He was best known as the lead singer in Soundgarden and Audioslave, and also performed the theme song to the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale.
In a statement, Cornell’s representative Brian Bumbery said his death was “sudden and unexpected”.
The statement also said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and asked for privacy.
Cornell was on tour and had a number of live dates scheduled for later this month on his website.
Chris Cornell was born on 20 July, 1964.
As a solo artist, he released four studio albums – most recently 2015’s Higher Truth.
His biggest single in the UK was 2006’s You Know My Name, which was the theme song to Casino Royale, which starred Daniel Craig.
