Basically, as I was driving home, I was noticing, "Huh. 98.9 is playing a lot of Soundgarden and similar bands, wonder why?"
It didn't take long before I heard, "Celebrating the life and music of Chris Cornell", and instantly, I went, "Uh-oh...", and maaaaaaaaaay have begun speeding in order to get home faster just to figure out the truth, since that is a phrase usually reserved for one thing, and one thing only.
Sure enough, as of last night apparently, he's no longer alive. And apparently by his own hand, given he died from hanging. It's such a sad, sad, heartbreaking thing. Apparently the curse of Seattle is strong--most famously with Kurt Cobain of Nirvana's suicide, but there's also Layne Stanley AND Mike Starr from Alice in Chains. (I personally never heard the name because it was before my time and yet not as famously so as Kurt Cobain, but there's also Andrew Wood, from a predecessor band to bands like Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog. Similarly so, John Baker Saunders of a band with Pearl Jam/Alice in Chains members.)
If you extend it to include California bands, you can also add in Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) and Bradley Nowell (Sublime). The full list is even longer than that, I'd have to do more extensive research than that. Butstill, we lose a lot of great minds, and it's heartbreaking at how many of those aren't of natural causes. Drugs are bad enough, but flat-out suicide is even more tragic.
So I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge a great grunge legend and pay my respect with this blog entry. It's not much, but...it's something, at least.