Chris Cornell, frontman with Soundgarden and Audioslave, has died aged 52.

His representative Brian Bumbery told the Associated Press that the singer passed away unexpectedly in Detroit on Wednesday night.

Advertisement

Soundgarden apparently played a 20-song set at the city’s Fox Theatre last night (May 17), with six more shows scheduled on their spring 2017 tour.

Cornell was born in Seattle in 1964, forming Soundgarden 20 years later with Kim Thayil and Hiro Yamamoto. Their biggest success came with 1994’s Superunknown, which included the single “Black Hole Sun”.

After the band split in 1997, Cornell embarked on a solo career with 1999’s Euphoria Morning, before forming Audioslave with former Rage Against The Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk.

Advertisement

Cornell resumed his solo career after that band’s split, recording “You Know My Name”, the theme song to the 2006 James Bond movie, Casino Royale, and notably working with Timbaland on 2009’s Scream.

Soundgarden’s first album in 16 years, King Animal, was released in 2012, while the group’s debut album, 1987’s Ultramega OK, was released in a remixed and expanded version in 2017.

The cause of Cornell’s death is not yet known.

A host of musicians have paid tribute:

The June 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Summer Of Love, talking to the musicians, promoters and scenesters on both sides of the Atlantic who were there. Plus, we count down the 50 essential songs from the Summer Of Love, from The Seeds to The Smoke, and including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd. Elsewhere in the issue, we remember Chuck Berry, go on the road with Bob Dylan and there are interview Fleet Foxes, Fairport Convention, Fred Wesley, Jane Birkin and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks’ co-conspirators Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise. Our free CD has been exclusively compiled for us by Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold and includes cuts from Todd Rundgren, Neu!, Van Dyke Parks, The Shaggs, Arthur Russell and Cate Le Bon. Plus there’s Feist, Paul Weller, Perfume Genius, Ray Davies, Joan Shelley, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Johnny Cash, Alice Coltrane, John Martyn and more in our exhaustive reviews section