'So unexpected’: Kim Thayil opens up on Chris Cornell’s death in upcoming memoir

Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil has opened up about the tragic loss of Chris Cornell in an emotional excerpt from his highly anticipated upcoming memoir.

Trigger warning: This article discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, check out our mental health resources. 

Writing in ‘A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond’, Thayil shared his journey from an American son of immigrants, to his experiences with the band.  

In a newly released excerpt shared by Rolling Stone, he also dives into the incredibly raw and unexpected loss of his close mate in 2017.

Thayil reflected on the band’s final show with Cornell at Detroit’s Fox Theatre in May 2017, admitting he sensed something was different, describing Cornell’s demeanour as “strange”. 

"I’d known Chris long enough to sense when something was amiss. It wasn’t just that he was tired - there was something deeper, though he didn’t feel comfortable opening up to me.” 

Thayil then shared the devastating way the band found out, which happened to be through social media. 

They were on the road to Ohio for the Rock on the Range festival, when drummer Matt Cameron called Thayil, saying “'Kim, I’m reading a lot of weird shit on the internet. Somebody posted ‘RIP: Chris Cornell’ on my Facebook page.'” 

Thayil admitted his first instinct was to completely dismiss the posts as “absolute bullshit”, knowing how frequently celebrity death hoaxes spread online. 

Tragically, it was real.

He described the death as “so unexpected”. 

“If Chris had done something like that when the band were younger in the late '80s or maybe even the mid-'90s, on the heels of the deaths of Andy Wood, Kurt Cobain and Chris’ good friend Jeff Buckley, it might have made more sense," the guitarist confessed.

 The guitar legend admitted he has carried immense grief and guilt over missing the warning signs. 

"I should have read him. That’s hurtful," he wrote. "You can only look in retrospect and go, 'Ah, here’s an indicator. There was nothing that was on my radar that I could read at that time.” 

Reflecting on the aftermath, Thayil said the band largely withdrew from public view while trying to process what had happened.

It hit each of us at different times. But eventually, we all found ourselves wondering - was there something we missed? Something we should have noticed, said, or done that might have changed everything?

In November last year, Soundgarden was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the surviving members of the band were joined by original bassist Hiro Yamamoto for the first time in 36 years. 

They played two songs, with Taylor Momsen and Mike McCready joining them for “Rusty Cage”, while Brandi Carlile and Jerry Cantrell jumped in for “Black Hole Sun”. 

While Soundgarden continues to celebrate its legacy, Thayil's memoir makes it clear that the loss of Cornell is something the band is still learning to live with.