May is Mental Health Awareness Month. No person is worthless, no situation is hopeless. Please consult our Direct Help Resources page if you are someone you know is in distress. Help is out there.
S.L.A.M. is marking Mental Health Awareness Month with articles about emotionally powerful songs. Not necessarily the earworms, the chart-toppers, the wedding dance songs, the sappy romances, etc., but the ones that give you all the feelings. No emotion is off-limits.
Trigger warnings: suicide.
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No one sings like you anymore.
Chris Cornell’s early Soundgarden vocals were a force of nature. . . Unspeakably powerful, brash, full-throated, sardonic, savage, and Louder Than Love. He stood on the speakers of Aretha Franklin, Burton Cummings, Ronnie James Dio, Marva Whitney, Robert Plant, Ian Gillan, Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, Brian Johnson, Freddie Mercury, et al, shouting a new era of music into existence.
His voice peeled the paint from the stars.
And then came the Singles movie soundtrack.[1] Here was this haunting, beautiful, Folky acoustic song, released under his own name, markedly unlike anything we’d ever heard from him before. “Seasons” was not a ballad, but it showcased a gentler side of Chris Cornell, graceful and elegant as a Sunshower. We learned that his voice wasn’t all soar and screech; his low, soulful timbre was every bit as majestic as his wail. Chris wasn’t limited to just California and Minnesota; he could induce all kinds of other states. We’d hear this aural diversity throughout the rest of his career, from Black Days to Euphoria Mornings, supercharging Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, and his solo career.
He lived like a murder, but he died. . . [2]
I discovered the acoustic version of “Like Suicide” on a another soundtrack: the S.F.W. CD at my college radio station. It reminded me of his other solo acoustic stuff, but was darker, more complex, and just plain deeper than “Seasons” or “Sunshower.” “Like Suicide” became one of two songs that I played in every one of my radio shows.[3] There’s a better-known, guitar-drum-bass-vox version that closes out Soundgarden’s 1994 album, Superunknown, but I heard the voice-and-guitar one first. And for me, it’s not only the definitive take, but it’s Chris’s greatest accomplishment – – among many – – in his storied career. What an incredible 6 minutes this is. The minimalist, modified open-G guitar tuning and bare emotional singing are gorgeous and mesmerizing. This song will stop you in your tracks, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. I do like the Grungy Metal version too – – don’t get me wrong – – but the acoustic “Like Suicide” is transcendent.
“Like Suicide” is not the fatalistic lament that it appears. The origin story (where’s my VH1 Pop-up?): A robin flew into a glass window at Chris’s home while he was working on new music. He heard the noise, then found the bird lying bloodied on the ground outside, still alive with a broken neck. He ended its suffering with a brick. ”Lent to finish her.” This heartwrenching experience informed the words and music that would become “Like Suicide.” It absolutely comes through.
How I feel for you.
Tragically, two decades later, on May 18, 2017, the song title took on a whole new meaning, as it did for a number of other lyrics in his catalog. Alone, a few hours after performing with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre, Chris Cornell overdosed on Ativan and hung himself in a Detroit hotel room. He was 52, the same age I am now.
All that power, all that talent, all that love. . . He left behind legions of heartbroken fans, a vast community of friends and collaborators, a legacy of brilliant persona and timeless music, and most importantly, a wife and three children.
Now we have to seek out another road, because this one has ended abrupt.
RIP Chris Cornell. You Outshined us all. Say Hello to Heaven. Say Hello to Andrew Wood.[4]
Wait for us there.
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Jack Mangan is the founder and Executive Director of Support Life And Music (S.L.A.M.). His journalism and essays have also appeared at the Metal Hall of Fame, MetalAsylum.net, and The Metal Voice. His novel, “Dread Spherical,” released in March 2026.
- “Seasons” was released at around the same time on the obscure Pourcier EP, named for Matt Dillon’s character in Singles.
- I’d always heard it as “She lived like a mother.” I think the entire internet is wrong.
- The other was Sisters of Mercy – “More.”
- Andrew Wood, the frontman for Mother Love Bone, died of a heroin overdose in 1991. Chris Cornell and others from the Seattle scene formed the Temple of the Dog supergroup and recorded one self-titled album of incredible songs in his honor. The lead track is “Say Hello to Heaven.”