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The unexpected death of Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell is a loss that the rock community is still coming to terms with, even nine months after the fact. But for as painful as it was for his fans, Cornell’s suicide continues to cause an extreme amount of pain to those that were closest to him; his family. In her first television interview, Chris’s wife Vicky appeared on Good Morning America and opened up about her husband.
“He loved his life,” Vicky told Robin Roberts “He would never have ever left this world.” Cornell took his own life on May 18, 2017 in a hotel room in Detroit, just after a Soundgarden concert. Vicky lays the blame for his death on a number of different prescription drugs Cornell was on at that time. “Approximately a year before he died, he was prescribed a benzodiazepine to help him sleep,” she said. “He had torn his shoulder … the pain in the shoulder was waking him up at night and it was keeping him up.”
After taking the pills, she said his character and demeanor changed. “The brain of someone who has a substance use disorder is different from that of … someone who doesn’t,” Vicky Cornell said. “He relapsed…He had really delayed speech…He was forgetful.”
Ultimately, Cornell believes Chris would still be here if not for the medication. “He wanted to be there for his family, for his children. He loved his life,” she said. “I don’t think that he could make any decisions because of the level of impairment.”
You can watch her entire interview in the video above.
