. ♪ on tour with soundgarden at the peak of her career. >> rocker chris cornell died last night while >> his representatives say cornell's death was sudden and unexpected. >> reporter: cornell, a rock idol for taylor, found in his hotel room. death by suicide. >> i wasn't prepared for it. like i didn't know how to kind of mentally wrap my mind around it. >> reporter: soon after, the band would cancel the rest of the tour. time off needed to grieve and regroup. >> i was starting to write some songs and i called kato, and i said, hey, man, like i have some stuff. i don't know if it's for a record or for what, but, like, we all need to get out of this funk. >> reporter: taylor calls kato khandwala her best friend, her family, her musical soul mate. 11 months after cornell died, just as they got back into the studio, kato was killed in a motorcycle crash. >> i fell into a very -- very dark, deep hole of depression. >> reporter: but slowly she began putting much of what she was feeling into her latest album, "death by rock and roll." >> how would you tell someone to begin to live again? >>