The death of Chris Cornell has shocked the music world. The singer, known for his work with Soundgarden, Audioslave and his own successful solo career, passed away last night after a Soundgarden show in Detroit. He was 52 years old.

George Stroumboulopoulos, the host of CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show who had interviewed Cornell several times, spoke with q guest host Ali Hassan about Cornell's career.

"The power in his voice was transferred to the audience and that's why you're seeing such an outpouring today because he was the voice of an entire generation's youth," he said, speaking of Cornell's quiet and professional presence as well as his gritty four-octave voice and how it helped to define the sound of '90s grunge. "That's the key. It wasn't just a couple of big songs. He represented something."

As the lead singer of Soundgarden, Cornell was among the wave of Seattle grunge bands, including Nirvana and Pearl Jam, that achieved mainstream success, and Stroumboulopoulos identified Cornell as a key figure offstage as well as on it. He recounted how Cornell had played with members of the band that would eventually become Pearl Jam and how he welcomed their eventual lead singer, Eddie Vedder, into the music community when he moved to Seattle.

"I always found that Chris's evolution as a singer and as a musician was parallel to his evolution as kind of a community builder," Stroumboulopoulos said. "So it wasn't that he just influenced a lot of people with his music. He just did a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that really helped."

Canadian musicians reacting to Cornell's death include Rush, Sebastian Bach and Tegan and Sara. Other musicians who paid tribute include Joe Perry, Dave Navarro, Chuck D and Rage Against the Machine. It was with the members of the latter band that Cornell formed Audioslave in 2001. Selected tributes below: