Brad Pitt, Josh Brolin, Pharrell Williams and a number of notable rock figures attended a private memorial for late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell in Los Angeles on Friday, the Associated Press reports.
The singer, who died on May 18 at age 52 and was a seminal figure in Seattle’s grunge scene in the early 1990s, is being laid to rest at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell, and their two children attended the service, as did Chris’ Soundgarden bandmates and Tom Morello, who played with him in Audioslave.
Among the other rockers in attendance were Joe Walsh, Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich and Jane’s Addiction members Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro.
The ceremony, which opened with Cornell’s 2017 solo song “The Promise,” was to be followed by a public memorial.
Cornell was found dead in his Detroit hotel room on the morning of May 18 after having performed a concert with Soundgarden. A medical examiner ruled it a suicide by hanging, but his family has questioned the nature of his death and suggested that “substances contributed to his demise.”
Vicky expressed her grief in an emotional open letter published by Billboard on Wednesday. “I love you more than anyone has ever loved anyone in the history of loving and more than anyone ever will,” she wrote.