I was pretty bummed when I heard the news that Chris Cornell had passed away, I just didn’t realize that his death affected me more than it first seemed to.

I spent that Friday night looking / listening to old Soundgarden and Audioslave songs, then I came across the episode that Chris Cornell did with Marc Maron, how did I miss that? I listen to Marc’s podcast from time to time or at least keep tabs on it to see who he is interviewing.

I heard the whole episode, it was really good. Chris talked about his past, how Soundgarden came to be, seriously, listen to it

In the episode Marc mentioned the Chris Cameron documentary - Pearl Jam Twenty, I had not heard about it before. I started watching it and finished it, it brought back a ton of memories, and emotions.

Emotions from watching songs like Alive, Jeremy, memories of my difficult times that the songs helped me through.

Then the flood gates opened with the Soundgarden songs, Black hole sun, Pretty noose, Burden in my hand, Fell on black days, The day I tried to live, Blow up the outside world. These songs matter to me, they carried me through those times.

My eyes started getting wet, I realized Chris’s passing away meant more to me than on the surface. It meant that I lost someone who is part of my identity in some sense, part of who I am in a way.

He left a mark on the music world, there were a ton of tributes from musicians all over.

These are some of the ones that stood out for me:

I can’t imagine being on a stage and singing Like a stone, on stage like Taylor Momsen did. The Pretty Reckless tribute to Chris Cornell

Morgan James did an excellent version of Black Hole Sun, totally made it her own. Morgan James tribute to Chris Cornell

Corey Glover from Living Color got choked up performing Blow up the outside world. Living Color tribute to Chris Cornell