Chris Cornell’s death by suicide on May 17 shocked the music industry. Now — on the day his remains will be laid to rest in Los Angeles — TMZ has published more details on the grunge icon’s final moments .
According to the report, Chris’ wife Vicky told friends and family that she knew something was drastically wrong with her husband as soon as he called her, just minutes after playing a gig in Detroit with his band Soundgarden. Apparently, Chris had a phone app that allowed him to remotely adjust the lights in his family home, and the lights began flickering on and off right before he called. But when Vicky asked Chris if he had just flickered the lights, he claimed he’d done it an hour before — when he was still on stage with Soundgarden.
Vicky Cornell then noticed that Chris was slurring his words and was becoming less coherent by the minute. The singer was unhappy with the way the show’s road crew had performed.
“They f**ked up again,” he complained to her. “They had 3 days to fix my in-ears, and I was getting static. I couldn’t hear.”
Then Chris Cornell started to repeat one phrase over and over.
“I blew my voice. I blew my voice.”
Vicky tried to calm Chris down and get him to tell her if he took drugs, telling him, “You don’t sound right, sweetheart.”
Chris Cornell’s Wife’s Chilling Account of Singer’s Last Moments Before Suicide https://t.co/u8z6KjIiyN
— TMZ (@TMZ) May 26, 2017
Chris reportedly replied that he had been “angry” and took two Ativan, which helps with anxiety, to calm down.
But Vicky wasn’t convinced that Ativan was the only drug Chris Cornell — who had a long history of drug abuse before getting clean — had taken.
“It sounds like you took something else,” she said before beginning to plead with him. “You need to tell me now what you took. I forgive you.”
At that point, Vicky said that Chris’ tone became “cocky and aggressive,” which reminded her of the way he used act when he had an Oxycontin addiction nearly 15 years ago.
It was then that Vicky panicked and called Chris Cornell’s bodyguard, Martin Kirsten, and asked him to check on her husband, as previously reported by the Inquistr .
While Kirsten kicked down two hotel doors to get to Chris, Vicky used another phone to call hotel security, begging them to help the bodyguard gain access to the room because Chris was having a medical issue.
“He’s having a heart attack!”
Unfortunately, the musician was found hanging from a red exercise cord in the hotel bathroom. Blood was coming from his mouth.
While toxicology reports are still pending over Chris Cornell’s death, TMZ also reported that authorities found fresh track marks on his body . Sources with knowledge of the investigation claimed the marks were “obvious.”
However, Metro reported that Vicky Cornell said Chris did not have track marks the last time she saw him.
Vicky Cornell recently wrote a touching tribute to her husband of 13 years, which was published by Billboard .
To My Sweet Christopher,
You were the best father, husband and son-in-law. Your patience, empathy and love always showed through.
You had always said I saved you, that you wouldn’t be alive if it were not for me. My heart gleamed to see you happy, living and motivated. Excited for life. Doing everything you could to give back. We had the time of our lives in the last decade and I’m sorry, my sweet love, that I did not see what happened to you that night. I’m sorry you were alone, and I know that was not you, my sweet Christopher. Your children know that too, so you can rest in peace.
I’m broken, but I will stand up for you and I will take care of our beautiful babies. I will think of you every minute of every day and I will fight for you. You were right when you said we are soulmates. It has been said that paths that have crossed will cross again, and I know that you will come find me, and I will be here waiting.
I love you more than anyone has ever loved anyone in the history of loving and more than anyone ever will.
Always and forever, Your Vicky
Chris Cornell’s body has been cremated. His ashes will be laid to rest at L.A.’s Hollywood Forever Cemetery today, May 26.
[Featured Image by Buda Mendes/Getty Images]