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Chris Cornell

94 quotes

“I think Euphoria Morning is an album you can always listen to, even in a couple of years; it isn't dated. That's what I was striving for with every Soundgarden album, something lasting, something you want to listen to, again and again. Since it was always part of my approach it wasn't too difficult to record an album like Euphoria Morning. I didn't have to re-invent myself.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've never been big into self-promotion. It's awkward for me. Just seeing my name on a T-shirt freaks me out.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I try to solve my problems by writing music and recording albums, but you know what's really funny about that? Once the album becomes a success, it doesn't solve your problems. It just gets harder to write the next album.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That shit's really depressing to me. I couldn't watch it. You can't expect to live in some utopia where everybody plays music you like, but it's gotten to the point where noone's playing music you like—at least that's being presented on television... The music channels don't even show much music anymore. They're more interested in documentaries. They're going to start doing documentaries about David Crosby's dog pretty soon.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't know how everyone else feels, but I definitely go through periods of extreme self-confidence, feeling like I can do anything. Perhaps a fan will sense that, like in a performance, and the hero image creeps out. But then someone will say something, however insignificant, or I'll get something in my head and, all of a sudden, I'm plummeting in the opposite direction, I'm a piece of shit, and I really can't do anything about it. That's where 'Outshined' comes from, and why I'll never consider myself a hero.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Somebody can sit at home and say, "What does this guy have to complain about?" But at the same time it's a comfortable chair to be sitting in and make those judgments. When all of a sudden you're successful and sought after overnight, you are instantly opened to a lot of sides of humanity that the average person is never going to see. And those can often be pretty disheartening, and it can make somebody pretty lonely.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tighter and Tighter" was actually written around the same time as "Black Hole Sun." In fact, I did a demo with four songs on it to play for the band. "Black Hole Sun," "Sounds Like Days," "Tighter and Tighter" and a song called "Anxious." We blew off "Anxious" entirely and recorded "Tighter and Tighter" for the last record. It was the last song we did. It was number 16 and we ran out of studio time. We had the rhythm tracks done and it was just needing vocals and my guitar solos. We just ran out of time. It was falling flat anyway. I changed the arrangement a little bit.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“RockNet: Were you terribly uncomfortable at the recent Grammy Award Show?”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Have you noticed how Lollapalooza isn't this multi-cultural, multi-sexual, multi-racial event at all? What Perry Farrell never admits is that it's just a slick rock concert with a good name and his ambition is to make a lot of money. Perry has a very good manager. He even has a percentage on the parking. It's a huge draw, and what people don't realise is it's far from being just the 'alternative college' crowd who go. It's very mainstream and very middle class. Even when we did it in 1992 with Ice Cube, the whole audience was entirely white.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes. I battle with that all the time. "Let Me Drown" is probably one of the most disturbing songs I've ever written. Usually, if I write lyrics that are bleak or dark, it usually makes me feel better. That one didn't. It made me question whether it was a song that was all right to play. Should we even do this? It was so negative. But that's the only one I can think of that's like that. Otherwise, it's like watching a horror movie: It makes you feel better after feeling worse.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yeah, especially this postmortem trip when people die and then everybody writes about what they felt that person is going through. It's really surprising to me that anyone can think that they have those kinds of insights or spend that much time really worrying about somebody else. I think they should spend more time trying to figure out who they are. That's my whole trip. I can't imagine anybody knowing me through my lyrics, because I don't particularly feel like I know myself. And I have more than the benefit of just lyrics to go on.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not really. I don't even have enough time to pursue everything I want to do musically. Also, there's a lot of people out there who spend a lot of time trying to act, so I think most of the good acting jobs should be reserved for those people.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Melody Maker: Did Andy Wood's death and then Kurt Cobain's affect your attitude to drugs?”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Team Rock: Away from the band [Soundgarden], do you guys still hang out together?”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rest of the band [Soundgarden] thought it was silly of the press to concentrate on the beefcake when I was writing songs, singing, and playing guitar for the band. Even now, some people will stick a paragraph about my hair in the body of a review.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A certain scenario kept repeating itself. The people from the magazines would take two or three shots of the band. They’d start to pack up. And then they’d sort of take me off into a corner by myself. After about the thirtieth time that a photographer asked me to take my shirt off, I started to get the picture.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No, I think that's the worst f**king thing. I mean, can you imagine having to get up at 4am and sit in a trailer while someone puts makeup on you? Then stand in front of a camera and say the same lines 60 times. I feel sorry for actors and I never want to do it. I stood in front of a camera in Singles and that's about it.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was so fiercely independent that falling in love was a really terrifying experience. The first time I was in love to the degree that I realized this person has suddenly become so important to me that I can't imagine life without her.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I hear in my brain (brain radio) dictates the beginning of any attempt at a new song.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m completely self-taught on guitar- limited me in some ways but very helpful in others. My only goal to playing was to write songs.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No favorites. I think of them [my songs] as children with strengths, weaknesses & secrets that reveal themselves over time.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think movies can replace reality and in the case of my story I wouldn't trust many people with doing that.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't drink. And that's serious. For me, that's one, because I never wrote, I was never creative while drinking, and there were these periods of not drinking and just kind of white-knuckling it and writing and recording, and then drinking a lot and coming into the studio hung over and being in the studio drunk and never being able to do anything to the level or to the degree that I thought that I should be. I'm proud of everything that I did, but I think it was a lot more difficult than it needed to be.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I really had to come to the conclusion, the sort of humbling conclusion that, guess what, I'm no different than anybody else, I've got to sort of ask for help not something I ever did, ever. And then part two of that is, like, accept it when it comes and, you know, believe what people tell me. And trusting in what I have been told, and then seeing that work.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On what led him to check himself into rehab in 2002, quoted in
“I just read some quotes where Dave Grohl is talking about the Foo Fighters taking a hiatus of an undetermined length, saying, 'I want to be in this band forever, and that's why we need to take a break.' That's perfectly described. Did we need to split up and tell the world and the fans we're splitting up? Probably not. It was time to take a breather from the business.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My first memory of Nirvana was getting a cassette of demos, which ended up becoming Bleach. Everybody's response was that this was an amazing band and these were amazing songs. It was another indication that the Northwest had something special that you couldn't argue with.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What ends up happening with musicians and actors is, they're famous, so when somebody has an issue, it's something that gets talked about. People die of drug overdoses every day that nobody talks about. It's a shame that famous people get all the focus, because it then gets glorified a little bit, like, 'This person was too sensitive for the world,' and, 'A light twice as bright lives half as long,' and all that. Which is all bullshit. It's not true.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that in a lot of ways the Seattle scene was a turn-the-gun-on-itself scene. It was being born out of the punk rock bible, where being a rock star is a bad thing. So we couldn't enjoy our success because we weren't really supposed to. You had to pretend success was fucked. We all became very self-conscious. I wish now that we'd had a better attitude about it.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He's like one of my best friends in the world. Absolutely genuine guy, I swear on the bible.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When asked about Eddie Vedder - Howard Stern Show, June 2007
“They were [my] friends. Those guys were like The Monkees. They lived in this house all together... no joke, the whole band all together in the same house, and they were really fun. They were really young guys and they lived the real Rock life. Of course it all went horribly wrong later, but they were great.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When asked about Alice in Chains - Howard Stern Show, June 2007
“We weren't that close. I'd had friends die before that. And even the way that he did it, it was kind of a twist, but other than that, I'd been through it before. But it's a shame, and it's a shame for his daughter, for one, and it's a shame for fans. But really it's a personal thing, and it was a drag. I wish it didn't happen. And I also think like if he had just kind of hung on for six months, who knows, six months later he could've been a completely different guy.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When asked if he was close to Kurt Cobain and if his death affected him in a personal way - Howard Stern Show, June 2007
“I’ve lost a lot of young, brilliant friends. Andy Wood and Layne [Staley] and Jeff Buckley, who was a good friend, and Kurt [Cobain], and Shannon Hoon [of Blind Melon] was a friend, and Mike Starr [Alice In Chains] was a friend, the list can kind of go on if I sit here and try and remember. And they’re all young and these guys all had limitless potential in their lives in front of them. And I think there’s something so inspiring about that – that is like the miracle of youth. And to see that be the final chapter so young is a really hard thing to swallow every time.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hip-hop kind of absorbed rock, in terms of the attitude and the whole point of why rock was important music. Young people felt like rock music was theirs, from Elvis to the Beatles to the Ramones to Nirvana. This was theirs; it wasn’t their parents’. I think hip-hop became the musical style that embraces that mentality.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think Freddie Mercury is probably the best of all time, in terms of a rock voice. There was a vulnerability to it, his technical ability was amazing, and so much of his personality would come out through his voice. I’m not even a guy to buy Queen records, really, and I still think he’s one of the best.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everything's different. You have to recognise the fact that I'm different. Time goes on, and you change. I'm coming into this as a different guy, that's probably the biggest thing.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's definitely a different world. Smoking is bad for your voice, for sure, but you learn to function in that world of bad. Now I'm in better shape, and I'm much more physical onstage, but I have to watch getting winded. Once I'm winded, I don't sing right. I would have smoked three cigarettes already during this interview [laughs].”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oddly enough, I was in Paris, the last show of a Soundgarden tour. I didn't know him that well, but I had friends who were trying to talk to him and it wasn't working out. I had this idea that when I got home, I'd try and sit down with him.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've always said that my albums are the diaries to my life. I'm not one of those guys who looks out the window and sees something, then goes and runs home and writes about it. It's more constant observation. I'm not a big talker and I'm sort of constantly looking and thinking, and then I remember odd things. I might not remember the list of things you would, I might not remember the things my wife would, for example, but I'll see things that show up later. As I'm sitting and writing a song I find that it sort of becomes about that.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It goes back to 1989-1990, when we were at our most aggressive period in Soundgarden, and I just wanted to hear something that wasn’t guitar feedback. I started listening to anything that I could find that was super stripped-down. I bought the Nick Drake boxed set, and my favorite album was Pink Moon, where it’s really just him and a guitar. And then around ’91, I wrote a song called “Seasons” that was on the Singles soundtrack. It just had acoustic guitar and it got radio airplay, and I remember thinking at that point, “One day I’ll make an acoustic album.” It just didn’t happen until now.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On what inspired his 2015 solo album Higher Truth
“I was on tour with Soundgarden, and I remember writing down the title. The title immediately brought up the idea of the song, which is that someone is so distracted by a new person or a new thing in their life that they kind of forgot that they had given up on life. Sometimes it just happens without us even noticing.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lot more can happen in the world of singer-songwriters that I appreciate. This storytelling where you have the ability to sit and listen to it because you don’t have other distractions -- you’re not listening to what the bass part is doing, there isn’t an elaborate instrumental arrangement that’s taking you into Middle Earth and back.. For me just as a singer I think you’re able to hear aspects of my voice and my singing and what it conveys in ways you’re not going to on a Soundgarden or an Audioslave record.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I annoyed the shit out of them [my parents] by spending my whole childhood beating on things. I drove them to distraction and I never thought they'd give me a drumkit in a million years. By the time I was 15 my mom had just about given up on me. But she must have figured that at least I had an interest in something other than drugs or being a criminal, so she bought me a snare drum. After a couple of days whacking that, I bought the rest of the kit for $50 from a guy I knew. Two weeks later I was in my first band.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kerrang!: Clare Sharp from Glasgow would like to know what you thought of your mum's appearance in Kerrang! last August [1996] - predicting the future for ten rock stars?”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was a sweet, pretty innocent little kid, but it didn't take long for that to change, for the world to beat me down. But when you have a baby, you suddenly realize that in them you can see that innocence and purity again, and you have the opportunity to protect and nurture that instead of being part of the world that beats it down. You get to be there for as long as you live to help support them and keep some of that alive. You know, it's great to be in a position to be the good guy for a change — it's a much better focus.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have two brothers, one of them was older, he was the guy I thought was the coolest person on earth. I was a little guy and he would beat the shit out of anybody who would fuck with me and sometimes I had to actually beg him not to beat someone up just in case I ran into that person when he wasn't around... He also introduced me to a lot of music and he's a singer-songwriter as well, I'm going to bring him out. This is my brother Peter!”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I remember a girl once came up to me after one of our shows, and she had a painting of Andy Wood on the back of her leather coat. She said, "I respect you so much for recording a tribute to Andy Wood, because he was so perfect," and then she walked away. Why would she walk away thinking that? Out of whatever songs he wrote and how he died, how did you get that? His lyrics basically said, line for line, "I'm fucked up." He could have written a song called "I'm Fucked Up", and it would have basically summed up a lot of the lyrics he wrote. And this girl wanders away thinking the guy's perfect.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The funeral was very surreal. I was happy for him, because it was packed, and they were showing films of him performing. He was a fuckin’ rock star the day he was born – it didn’t matter if he’d never sold a single record. He was the only rock star I ever met.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the funeral of his friend Andrew Wood, quoted in the 2005 documentary Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story.
“I think we all carry a depressive streak in us but most people just hide it. A lot of people think that entertainment has to be something loud, cheerful and happy. I don't buy into it. Depression can be very inspiring. At least for me it can be. The quiet aspects of life are very important, because let's face it, life is pretty difficult.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think everybody, no matter how rich or poor, how young or old, has a phase in his life when he's depressive. It's reality. Not a lot of people want to talk about it. Most people rather hide that fact, but it's just one of the facts of life that absolutely fascinates me.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I used to work in jobs I hated because I needed the money to buy a guitar. I know what it feels like to be depressed. On the other hand, I also know what it feels like to have money, to be successful, to be independent, but I can tell you that money and success never solve your problems.”
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source