Never Before Seen Chris Cornell Pics: Val’s Photo Tribute

A year ago today, I didn't know the pictures that I snapped at Northern Invasion 2017 would have even more value. I was greatly saddened when I learned why.

In case you've been living under a rock, today marks a year since Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, Audioslave) passed away in a hotel room in Detroit after a show.

A lot of us had just seen him merely five days before at Northern Invasion 2017 rocking out with Soundgarden. His performance was as magical as I thought it would be (minus some sound issues), and since then I've gone on to truly cherish being in that front row watching their first three songs in their set.

These photos have not been published previously (out of respect), but today I wanted to celebrate and honor Chris. Here are his best moments that I snapped from that last festival date he played on May 13th, 2017 at Northern Invasion.

I swear in one of those photos he looked right at me and smiled! I remember wondering if he looked at me because I possibly reminded him of his daughter who is also small with (then) dark hair.

As I mentioned, a mere five days later I woke up to the news on the morning of May 18th reporting his death.

All I remember was the shock at first. Instantly our Z-Rock 107.7 team put together a Chris tribute to run all day long on the air. This was all before 1 pm that day. After, we finally learned that his death was indeed a suicide. We were devastated.

Chris touched so many lives and broke serious music records. Billboard reports, "Cornell first earned a Billboard No. 1 as part of Soundgarden, when the band's fourth album Superunknown debuted atop the Billboard 200 dated March 26, 1994 (and peaked for a week). Shortly after, the band achieved its first No. 1 song, as "Black Hole Sun" topped Mainstream Rock Songs for seven weeks beginning July 16, 1994." That doesn't even count his solo work, or time with Audioslave.

It hurts me to see that his family still struggles with his passing to this day. How can you not? I can't imagine what Vicky and the kids have been through.

Let's all remember Chris today.

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