Chris Cornell Funeral: Brad Pitt, Tom Morello, And James Hetfield Among Celebrity Mourners
Chris Cornell’s funeral wasn’t just attended by his former Soundgarden and Audioslave bandmates. Numerous musicians representing a wide variety of genres were in attendance at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery earlier today, and so was Hollywood megastar Brad Pitt, who was a longtime friend of the late rocker.
A report from the Associated Press offered a detailed account of the events of Friday afternoon, as chauffeured cars and SUVs arrived at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, carrying mourners invited to Chris Cornell’s funeral at the famed cemetery’s Fairbanks Lawn. In honor of the 52-year-old singer/guitarist’s passing, Soundgarden songs were played outside Hollywood Forever’s gates, while another Cornell-fronted hit — “Like a Stone” by Audioslave — would later play from speakers.
Several musicians were sighted at the funeral proceedings, paying tribute to a man who was, by and large, considered one of rock’s greatest vocalists of the 1990s and beyond. Aside from Cornell’s bandmates and contemporaries from the Seattle grunge scene of the ’90s, mourners from the music industry included Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, and rapper/producer Pharrell.
Separate reports from the Daily Mail and Billboard mentioned some other well-known mainstays of the rock industry at Chris Cornell’s funeral — Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Foo Fighters singer/guitarist and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, Jane’s Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, and Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington.
Interestingly, the funeral also had some well-known people from a completely different, albeit oftentimes related industry in attendance – actors Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, Josh Brolin and Brad Pitt, the latter of whom had a well-documented friendship with Cornell.
According to a report from Metro, Brad Pitt was “devastated” by Chris Cornell’s death last week, as well as the passing of another one of the actor’s good friends, former Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey. Last week, the Daily Mail recalled how Pitt and Cornell had known each other well for decades, with Brad regularly showing up at Chris’ concerts, and Chris oftentimes attending Brad’s film premieres. Earlier this year, Pitt was at a fundraising gig that featured Cornell and English pop/rock legend Sting among the event’s performers.
Although Chris Cornell’s funeral service at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery was a private event, fans waited outside the gates in preparation for a public viewing, which is scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. Pacific time today.
One of these fans was a woman named Melody Andrade, who brought her 4-year-old son, Jude, with her. According to the Associated Press, both mother and son came wearing matching shirts with the words “Say Hello 2 Heaven,” a nod to a song Cornell performed as part of the supergroup Temple of the Dog. This project released one album in 1991 as a tribute to Seattle musician and Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, who died of a heroin overdose in 1990.
“I feel like this is just as big as the death of Elvis or John Lennon. That’s why I had to bring my son,” Andrade told the Associated Press.
“There will never be another. He’s a modern day Freddie Mercury. I needed some closure on this.”
In the hours leading up to Chris Cornell’s funeral service, a report from TMZ added more insight into what may have taken place right before his untimely death last week. The report cited Cornell’s wife, Vicky Karayiannis, who claims Chris was slurring his words and complaining quite vocally about how Soundgarden’s Detroit show turned out. She added Cornell had become “aggressive” when she suggested that he may have had more than a couple Ativan pills for his anxiety issues and that his demeanor was reminiscent of how he behaved over a decade prior when he was battling an Oxycontin addiction.
[Featured Image by Cooper Neill/Getty Images]
