. ♪ black hole sun won't you come ♪ >> reporter: on tour with soundgarden, at the peak of her careert night while on tour in detroit. >> 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. i called cato. i said, hey, man, i have some stuff, i don't know if it's for a record or what, but we all need to get out of this funk. >> reporter: taylor calls cato cadwaller her best friend, her family, her musical soul mate. 11 months after cornell died, just as they got back into the studio, cato was killed in a motorcycle crash. >> i fell into a very, very dark, deep hole of depression. >> you had thoughts, at that point, why bother living? >> why bother trying? everything i love is dead, what's the point? >> reporter: slowly she began putting much of what she was feeling into her latest album "death by rock 'n' roll