'I Didn't See It Coming' - Kim Thayil Opens Up on Chris Cornell's Death in Memoir

Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil opened up on Chris Cornell's shocking death in his upcoming new memoir A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond.

In an excerpt shared by Rolling Stone, the guitarist recalled his last moments with Cornell while Soundgarden were in Detroit, Mich. in May of 2017. He described the singer's demeanor as "strange" and revealed that he felt like something was off during their last-ever performance at the Fox Theatre.

"I’d known Chris long enough to sense when something was amiss. It wasn’t just that he was tired — there was something deeper, though he didn’t feel comfortable opening up to me. We weren’t hanging out much during this tour. After sound check, we’d briefly talk about the set, songs we were writing or ideas we were jamming on," Thayil wrote.

The guitarist then shared how he and his Soundgarden bandmates, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd, learned of Cornell's death in May of 2017. The musicians were en route to Columbus, Ohio — where they were scheduled to headline the first night of that year's Rock on the Range festival — when they learned the news from social media.

"We’d been on the road for an hour or two when Matt called me. 'Kim, I’m reading a lot of weird shit on the internet. Somebody posted ‘RIP: Chris Cornell’ on my Facebook page.' That didn’t seem possible to me. We’d just seen him a few hours ago," he continued.

Thayil figured the posts were a hoax, which has happened countless times with other celebrities in the past. But then he received confirmation from another member of their crew that it was true.

"Chris’ death and the manner in which he died were so unexpected. It seemed to me at the time to be so out of character in 2017. If Chris had done something like that when the band were younger in the late '80s or maybe even the mid-'90s, on the heels of the deaths of Andy Wood, Kurt Cobain and Chris’ good friend Jeff Buckley, it might have made more sense," the guitarist confessed.

"Decades later, at his age and being a father, it seemed unfathomable. Not in 2017. Maybe in 1997... I didn't see it coming. The thing that hurts me the most is to be a close friend and colleague and not to have read things that perhaps, in retrospect, I should have read. That’s hurtful. I feel like I let Chris down by not seeing the look in his eyes, or not hearing a tone in his voice — not being able to read it."

Thayil acknowledged that Cornell had written a lot of dark lyrics throughout Soundgarden's career but he assumed that they were written to match the vibe of the music, not necessarily because they were autobiographical of Cornell's deepest thoughts and feelings.

In the aftermath of the vocalist's death, everyone in his circle reflected and tried to figure out if there had been something they missed, according to the guitarist.

A Screaming Life: Into the Superunknown with Soundgarden and Beyond will be available June 9 and can be purchased through Soundgarden's website.

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