Son says ‘Soul Train’’s Don Cornelius called him shortly before his death
SUN-TIMES STAFF REPORTS February 3, 2012 12:46PM
Don Cornelius, shown in his "Soul Train" days
Updated: March 5, 2012 8:05AM
Tony Cornelius, the son of “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius, received an urgent 3 a.m. phone call, shortly before Cornelius apparently fatally shot himself in the head, Tony Cornelius said in media interviews this week.
“That phone call was just a, ‘I’m not feeling well, I don’t think I’m gonna be here long,’” Tony Cornelius said in an interview on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.”
In an interview with CBS News, he said: “During that call, it was a call of urgency and I came to his home immediately.”
Tony Cornelius would not say that his father suffered from depression but rather a sadness.
“You hope they can snap out of it because they always have. ... It’s a sadness that you never believe is as big as it is,” Tony Cornelius said in the interview with Joyner.
Tony Cornelius noted his father had been “very unhappy” about some things that had gone on his life. Don Cornelius was known to have health problems and had gone through a bitter divorce.
