Chris Cornell death latest: Police 'investigating possible suicide'

Officer finds singer's body 'laying in his bathroom, unresponsive'

Police are investigating whether Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell killed himself, it has been reported.

The singer died aged 52 after playing a concert at the Fox Theatre in Detroit on Wednesday night.

Detroit Police are investigating the death as "possible suicide", but say it is too early to determine how the singer died, according to Billboard.

Michael Woody, Detroit Police Department's spokesman, said Cornell’s body was found unresponsive in his hotel room.

"When the units arrived they were met by a gentleman who indicated that Chris Cornell had been found in his room," he said.

”When officers went to the room they found Chris Cornell laying in his bathroom, unresponsive and he had passed away. We are investigating it as a possible suicide but we need to wait on the medical examiner to determine the cause and manner of death.”

Officers reportedly received a 911 call requesting assistance from an unnamed person at the MGM Grand Casino in downtown Detroit. Cornell was pronounced dead on scene.

Local publication WXYZ reports that Cornell's wife called a family friend to check up on the singer's well-being. The friend forced down the hotel door, finding Cornell on the bathroom floor.

Cornell's representative Brian Bumbery called the death "sudden and unexpected" in the statement. The singer's family asked for privacy while they work with a medical examiner to determine the cause of death.

Tributes to Cornell have flooded social media, paying respect to the great singer. He was best known for fronting the two iconic bands and singing 'You Know My Name', the theme song for James Bond film Casino Royale.

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Cornell was one of the chief architects of the grunge movement, forming Soundgarden alongside guitarist Kim Thyail and bassist Hiro Yamamoto in 1984.

Soundgarden were famously the first grunge band to sign to a major label (A&M in 1988), paving the way for the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains to break out.

After initially breaking up, Cornell formed Audioslave with Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello, Tim Commerford and Brad Wilk. Cornell left the supergroup in 2007 to concentrate on solo material before regrouping with Soundgarden in 2010.

Last year, Cornell spoke about how playing acoustically has tied together his entire career. "In some strange way, it’s made sense of my 30-odd years of songwriting," he told The Independent. "All the different bands and solo projects and everything in-between are all so varied and eclectic. I wanted to string all that together somehow in an acoustic show and I think it's the first time that it can all be in one show and make sense."

Cornell struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for many years, checking into rehab in 2003. Speaking to Spin at the time, he said: “I actually like rehab a lot. It’s like school; it’s interesting. I’m learning that I can be teachable at age 38. I would sometimes drink before we played. It wasn’t a big deal. It became a bigger deal when I stopped doing the other things I liked to do. I used to ride mountain bikes around with my friends, and we’d keep 40-ouncers where the water bottle was supposed to be. But once I removed the mountain and the bike, there was just the drinking.”

In 2012, Cornell — along with wife Vicky — created The Chris & Vicky Cornell Foundation that works with vulnerable children, based on their personal experiences as children.