KALAMAZOO —

I've had several people ask about the red phone that was on stage during Chris Cornell's

last week.

Cornell never addressed it during the show and it never rang, so I didn't think much of it. After another reader asked Monday, I looked into it.

According to a representative with the New York-based Press Here Publicity, which handled promotion for Cornell's solo tour, the phone belonged to singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley.

, after someone yelled out, "What's with the red phone?," Cornell told the audience it was given to him by the mother of a friend who had died, but he didn't say a name.

"That's the actual true version," Cornell says in a YouTube clip from the concert (see it below). "There's a whole bunch of other b------ reasons I make up sometimes, that's the real one."

The immensely talented Buckley

, after drowning in the Memphis harbor. According to a story in the New York Times, "Mr. Buckley and a friend had stopped by the harbor on their way to a rehearsal studio last week. Mr. Buckley was wading and swimming when a speedboat passed by, creating a wake. The friend, Keith Foti, said he turned away to protect the pair's stereo and that when he looked up, Mr. Buckley had disappeared."

Cornell and Buckley were friends. On Cornell's 1999 solo album, "Euphoria Morning," he wrote the song "Wave Goodbye" for Buckley.