Police Report: Chris Cornell Said 'I'm Just Tired'

Ohio festival pays tribute to Soundgarden frontman
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2017 10:19 AM CDT
Police Report: Chris Cornell Said 'I'm Just Tired'
Festivalgoers embrace during a tribute to Chris Cornell performed by Corey Taylor at Rock On The Range Music Festival on Friday, May 19, 2017, in Columbus, Ohio.   (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Chris Cornell kept saying "I'm just tired" in his final phone conversation with his wife, according to a police report with more details on the final hour of the Soundgarden frontman's life. Vicky Cornell, alarmed by how different her husband sounded, called band bodyguard Martin Kirsten, who had to kick in two latched doors before he found the 52-year-old dead on the bathroom floor with "blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band" around his neck, according to a police report seen by the Detroit News. His death was ruled suicide by hanging, but Vicky Cornell says he told her he "had taken an extra Ativan" or two, and she believes the anti-anxiety medication or other substances may have clouded his judgment.

According to TMZ, Cornell used a piece of climbing equipment to secure the exercise band to the bathroom door at his suite in the MGM Grand Hotel in Detroit. Less than an hour earlier, the band had played a sold-out show in front of 5,000 fans. Soundgarden had been scheduled to play the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio Friday night, Pitchfork reports. Instead, artists including Bush and Live paid tribute to Cornell by covering songs by his bands Soundgarden, Audioslave, and Temple of the Dog. Rolling Stone reports that Rage Against the Machine co-founder Tom Morello paid tribute to his former Audioslave bandmate with a moving poem, which can be seen in full here. (More Chris Cornell stories.)

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