Slipknot, Bush and more pay tribute to Chris Cornell at Ohio festival (video)

 May 22, 2017 - 12:17 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Bands performing at Rock On The Range festival on Friday, May 19 paid tribute to Chris Cornell in the wake of his death, NME reports.

The Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman died after performing in Detroit on May 18. The band were due to headline the first night of the festival.

The Columbus, Ohio festival announced before the event kicked off that they would be using the weekend to honour the late musician. Gavin Rossdale’s Bush covered Soundgarden’s ‘Black Hole Sun’, while Live performed a version of Audioslave’s ‘I Am The Highway’.

Slipknot and Stone Sour‘s Corey Taylor, meanwhile, played Temple Of The Dog’s ‘Hunger Strike’ in honour of Cornell.

On May 18, a medical examiner determined that Cornell committed suicide by hanging. However, Cornell’s family has suggested that prescription drugs could have played a role in the musician’s death.

A police report obtained by The Detroit News states that Cornell’s wife Vicky asked the singer’s bodyguard to check on her husband because “he did not sound like he is okay” in a telephone conversation she had with him. During that phone call, Cornell is said to have been slurring, admitted to taking “an extra Ativan [anti-anxiety medication] or two” and repeatedly said, “I am just tired”.

Cornell’s bodyguard Martin Kirsten is said to have kicked down two doors to gain entry to Cornell’s hotel room, finding the frontman on the bathroom floor “with blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band around [his] neck”.

Both a hotel medic and an emergency medical technician unsuccessfully performed CPR on Cornell, who was pronounced dead at 1.30am local time.

As tributes poured in for Cornell following the news of his passing, Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello posted an emotional eulogy to his bandmate.

“I love you, brother,” the tribute began. “Thank you for your friendship and your humor and your intellect and your singular and unmatched talent. It was a great honor to know you as a friend and as a band mate.”