A Rock Star's Mysterious Suicide

The once-troubled ’90s grunge icon was said to be happy, sober and dedicated to his family. What went horribly wrong?

- Jordan Runtagh

An hour before he was found dead, Chris Cornell was in his element. The 52-year old vocal powerhouse was onstage at Detroit’s Fox Theatre on May 17 playing a sold-out show with his band, grunge rock forebears Sound garden. But Kevin Morris, Cornell’s friend and former roadie, sensed something was wrong. “He started getting disoriented, like he wasn’t with us,” he tells People. “It was like he was really fighting to get through the show.”

Cornell roared through a final encore, weaving in lines from a song popularized by Led Zeppelin: “In my time of dying, I ain’t gonna cry and I ain’t gonna mourn/ All I need you to do is drag my body home so I can die easy.” Whether Cornell planned it or not, it was his public farewell.