The music world was rocked this morning with the sad news of the death of Soundgarden/Audioslave/Temple of the Dog Singer Chris Cornell. Soundgarden just performed last night in Detroit, and apparently, Cornell went back to his hotel room and committed suicide by hanging himself.

Throughout the day, millions of people expressed their sadness on social media, and (former) Hawk Honey Rachael reached out to us today asking us if we would post a blog that she wrote about the passing of Chris Cornell on our website. Of course, we said yes... So here it is.

CLASSIC ROCK DIGITAL VIGIL | Remembering Chris Cornell

Wow, this one is tough. Soundgarden was pivotal for me in my descent into music, namely Matt Cameron's effortlessly unique drum lines and Chris Cornell's mesmerizing vocals. It was 8th grade when I discovered MTVRocks on television, and I'll never forget sitting there after school and seeing the Black Hole Sun music video for the first time. It was single-handedly the most captivating song I'd ever heard and interesting music video I'd ever seen. It started my love affair with Soundgarden.

 If my memory serves me correctly, I owned a copy of Superunknown even before Nevermind (though this could be from a biased mind, as - at the time and for a long time after that - Soundgarden trumped all). If Superunknown was my bible at that age, Chris Cornell was the priest. His voice still cuts through me like a knife. So much power and emotion. You can't passively listen to a song when he's singing - it grabs you and takes hold, forces you to reckon with your own emotions. This is what his voice was for me.

Black Hole Sun is still one of my top favorite songs to this day. Whenever it comes on, I stop everything. It transports me back and puts things in perspective in my adult life. Blow Up the Outside World, Limo Wreck, 4th of July, Fell on Black Days - they all have the same effect. This is the power of music. RIP Chris Cornell.

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