Soundgarden's last show with Chris Cornell: Fox Theatre, Detroit, May 17, 2017

About the artist

Soundgarden formed in Seattle in 1984^[1]. Chris Cornell and bassist Hiro Yamamoto started the band, and guitarist Kim Thayil joined soon after^[2][1]. The name came from a public sculpture of pipes that made sounds in the wind^[2].

Their first release was the 1987 Screaming Life EP on Seattle's Sub Pop, which, according to Thayil, had been recorded as a full album^[3]. The 1988 debut album, Ultramega OK^[4], earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance^[5]. According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and GRAMMY.com, Soundgarden were the first grunge band to sign with a major label^[6][7]. After Louder Than Love (1989)^[2], Yamamoto left in 1989^[8]. Badmotorfinger (1991) gave the band their first US Top 40 album^[9] and went double platinum^[2].

Their fourth album, Superunknown, came out on March 8, 1994, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with about 310,000 copies, stayed on the chart for 80 weeks and went five times platinum. The lineup was Cornell on vocals and guitar, Thayil on guitar, Ben Shepherd on bass and Matt Cameron on drums^[7], the same four who played Detroit in 2017^[10]. At the 1995 Grammys, "Spoonman" won Best Metal Performance and "Black Hole Sun," which the Hall of Fame calls the band's commercial breakthrough, won Best Hard Rock Performance^[7][6]. Down on the Upside (1996) reached No. 2^[2].

Cornell also sang outside the band: on Temple of the Dog's 1991 album, a tribute to Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood; with Audioslave, formed in 2001 with members of Rage Against the Machine, who made three albums before splitting in 2007; and on the Casino Royale theme he co-wrote in 2006. Nielsen Music counted almost 15 million albums sold in the US across his bands and solo work^[1]. Tom Morello has said that Soundgarden redeemed hard rock^[6].

Why this was thought to be the end

Soundgarden broke up in 1997^[1]. Cornell later said the band had simply been ready for a break^[11].

On January 1, 2010, he tweeted that the 12-year break was over. On April 16 the band played an 18-song set at the Showbox at the Market in Seattle under the name Nudedragons, and that summer they headlined Lollapalooza^[11]. King Animal, their first studio album in 16 years^[12], came out in November 2012 and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200^[11][13]. In 2014 there was a 20th-anniversary reissue and tour for Superunknown^[7], and a co-headlining tour with Nine Inch Nails^[11].

Work on a seventh album began in 2015, with breaks while Cornell toured his solo album Higher Truth and Cameron played with Pearl Jam^[4][12]. In December 2016 Cornell told the radio station KLOS that in 2017 he would commit himself one hundred percent to the new Soundgarden record. Thayil said they had held a few writing and jam sessions but did not yet have enough songs for an album, and wanted to get to it in 2017^[13].

On February 27, 2017, the band announced a spring North American run. It mixed headlining shows with rock festivals, from a festival in Tampa, Florida, on April 28 to Rocklahoma in Pryor, Oklahoma, on May 27, with the Fox Theatre in Detroit on May 17. The Pretty Reckless and the Dillinger Escape Plan were to support on some dates, and the band was expected to go into the studio for the new album later in the year^[4]. Two days after Detroit, on May 19, Soundgarden were due to headline the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio^[4][14]. Nothing on the schedule was billed as a last show. As Radio X put it, the band did not know Detroit would be their last show together^[15].

A few hours after the Detroit show, that same night, Cornell died in Detroit. He was 52^[1][2]. His publicist said his wife, Vicky, and his family were shocked by his sudden and unexpected passing^[2]. All six remaining tour dates were canceled^[16], including the Rock on the Range headline slot^[14].

Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron did not carry on as Soundgarden. In October 2018 Thayil told the Seattle Times that writing new music as a three-piece was not something they would give reasonable consideration to, and that there were no plans to tour as Soundgarden^[17]. A month later he told Billboard that the band was unlikely ever to work with "a missing piece," and that he did not see the dignity in pursuing that course. The three would probably make music together again, he said, but not as Soundgarden^[3].

So the night in Detroit became Chris Cornell's last show with Soundgarden^[15][12]. The surviving members have since played as Soundgarden with guest singers, at a 2019 tribute concert and at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, both covered below. Because this site counts later performances under the same name, the show is classed as "Not the end after all."

What is known about the day

The Fox Theatre stands on Woodward Avenue, Detroit's main street. It opened on September 21, 1928, as a movie palace, with the silent film Street Angel. Designed by C. Howard Crane, it has more than 5,000 seats. The Ilitch family bought it in 1987 and restored it for $12 million, and it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Elvis Presley played there three times in 1956^[18].

That afternoon Cornell tweeted a photo of the venue, saying he was finally back in Detroit Rock City^[19]. The Pretty Reckless opened^[20]. According to a reporter from local station WDIV, the show was sold out, the crowd was full of hardcore fans, many dressed in black, and it started a few minutes late. The audience screamed as the band walked on^[21].

They opened with "Ugly Truth," followed by "Hunted Down" and "Non-State Actor." Fourth came just the intro of "Searching With My Good Eye Closed" from Badmotorfinger^[15][9]. The WDIV reporter singled out the back-to-back "Spoonman" and "Outshined" as an early highlight^[21]. Cornell told the crowd it was great to be back, honestly^[19], and fist-bumped fans in the front row^[21]. "Black Hole Sun" also came in the first half^[10][15].

Thayil told Ultimate Classic Rock five years later that partway through, one of Cornell's guitars fell out of tune and a backup wasn't ready. Cornell left the stage, telling the others to start without him, and Shepherd jammed until he came back^[19]. The Metro Times review found the band in top form, and wrote that alongside songs from King Animal and Superunknown, the Badmotorfinger material let the four of them push off each other^[10].

Cornell told Detroit he had been bragging about its crowds for 30 years and had never been disappointed there^[10][19]. When they cheered, he answered, "That's the spirit"^[22].

The main set ended with "Jesus Christ Pose," for which Cornell picked up his guitar and his mic stand^[10].

The encore was two more songs from 1991's Badmotorfinger, "Rusty Cage" and "Slaves & Bulldozers"^[15][12][9]. The Metro Times called it the highest-energy stretch of the night, with Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron trading riffs^[10]. Cornell joked that he felt sorry for the next city on the tour, since its fans should have been in Detroit^[10][19].

In the middle of "Slaves & Bulldozers," the last song of the night, Cornell sang part of "In My Time of Dying," the old gospel song later made famous by Led Zeppelin^[15][10]. According to Thayil, Cornell often dropped snippets of other songs into the ends of shows^[19].

When it was over, Cornell walked off with feedback still droning. Thayil stayed behind, cut the noise and turned off the lights, and the crowd kept cheering after the band had gone^[10]. The show had run about two hours and 19 songs^[15][19]. Afterward Cornell tweeted that Detroit was finally back to Rock City^[12].

Looking back five years later, Thayil told Ultimate Classic Rock that he had thought it was a good show. After a tragedy, he said, people look back for reasons and "get causality in reverse"^[19].

What the show left behind

On May 19, the night Soundgarden should have headlined Rock on the Range in Columbus, other acts played tributes instead. LIVE covered Audioslave's "I Am the Highway," and Stone Sour's Corey Taylor and Christian Martucci played Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike." Afterward the festival played "Black Hole Sun" with Cornell's vocal isolated^[14]. The same evening, fans gathered outside the Fox Theatre in Detroit to remember him with music^[23]. Taylor Momsen of the Pretty Reckless, who had opened the show, wrote that Detroit had been their final show with Soundgarden, and called the tour "new family"^[20].

In September Cameron told Billboard that the band was hurting along with the fans. "We're extremely private people," he said, and the three of them were processing their grief in their own way and on their own time^[24].

On October 7, 2018, a life-size statue of Cornell was unveiled outside the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle. Vicky Cornell had commissioned it from the artist Nick Marras and donated it to the museum^[25], and Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd attended the unveiling^[3]. Afterward the museum screened Soundgarden's 2013 show at the Wiltern^[25].

On January 16, 2019, I Am the Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell filled the Forum in Los Angeles. Jimmy Kimmel hosted, Metallica, Foo Fighters and Miley Cyrus were among the performers, and there were sets of Temple of the Dog songs with guest singers and from Audioslave's Tom Morello and Brad Wilk^[26][27]. Proceeds went to the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation and the Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation^[28][27]. Near the end of nearly five hours, Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron came out together, playing for the first time since Cornell's death^[27][28]. Taylor Momsen, Marcus Durant, Buzz Osborne, Taylor Hawkins and Wayne Kramer took turns at the microphone, and their eighth song, "Black Hole Sun" with Brandi Carlile and Peter Frampton, closed the night at about 12:30 a.m.^[28][27]. iHeartRadio wrote that the set would likely go down as the last of the band's career^[28].

The next month, at the 61st Grammy Awards, "When Bad Does Good," a new song on the posthumous career retrospective Chris Cornell, won Best Rock Performance. His daughter Toni and son Christopher accepted^[29][5].

In April 2025 Soundgarden were voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as performers^[30]. At the ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on November 8, Jim Carrey introduced them^[8][6]. The three surviving members and Hiro Yamamoto, who had left in 1989, played "Rusty Cage," the song that had opened the Detroit encore, with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Taylor Momsen. Brandi Carlile and Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell joined for "Black Hole Sun," and to close, Cornell's daughter Toni sang an acoustic "Fell on Black Days" with Heart's Nancy Wilson^[8][31]. His elder daughter, Lily Cornell, paid tribute to her father^[31].

In July 2026 Thayil told Ultimate Guitar that the band was aiming to release a final album built from recordings Cornell left behind, eight or nine songs, in 2027. A tour with guest singers had come up only in general terms, and nothing was planned^[32].

The last song heard in Detroit was "Slaves & Bulldozers." Since then the Soundgarden name has come back before an audience twice, without Cornell's voice.