Chris's passing hits me hard, because he was really an idol of mine. I think that more than others he really captured the spirit of the grunge scene. He was the soft sell, but that spoke loud. In a documentary, he said that Seattle was cool, but it was COLD, and RAINY, and you Californians don't want to move up here! I was a Californian that moved up there. And when I got up there, I knew what he was talking about. The pacific northwest is a beautiful region with it's own sort of organic, non-materialistic culture, sort of the opposite of the southern California vibe I was feeling at the time. I moved up to Seattle in 1997, after a short stop over in Hawaii, and I was a practicing musician at the time. Even by 1997, though, the grunge vibe was dead, there was really nothing left. I played in several bands in many clubs in downtown Seattle and the greater sound area from roughly 1999 to 2006, and it was a pretty prosaic scene. It never really recovered from Curt Cobain's death. Lane Staley from Alice in chains died in 2002, but I never saw him play downtown, and I would have cause I was there.
Chris Cornell was always an inspiration to a rock singer, though. He was to me. Euphoria morning was an inspirational album for me and helped me get through an oxycontin addiction I went through in the early 2000's. I think Chris probably had his own crisis in that capacity. I think half of the Seattle downtown scene was hooked on oxy from, say 2003-2008.
In any case, here are two of my favorite songs from Chris:
.