Chris Cornell, Audioslave and Soundgarden singer dies at 52

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rocker Chris Cornell, who gained fame as the lead singer of Soundgarden and later Audioslave, has died at the age of 52, his representative has revealed, according to The Telegraph.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Brian Bumbery says Cornell died Wednesday night, May 17 in Detroit.

Bumbery called the death "sudden and unexpected" and said his wife and family were shocked by it. The statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and asked for privacy.

The American singer was one of the founders of the grunge moment in Seattle in the Nineties, where he formed Soundgarden, best known for their Grammy Award-winning singles Black Hole Sun and Spoonman. He had a four octave vocal range and continued to make music after Soundgarden broke up in 1997 (they later reformed in 2010), including writing a Bond theme in 2006.

Cornell went on to form supergroup Audioslave, which he fronted alongside former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk, in 2001.

But Cornell forged a successful career as a solo artist and songwriter between his time in bands. His 1999 solo album, Euphoria Morning, was the first of five spanning 16 years. His last, Higher Truth, reached the US top 20, following its release in 2015. He toured with Linkin Park and Aerosmith in the late Noughties, and played Hyde Park as recently as 2012.

Cornell also made a foray into film soundtrack composition, writing the Casino Royale theme You Know My Name and The Keeper, which he won a Golden Globe nomination for and appeared in the film Machine Gun Preacher.