Okay since I'm clearly an obsessed fan, I'm going to chime in on Chester's suicide. I have read countless articles, numerous books, and watched tons and tons of interviews.
Chester's suicide was not planned. It was an impulsive decision. He had confided in a close friend (Ryan Shuck) that he had been sober for 6 months but was fighting an hour by hour struggle with wanting to drink again.
When he was discovered, the police report said that they found an empty bottle of corona in his bathroom and a half full glass of Stella Artois on his nightstand. He succumbed to his addiction and that was the catalyst to his suicide.
Talinda mentioned that he always felt an intense shame when he would relapse and that's when he would express his desire to CTB. One instance after heavy drinking, he left the house with a shotgun and she had to call the police to help find him. Another instance after relapsing, he tied himself up and threw himself into a pool but changed his mind at the last minute. The suicidal ideation only ever came around (or at least to the point that he'd act it out) after he'd been drinking.
Obviously Chris Cornell's death weighed heavily on him. But even in the face of losing a close friend, he was actively working on himself and developing positive habits. He was genuinely in the happiest place of his life. He was in shape, healthy, sober, and had a bunch of new projects on the horizon that he was really excited about. Some of his last interviews you could see the happiness radiating off of him. And it was true happiness, not a mask like a lot of his other older interviews.
I truly to believe deep down that if he hadn't have been alone that night, he would still be with us. It was a moment of weakness and he just couldn't live with the shame of another relapse. There were no signs that it was planned out. He was still wearing the clothes he arrived home in, no note was left, his boarding pass was still in his pocket. Id bet my life that this was impulse.
It still hurts. Rest in paradise.
