COLUMBUS, OH – Soundgarden, which had performed 12 of the 18 shows slated on the band’s 2017 tour, canceled the last six shows after the death of frontman Chris Cornell around midnight after the band’s May 17 show in Detroit. The death of Cornell, 52, the Seattle grunge rock icon who also garnered acclaim as frontman for Audioslave, Temple of the Dog (pictured here) and his own solo shows, had been classified as a suicide by a medical examiner.
After Detroit, the band was due to travel to Columbus, OH to headline the first night of the Rock on the Range Festival (May 19-21), joining a lineup that includes Korn, Bush, The Offspring, Metallica, Primus, Volbeat, Coheed & Cambria and other acts. Instead of canceling the festival, with performances over three days at Mapfre Stadium, promoters Live Nation are planning a special tribute.
The next tour date after Columbus would have been a headlining slot near St. Louis, MO at Pointfest, an event slated for the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, MO on May 20. That event’s sponsor, alt-rock radio station 105.7 The Point, opted to cancel the May 20 festival date.
Other acts slated to perform at Pointfest on May 20 included Stone Sour, Pierce the Veil and Biffy Clyro, among others. (May 20 would have been the second of two Pointfest dates for 2017; the first, on May 13, went on despite the absence of that night’s headlining act, Korn.)
The remaining dates on Soundgarden’s 2017 tour included shows at Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium (May 22), Houston’s Revention Musice Center (May 25), the Bomb Factory in Dallas (May 26) and Rocklahoma in Pryor, OK (May 27). Organizers for Rocklahoma, a three-day event set for May 26-28, expressed condolences on their Facebook page but did not make any announcement that the event would be canceled.
Prior to the 2017 reunion with fellow Soundgarden bandmates, Cornell toured in 2016 to mark the 25th anniversary of the release of Temple of the Dog’s one album, the self-titled Temple of the Dog, in 1991.
While celebratory in some respects, Cornell had conceived of the band and album as a tribute to his friend Andrew Wood, lead singer for alt rock bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, who died March 16, 1990, from a heroinoverdose.
FRONT of HOUSE sister publication PLSN covered the production design for that reunion tour in Feb. 2017; for more, go to http://plsn.com/current-issue/74-production-profile/22023.
