It’s odd that we mourn people we never met, but this morning I was saddened to hear that Chris Cornell, the singer and songwriter best known for fronting the grunge band Soundgarden, has passed away.

There is no replacing Cornell, and not just because we have already said premature goodbyes to his grunge peers Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, and Scott Weiland. Despite sharing their genre Cornell didn’t sound much like any of them, with a voice more soulful and a very different sense of melody.


Perhaps Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” best captures what the man was capable of:


He died at the age of 52, far too soon. R.I.P.