CHRIS’ DEATH MOURNED BY EDDIE VEDDER

earl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder (above) mourned the loss of grunge icon Chris Cornell (right), saying that the latter was like a brother to him, breaking an almost three-week long silence that had irked the late musician’s family. The death of Cornell, who had been an early mentor to Vedder, left Pearl Jam as one of the last surviving acts of the Seattle grunge rock scene that burst out in the 90s.

Vedder, on-stage, during a show in London, reflected on Cornell’s death and about how “these things take time”. “You know, he (Cornell) wasn’t just a friend. He was someone I looked up to like my older brother,” the singer said in his remarks quoted by several spectators on a Pearl Jam fan forum. Vedder talked about how he had spent almost two sleepless days after Cornell’s death in a waterfront cabin, “a place [Cornell] would have loved” and the memories that came back. “I’m still thinking about those memories, and I will live with those memories in my heart and I will love him forever,” Vedder said.

Cornell, 52, was found hanging in his hotel room on May 18 after a show with his band Soundgarden. The cause of death was declared to be suicide.The findings were disputed by Cornell’s wife Vicky, who claimed the singer -- a long recovered drug addict and alcoholic-- had shown no suicidal inclinations, and that his judgment may have been impaired by his anti-anxiety prescription drug.

Two days later, Pearl Jam did post a picture of Cornell on Facebook but did not issue a statement. Upon seeing this Cornell’s mother-in-law, Toni, upbraided Vedder on Twitter. “Who’s not man enough not to pay a tribute to the man who gave him a chance to be who he is? ... To not send a message to his wife and 3 kids,” she said,choosing not to address Vedder by name, but directing it towards the singer of Daughter (Vedder).

Vedder met Cornell when the former arrived in Seattle to join the growing grunge musical scene. Vedder’s first break came in in 1991, when Cornell included him in the song Hunger Strike by Temple of the Dog, featuring future Pearl Jam members. Of other famous grunge musicians, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain took a shotgun to his head in 1994, and Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots died of a drug overdose in 2015.