Chris Cornell funeral: Dave Grohl, Metallica, Brad Pitt among mourners
LOS ANGELES — Rock royalty paid tribute to singer Chris Cornell at his memorial service Friday at Fairbanks Lawn at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
The private ceremony opened with one of Cornell's final songs, The Promise, which he wrote for the Armenian genocide film of the same name. Later, Temple of the Dog’s All Night Thing was heard as the mourners headed to the burial site after the service.
The service included eulogies by several of his bandmates: Soungarden guitarist Kim Thayil and drummer Matt Cameron and Audioslave co-founder Tom Morello, who was one of several mourners in motorcycle jackets. His had the crest of his alma mater, Harvard University, on the back.
"Chris was as melodic as The Beatles, as rocking as (Black) Sabbath and as haunting as Edgar Allan Poe,” Morello said.
Actor Josh Brolin also spoke and Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington sang Hallelujah for mourners, which included numerous members of rock royalty and Cornell’s widow Vicky and his two youngest children.
Members of Soundgarden, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog were joined in the mourning section by a who's-who of rock, with more than a half-dozen Hall of Famers including the surviving members of Nirvana, Dave Grohl and Krist Novaselic, Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament, Metallica members James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, Nile Rodgers and the Eagles' Joe Walsh.
Other celebrities in attendance: Jane's Addiction frontman and Lollapalooza founder Perry Farrell and bandmate Dave Navarro, singer/producer Pharrell Williams, Billy Idol, Courtney Love, Bush singer Gavin Rossdale, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell and actors Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, James Franco and Fred Armisen.
The private funeral was to be followed by a 3 p.m. PT public memorial and viewing of Cornell’s final resting place, which features a headstone that says, “Voice of our generation and an artist for all time.”
Outside the gates, Melody Andrade brought her 4-year-old son Jude to pay respects to Cornell. The pair wore matching T-shirts that read, “Say Hello 2 Heaven," referencing the 1991 song from Temple of the Dog, a project he formed with members of Pearl Jam to honor his late roommate, Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood.
“I feel like this is just as big as the death of Elvis or John Lennon. That’s why I had to bring my son,” Andrade said. “There will never be another. He’s a modern day Freddie Mercury. I needed some closure on this.”
Hollywood Forever Cemetery is the final resting place for numerous stars, including Jayne Mansfield, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B. DeMille.
Cornell, 52, was pronounced dead May 18 after he was found unresponsive in a Detroit hotel room hours after performing a concert with Soundgarden. Coroner’s officials released say preliminary autopsy results show the singer hanged himself, but full toxicology results remain pending. The singer’s family has disputed the findings and claim Cornell may have taken more of an anti-anxiety drug than he was prescribed.
The Seattle native was a leading voice of the grunge movement in the 1990s. Besides Soundgarden, he scored hits as a solo artist and with bands Temple of the Dog and Audioslave.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
Vicky Cornell penned an open letter to her husband that was posted online by Billboard on Wednesday in which she promised to fight for him and take care of their children.
“We had the time of our lives in the last decade and I’m sorry, my sweet love, that I did not see what happened to you that night. I’m sorry you were alone, and I know that was not you, my sweet Christopher. Your children know that too, so you can rest in peace,” she wrote.
