ABC/Randy Holmes; ABC/Randy HolmesLike many members of the music community, Billie Joe Armstrong was shocked to hear about the death of Chris Cornell.
“It’s really just sad, I don’t really know another way to put it,” the Green Day frontman told ABC Radio Friday morning, before the band kicked off ABC’s Good Morning America Summer Concert Series. “It’s shocking.”
Armstrong saw Soundgarden live at age 15 when they opened for the Meat Puppets at the Berkeley Square club in California’s Bay Area.
“Just hearing his voice,” Armstrong remembered. “He made the walls peel.”
“It’s just really sad,” he added. “I feel bad for his family and his friends and his band. I mean, that’s all I can really say.”
Walk the Moon‘s Nicholas Petricca also shared his thoughts on Cornell’s legacy.
“What an epic staple of the rock n’ roll community,” Petricca told ABC Radio. “What a definer of what rock n’ roll can really be.”
Cornell died late Wednesday night at age 52, of what was officially ruled a suicide.
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