Chris Cornell’s Daughter Pens Poignant Father’s Day Note
Chris Cornell‘s daughter, Toni Cornell, remembered her father’s heart, wisdom and love of Prince’s Purple Rain in a moving Father’s Day note posted to the late musician’s Facebook page. “You are my idol, someone I’ve always looked up to,” Toni wrote. “You were always there for me. You pushed me forward every day, and you still do.”
Toni recalled Cornell as a doting and devoted father who would fight through post-tour jet lag to spend time with his kids and comfort them when they were sick. “Every time you came home from tour you spent all your hours with us,” she wrote. “No matter how tired you were, how many time zones you traveled, you were there for us.”
She also spoke about how her “special connection” to her father was always through the arts and offered a favorite memory, when Cornell suggested they watch Prince’s Purple Rain together. “I always trusted your judgement,” Toni said. “I put it on and immediately fell in love! We then got to your favorite song, ‘The Beautiful Ones.’
“‘This song is so special it doesn’t even belong in a genre. When I was in my twenties, I saw this in the theatre and some guy started cracking up laughing at this scene and song. It got me really mad,’ you said. I fell in love with the song too and listened to it on repeat.”
In closing, Toni wrote, “I know you are still here, and the warmth I feel beneath the cold, is you. YOU ARE THE BEST FATHER IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. And I know, that if this wasn’t an accident, you’d still be cuddling with me watching Purple Rain.’
Cornell died by suicide in a Detroit hotel room last month at the age of 52. On Tuesday, the singer’s final music video was released, a refugee-themed clip for “The Promise,” which Cornell wrote and recorded for the 2016 historical film of the same name about a love triangle in the wake of the Armenian genocide.