Chris Cornell was fully immersed in work and family in the weeks before his startling death on Wednesday night at age 52.
Although a medical examiner ruled that the former Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman died of suicide by hanging, his family insisted in a statement released through their attorney that the devoted husband and father would not have knowingly and intentionally taken his own life — and question whether any “substances” played a role in his death.
“Without the results of toxicology tests, we do not know what was going on with Chris — or if any substances contributed to his demise,” Cornell family attorney Kirk Pasich said in the statement. “Chris, a recovering addict, had a prescription for Ativan and may have taken more Ativan than recommended dosages. The family believes that if Chris took his life, he did not know what he was doing, and that drugs or other substances may have affected his actions.”
Furthermore, Pasich said Cornell — who in the past month was busy touring with Soundgarden and making red carpet appearances for the song he contributed to the new film The Promise — was planning for the future, including a fun family getaway on Memorial Day weekend.
Read on to learn more about Chris Cornell’s final weeks:
Promoting The Promise in April:
The beloved grunge rocker wrote and performed the end-title song for The Promise, a film that addressed the Armenian genocide. He attended the London premiere in April 6 alongside Amal and George Clooney, and shared a shot of himself with the Oscar winner on Twitter.
Cornell and his wife, Vicky Karayiannas, then attended the Los Angeles premiere on April 14. He spoke to PEOPLE on the red carpet, and said the project moved him because his wife’s Greek family was also impacted by the WWI genocide that wiped out roughly 1.5 million Armenians.
“One of my close friends is the producer of the film, who’s Armenian, Eric Esrailian. My wife is Greek. Her grandparents were actually refugees from the same period of Greek refugees, the same policy,” he said. “If neither of those things existed, it would still be something that I would want to be a part of and be able to have the opportunity to write a song for such an impactful, and what I think of as an important film.”
Cornell, who announced he was donating all proceeds from the song to the…
The post Inside Chris Cornell’s Final Weeks: Touring and Spending Time with His ‘Perfect Wife’ and Kids appeared first on FeedBox.