Chris Cornell has passed

Warner Brothers Inc. All rights reserved. Kipped from Rolling Stone
L-R: Chris Cornell, Jeff Ament, Matt Dillon, Layne Staley, Cameron Crowe

Anyway, Jeff Ament had designed this solo cassette which we thought was hilarious because it had all of these cool song titles like "Flutter Girl," and "Spoonman," and just like a really true-type "I've lost my band, and now I'm a soulful guy – these are my songs now" feeling. So we loved that Jeff had played out the fictitious life of Cliff Poncier. And one night, I stayed home, and Nancy, we were then married, she went out to a club, and she came back home, and she said, "Man, I met this guy, and he was selling solo cassettes, and so I got one for you." And she hands me the Cliff Poncier cassette. And I was like, "That's funny, haha." And then she said, "You should listen to it." So I put on the cassette. And holy #, this is Chris Cornell, as Cliff Poncier, recording all of these songs, with lyrics, and total creative vision, and he has recorded the entire fake, solo cassette. And it's fantastic. And "Seasons" comes on. And you just can't help but go, "Wow." This is a guy who we've only known in Soundgarden. And of course he's incredibly creative, but who's heard him like this? And we got to use "Seasons" on the soundtrack, and Chris did some of the score. And some of the unreleased score is on the new version of the album.

Rolling Stone - Cameron Crowe on the 'Singles' Soundtrack, Chris Cornell.

I feel the love Cameron Crowe had for Seattle it so evident in the movie. Especially his love for the music. My friend was (is still, lol) WAY into Mother Love Bone. I found the Sub POP CD and loved Blood Circus. We became friends because of Soundgarden.

I liked Chris Cornell's non-speaking walk on role in the movie Singles. Perfect comedic timing! If you have ever seen the movie you owe yourself a read. If you have never seen the movie.... wth??!

The RS interview was conducted last week and posted online yesterday. Which is just all that more heart wrenching.

Chris Cornell -Seasons


Should have posted this yesterday. Sorry.

I just found his reason to hang himself (omg so rough I know.)

Audioslave live in NYC on top of the David Letterman marquis.

**** LYRICS ****



"He's a poet.. a genius. And he fooled me for 15 years..."

Tim Commerford

Chris Cornell, Murdered? (Part 1 of 3)

100% speculation, however, Cornell could have been murdered and the plan to do it would not have been difficult to execute. I am going off the assumption that the MGM Grand Detroit does not have CCTV in its hallways as many hotels do not.

Let's have an overview of what we've been told thus far:

• Cornell was in his hotel suite by 11:30PM when his bodyguard, Martin Kristen, stopped by to help him fix his computer. Kristen also gave him two Ativan pills, which he took for anxiety issues. Five minutes later, Vicky spoke with Chris on the telephone, and she told police that he was slurring his words and that he may have taken “an extra Ativan or two.”
  
  

OK, right away I find it odd that Cornell was being administered his medication via bodyguard. This indicates that the Doctor who prescribed him the Ativan did not trust them to responsibly take the medication on their own because they were aware of the possibly that Cornell could intentionally take more than what was prescribed in an attempt to take his own life.

This brings up the question of why did Martin Kristen give Cornell "an extra Ativan or two"? This suggest that Cornell had taken the prescribed dosage x 2 which is a significant detail considering what type of medication that is. For those of you who may not know, Ativan is a very power benzo (short for: Benzodiazepine) used as a sedative.

The following are the symptoms of an overdose of Ativan and I have underlined several of those that will be pertinent later on.

Overdose symptoms of Ativan may include extreme drowsiness, confusion, slurred speech, muscle weakness, loss of balance or coordination, feeling light-headed, and fainting.

Kristen wasn't Cornell's rent-a-guard security detail, he was his personal bodyguard. That means your job goes beyond protecting your client from theft, assault, kidnapping, harassment etc. You're responsible of their welling-being in general and if I was put in charge of giving them medication then I would put in the research on what it's for and the side effects of it.

This seems like commonsense that any professional bodyguard would be in possession of.

Was Kristen aware of how powerful the medication he as giving Cornell was and it's side effects? If so, why would he give them 3 pills instead of the prescribed 1? Did Cornell talk him into it? "Come on man, just give me a couple more...it'll be fine." and he felt obligated to do so because Cornell was his employer? Was giving him "an extra Ativan or two" a frequent occurrence and nothing out of the ordinary?

If the answer to any of the above questions are yes then Martin Kristen was not and is not fit to be a bodyguard and should be stripped of any license that he holds for that particular profession. Your job is to protect your clients life, not endangering it by giving them "an extra Ativan or two".

It's a benzodiazepine prescription drug, not ibuprofen.

• At 12:15AM, Vicky called Kristen’s room to ask him to check on Chris, She said that “he did not sound like he is okay,” adding that he was “groggy and just kept saying, ‘I am just tired,’ and hung up the phone.” Upon arriving, Kristen found the door to his room latched and phoned security to get them to open the door, but they refused on the grounds that the room was not registered to Kristen, even though he had a key.
  

According to his wife Cornell was "slurring his words" and repeatedly saying "I am just tired" before abruptly hanging up. Referencing back to the symptoms of an Ativan overdoes that I previously underlined:

Extreme drowsiness.
Slurred speech.
Confusion.

So he was clearly showing signs of at least 3 of those symptoms while speaking to his wife on the phone. (more about the overdose symptoms later)

• Kristen then kicked the door down, as well as the door to the bedroom of the suite, and found him on the bathroom floor, “with blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band around (his) neck,” the report says. The hotel’s medic, Dawn Jones, arrived at 12:56AM, untied the band and attempted CPR, which was unsuccessful.
  

(Continued in Part 2)

Chris Cornell, Murdered? (Part 2 of 3)

Here is another thing involving Martin Kristen that seems terribly suspicious. Hotel security refused to open the door because the room was not registered to Kristen? Or as another report from RollingStone.com stated: "Kirsten then called hotel security, who told the bodyguard that they could not let him in the room because he wasn't authorized to enter it."

What's that? Yeah, I had to read it again too. How is it that someones personal bodyguard isn't authorized to enter their clients room? This was either a major oversight by Martin Kristen (keep in mind this man is a professional bodyguard) or it was intentional to give him a concrete alibi that he wasn't inside the room at the time of Cornell's death because he's the one who kicked down the hotel door and bedroom door.

Perhaps the manager of Soundgarden is the one responsible for booking hotels and handling those types of details, however, bodyguards are often called the "Professional Paranoids" you don't leave anything to chance. I would make absolutely sure that as someones bodyguard I would have complete and total authorization to enter my clients room with or without hotel security.

Would you leave that all important detail up to anyone else? Me neither.

Also I find this to be a bit odd as well when I read it in the RollingStone.com article:

"The bedroom door was also latched, so the bodyguard again called hotel security before ultimately kicking open that door."

What was the reasoning behind Kristen calling hotel security again? They had already said they couldn't help him and he had already breached the door of the hotel room they said he was not authorized to enter. Why waste time calling them again about another latched door once he was already inside? Was he afraid of getting into trouble for damaging 2 doors?
---

Now with all that being said it is of my opinion that while it is not probable that Chris Cornell was murdered, it at least plausible that he could have been.

This scenario would involve his personal bodyguard Martin Kristen and two other accomplices which only one whom we'll call "XYZ" would need to be present at the hotel and the other whom we will call "V" that would give motive behind the actions of Kristen and XYZ.

We have to keep in mind that the majority of the timeline we're being told is coming from Kristen, we have to take his word for it in order to accept the official story. I can't speak for anyone else but at this point with the known facts I'm not comfortable with accepting Kristen's account of the events leading up to Cornell's death.

I'm not making the claim that bodyguards are infallible and never make mistakes, sure they can and they do. But there are certain details that feel very much out of place for a "Professional bodyguard" in regards to this case.

He claimed to have accompanied Cornell to his hotel room to help him with his computer and to give him his anxiety medication.

How long was he in the hotel room helping Cornell "fix" his computer? What needed to be fixed? This would be relevant information to have since anyone with knowledge in computers would be able to give an approximate amount of time the issue with the computer would have taken to fix.

• Kristen who was responsible for giving Cornell his Ativan gave him up to triple the amount than what was prescribed by a Medical Doctor.
  

Kristen could have waited around a bit (15 minutes or so) until the Ativan began taking effect and then left (using something to barely keep the door ajar for reasons explained later) It is during this time he could have met up with XYZ in his room as it seems like it would make sense for Kristen's room to be on the same floor as Cornell's.

They could have waited let's say 10 to 15 minutes (during this time Cornell would be speaking to his wife) and they went to Cornell's room and Kristen open the door and could have called out Cornell's name a few times and when there was no answer he knew the triple dose of Ativan had Cornell unconscious or so out of it that he might as well have been.

XYZ would have been instructed by Kristen beforehand to lock and latch the hotel room door. If Cornell was in the living room area of his Executive Corner Suite then being unconscious and or comatose would have made resistance from Cornell little to none and moving him through the bedroom door into the bathroom wouldn't have very difficult.

Cornell was tall, 6'3 but not a big man. He liked to stay physically fit in fact in an interview given (interestingly enough) in May of 2013 Cornell did an interview with Lynn Hoppes of ESPN Music blog "Playbook" in where he stated:

"I prefer not to use any machines. I focus a lot on cardio, which is what I do when I'm on stage. I also am into isometric workouts. When I'm mentally distraught, I work out. I'm always hiking or walking these days. And I still love my mountain bike."

Notice he mentioned isometric workouts. Exercise bands are perfect for this. Kristen would know that Cornell had one in his suitcase/tote bag/back-pack or whatever the case may have been. As for the carabiner I can guarantee you plenty of those are around backstage, they come in very handy for road-crew load-ins/load-outs and tech related things.

Kristen is always right off-stage and could have easily swiped one from someplace that perhaps wasn't even from that particular show, he could have gotten one weeks or months in advance. This could have been given to XYZ prior to entering Cornell's room, OR it could have been planted (in the bathroom) by Kristen while he was in there helping him fix the computer/giving him the Ativan.

Either way XYZ had exactly what they needed to execute the plan.

They got Cornell into the bedroom (if he wasn't already there) and into the bathroom and latched the bedroom door. They went back into the bathroom and jammed the carabiner at the top of the door and from there proceeded to tie the Exercise band around the neck of a unconscious or very dazed and weakened Cornell then attached it to the carabiner.

Then after XYZ observed Cornell no longer breathing and seeing bloody froth coming from his mouth he sent a text to Kristen, possibly some agreed upon phrase that let him know the deed was done without actually alluding to the actual event.

By this time Cornell's wife would have called Kristen who was in his own room when he received the call on the hotel room phone.

How come Vicky called Kristen's room instead of his cell phone?

Good question, I wondered that too.

(Continued in Part 3)

Chris Cornell, Murdered? (Part 3 of 3)

Moving forward...after Vicky had requested that Kristen check on Cornell he made his way to the room where he most likely attempted to use the Key-card because although he knew he wouldn't be able to gain entry because the door was latched from the inside he knew that digital locks on the doors leave an entry time stamp signature whenever a Key-card is used.

This is the reason why he left Cornell's door slightly ajar previously to be able to let XYZ inside without having to use the Key-card creating another entry time stamp.

Now he had digital proof that he wasn't already inside Cornell's hotel room when he made the call to hotel security, that was his alibi as was the phone call from Vicky that was sent to the phone in his hotel room plus his having to physically kick down both the hotel room door and bedroom door provided even further proof Kristen was not inside the room during the time Cornell had died.

Therefore the reason he had XYZ latch the doors in the first place as it made him a very unlikely suspect if Police even suspected foul-play.

After Kristen had made entrance into the bathroom by forcing open that door because the carabiner was jammed into the top of it causing Cornell's body to slump to the floor where Kristen reported to have "found Cornell "laying on the bathroom floor" with blood running down his mouth and a red exercise band around his neck." XYZ could have made their way out of the bathroom and out of the front door of the hotel room where they most likely had their own room on the same floor or made their way back to Kristen's.

That way they would have effectively avoided elevator CCTV and there was no reason for investigators to go door to door and ask others on the same floor if they "heard anything" being that there was nothing to hear. No gunshots, no screaming, etc.

Besides, detectives were already calling it a suicide before an official autopsy report was released by the medical examiner.

And that's my take on the whole thing.

Again, Chris more than likely committed suicide, sadly. His death has affected me more than I would have thought possible but this has been a thought experiment/exercise and nothing more.

If you've read this entire monstrously then I thank you for your time.

TL;DR: I won't hold it against you.

a reply to: iByte


I agree that its plausible, but what is the motive?

originally posted by: mrperplexed
a reply to: iByte


I agree that its plausible, but what is the motive?

That's a really good question and all I can surmise is that it would have to be money.

Then I thought money from what, Life Insurance? The official cause of death is suicide, I thought insurance companies didn't pay out benefits if the policyholder committed suicide? Turns out I was wrong. Like me a lot of people believe that if you commit suicide, your life insurance will refuse to pay out...bottom line. The end. Period.

In actuality, that’s not always the case. The answer is actually in an individual life insurance policy. Many life insurance policies, just like any other insurance coverage, come with certain exclusions that null and void any benefits should you expire in a certain way, (i.e., suicide.) However, there can be fine print attached to that exclusion.

Some policies will pay benefits even if the policyholder committed suicide, but the policyholder would have had to commit suicide after holding the life insurance policy for two to three years depending on the carrier.

This means his wife Vicky would have had to be in on it. She is the only person able to tie it all together. Her having talked to Chris,(on his cell phone most likely) leaves a record on Chris' phone they had spoken.

Then her calling Martin Kristen's hotel room phone to ask him to go check on Chris gave him a reason to go back to Cornell's room and gave him the urgency to enter the room in the fashion in which he did. If she had never called him saying Chris didn't seem like he was okay and wanted Kristen to check on him, then what reason would he have had to even go back to Chris' room? And what reason would he have had for kicking down the door?

None. And investigators would have smelled a rat.

The only other angle I can see for a motive besides straight up financial gain is that Kristen and Vicky wanted to be together and the only person in they way would have been Chris. So they'd get to be together plus the financial aspect.

But that seems highly unlikely considering how suspicious that would look if Martin and Vicky were seen in public together out on a date anytime in the foreseeable future or at all period.

Been a huge Cornell fan for a long time and have been deeply affected by his death.

Whilst I found the notion of him committing suicide hard to accept as he came across as such a level headed guy, I really don't think it was murder. Plausible? Anything is plausible really, if you mentally construct a framework in which it could happen.

I find the post above suggesting various potential motives/theories - such as his wife having an affair with his personal bodyguard - very disrespectful to a family who are still in the early stages of grieving. I'm not a friend of the family by any means, but Chris, his wife and his mother in law were all very active on social media, and between that and the numerous interviews they gave over the years, it was obvious that Chris and his wife were utterly devoted to each other and their children. She comes from a Greek background where family values take priority over almost everything else and there's nothing at all to suggest she was in any way involved in his death.

To be honest, the Ativan theory put forward by Mrs Cornell makes perfect sense and a few Doctors have already agreed as such in public interviews over the last few days.

The only question that's been bugging me why Chris asked his bodyguard to fix his laptop if he was intending on taking his own life within the next 30-40mins. If anything I guess that question is answer by the Ativan side effect causing him to behave very irrationally and impulsively when it kicked in.

Perhaps when his computer is investigated, a suicide note will be there.
Or, he may have sent an email or some sort of communication via the laptop.
Or, he may have received an email or some sort of communication via the laptop.
Is there any information about his physical health? Was he possibly suffering from an (undisclosed) chronic illness?

Billie Jean (Michael Jackson cover)


A different rendition. But it is that voice...

a reply to: elgaz

I find the post above suggesting various potential motives/theories - such as his wife having an affair with his personal bodyguard - very disrespectful to a family who are still in the early stages of grieving. I'm not a friend of the family by any means, but Chris, his wife and his mother in law were all very active on social media, and between that and the numerous interviews they gave over the years, it was obvious that Chris and his wife were utterly devoted to each other and their children. She comes from a Greek background where family values take priority over almost everything else and there's nothing at all to suggest she was in any way involved in his death.

First of all this is a CONSPIRACY FORUM. You do understand that, right?

Second of all I had also mentioned in Part 3 of my original post that Chris most likely committed suicide, and it had been a thought experiment/exercise and nothing more.

Third of all because something may "seem obvious" means absolutely nothing, especially when it comes to relationships. A couple may behave/seem one way in the public (i.e.; utterly devoted to each other) but be terribly miserable in private.

Fourth of all most cultures put family values before almost anything else, so her coming from a Greek background means nothing and is completely ill-relevant.

You've added nothing of value to the conversation other than showing your apart of the Recreational Outraged.

Eat a steak, drink a beer and get over it, snowflake.

Ah, sweet love

To My Sweet Christopher,

You were the best father, husband and son-in-law. Your patience, empathy and love always showed through.

You had always said I saved you, that you wouldn't be alive if it were not for me. My heart gleamed to see you happy, living and motivated. Excited for life. Doing everything you could to give back. We had the time of our lives in the last decade and I'm sorry, my sweet love, that I did not see what happened to you that night. I'm sorry you were alone, and I know that was not you, my sweet Christopher. Your children know that too, so you can rest in peace.

I’m broken, but I will stand up for you and I will take care of our beautiful babies. I will think of you every minute of every day and I will fight for you. You were right when you said we are soulmates. It has been said that paths that have crossed will cross again, and I know that you will come find me, and I will be here waiting.

I love you more than anyone has ever loved anyone in the history of loving and more than anyone ever will.

Always and forever, Your Vicky

www.billboard.com...

One more video.

Chris and Toni Cornell (daughter) - Redemption Song (Marley)

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

That was sweet.

Badass bro

Guess who....

I'm sorry but if you want me to believe this is murder?
I first have to be shown somebody who wanted him dead.
And I doubt anyone can come close to pointing out a
soul on earth that could've wanted Chris Cornell dead.

Speculate all year long if like that's cool.

But the hard truth of the matter is he was human and he @$#%ed up.

Accidental suicide and real horrible trajedy. But that's it.

Sucks.

a reply to: randyvs

No one had anything to gain by killing him.. but everyone had a lot to lose. The man had no enemies.. he was a good guy.

This is one of my and the husbands fave songs by him. Im so sick of Black hole Sun I could puke.. he had an amazing range and this oldie really shows it.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
Billie Jean (Michael Jackson cover)

A different rendition. But it is that voice...

F'n WOW!