummer allowing Cornell to concentrate on vocals.

In 1990, he formed ‘Temple of the Dog’, as a tribute to his friend, the late Andrew Wood, lead singer of ‘Mother Love Bone’ and released an album, the following year.

Soundgarden’s final album, ‘Down on the Upside’, came in 1996 and included singles, ‘Pretty Noose,’ ‘Blow Up the Outside World’, and ‘Burden in My Hand’. The album did not do well commercially.

He began writing and recording with guitarist Alain Johannes and keyboardist Natasha Shneider of the band ‘Eleven’. His first solo album, ‘Euphoria Morning’ released in 1999 and included the single, ‘Can't Change Me’.

‘Superunknown’, Soundgarden’s breakthrough album released in 1994, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It had several successful singles, such as, ‘Spoonman’ and ‘Black Hole Sun’, which earned them international recognition.

The self-titled debut album, ‘Audioslave’, released in 2002, entered the Billboard 200 chart at number seven and achieved triple platinum status having sold more than three million copies in the United States alone.