Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell was an INTJ personality type. Uniquely, he was both an idealist and a realist, which is a rare combination. With a driven and focused nature, Chris Cornell was dedicated to achieving his goals. Deliberate and measured, he carefully thought through plans before taking action.

Christopher John Cornell (July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and musician best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and primary lyricist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave. He also had a solo career and contributed to numerous movie soundtracks. Cornell was the founder and frontman of Temple of the Dog, a one-off tribute band dedicated to his late friend Andrew Wood. Several music journalists, fan polls and fellow musicians have regarded Cornell as one of the greatest rock singers of all time.

In a 2008 television interview, Cornell said about religion, "I don't follow any particular one. … Ultimately I think I'm sort of a freethinker and kind of open. … So many bad things–as well as good things–have happened based on people just sort of blindly following religion that I kind of feel like I want to stay away from any type of specific denomination or any religion period."

Cornell was a close friend of late singer Andrew Wood, who was his roommate in Seattle. While living together, they recorded the song "Island of Summer", which was written by Cornell and is the only existing recording of the two of them singing together. The song was released in 2011 in the album Melodies & Dreams, a solo album from Andrew Wood featuring unreleased songs he recorded throughout his life. Wood's sudden death in 1990 led Cornell to make a tribute album for him with the band Temple of the Dog. In a 2016 interview with The Guardian promoting the first tour of Temple of the Dog, Cornell said about Wood's death: "I've always had a really difficult time with loss. I didn't deal well with Andy's death. After he died, numerous times I'd be driving and I would look out the window and I thought I saw him. It would take me five minutes to update to the moment and realize, 'no, he's actually dead.' This tour, in a sense, is the dealing. It's facing the reality."

Cornell struggled with depression and had multiple addictions that he was able to manage until 1997, when Soundgarden disbanded and his first marriage was failing. At that point, Cornell turned to OxyContin and other substances. He said about that period, "I went through a serious crisis with depression where I didn't eat a whole meal every day. I was just kind of shutting down. I eventually found that the only way out of that was to change virtually everything in my life. That was a very frightening thing to do, but it was worthwhile." He checked into a rehabilitation center in 2002 and quit drinking and smoking around 2005.

Cornell stated in a 1996 interview: "I know what it feels like to be suicidal, and I know what it feels like to be hopeless. There is some point where I learnt enough about myself to know that I don't have the tolerance to create other hurdles as well."

Chris was a very sweet guy. Very funny and caring. In a lot of cases, the musicians could be a bit standoffish or snobby before they got well known. Chris was never that way. He was always there to listen to any ideas you might have had, sit in on a jam session or lend his ideas to whatever you may have had down at the time. He was very giving and always had a nice word for you.

Chris and Andrew Wood were very close, they actually lived together in a small apartment in Seattle and Chris would worry about Andrew and his drug use. He tried everything he could to help him, but back in those days, it was a very difficult thing to deal with for most people. Chris never Really got over it when Andrew passed…

Most musicians are very kind and grateful for their fans. Chris always made time for them and was grateful that they got him and the message he was sending. Chris really was a great guy. Very unassuming and kind.