Speaking with CNN, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell's long time manager Rob Lafitte offered his thoughts on the singer's suicide on May 18th, which has been ruled as drug related:

"Nobody saw this coming, his bandmates didn't see this coming. It's totally out of character for the Chris that I've known and worked with for the last 10 years. It's incredibly bizarre. I have to think that something threw him off the tracks ... he must have been out of his right mind."

"He was just really excited about this specific idea that we were going to do. He said, 'We aren't just going to make pop history with this one, brother. We are going to make real history. I would say the last couple of months, he was as optimistic and happy as I can ever recall him. He was so excited about all these things and a new record we were going to put out in the fall."

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Billboard reports that following his death, Chris Cornell's catalog of albums and songs, both solo and with his various bands, surged by 552 percent, to 32.7 million in combined sales and on-demand streams (up from 5 million) in the week ending May 18th, according to Nielsen Music.

In terms of on-demand streams (audio and video combined), Cornell's songs collected 32.5 million streams in the week ending May 18th, a gain of 549 percent (from 5 million in the week ending May 11th). His catalog of albums sold 38,000 copies (up 1,732 percent from 2,000), while his songs sold 144,000 downloads (up 2,222 percent from 6,000).

Meanwhile, several songs and albums by Cornell populate Billboard's rock charts (dated June 3rd), including seven new entries on the Hot Rock Songs survey. His Hot Rock Songs presence is led at #7 by Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" from 1994's Superunkown, which also becomes the band's first #1 on the Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart, moving 17,000 downloads (up from 1,000 the week before). The song also drew 4 million US streams (up from 1.3 million). "Sun" marks the band's best rank on the Hot Rock Songs since "Live To Rise" peaked at #4 in June 2012.

Read more at Billboard.com.

The private funeral for Chris Cornell, who passed away in Detroit last Thursday (May 18th), was held on Friday, May 26th at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Ahead of the service, Cornell’s remains were cremated on Tuesday, May 23rd, as a small group of family and friends stood by including his brother Peter, his wife Vicki, and his friends Linda Ramone and singer J.D. King.