Chris Cornell died following Soundgarden's concert at the Fox Theater in Detroit on Wednesday night (5/17). The cause of death for the 52 year old Rocker was confirmed Thursday afternoon by the Wayne County, Michigan Medical Examiner as having been a suicide by hanging. Shortly after midnight, Detroit police were summoned to the MGM Grand hotel. They arrived to find Conell, unresponsive, on a bathroom floor.
During what would be his final encore, Cornell wove portions of Led Zeppelin's In My Time Of Dying into Soundgarden's Slaves & Bulldozers, including the lines, “In my time of dying, I want nobody to mourn/All I want for you to do is take my body home”.
Ashley Zlatopolsky was at the show which, according to her account for the Detroit Free Press that was also picked up by USA Today, included a number of instances in which Cornell seemed detached during the performance - leaving out lyrics and seeming lethargic. But, during the encore, she wrote, Chris became fully engaged; "Cornell finally gave his all. He played the guitar backward, hung over his head, and dragged the mic stand along the strings. Caught in a cathartic-like moment, the singer-guitarist let himself shine one last time."
