23 Chris Cornell Quotes on Music

Chris Cornell quotes on music

2. 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].

4. '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.

5. I've always liked depressing music because a lot of times listening to it when you're down can actually make you feel less depressed. Also, even though a person may have problems with depression, sometimes you can actually be kind of comfortable in that space because you know how to operate within it.

7. I look back at bands like the Small Faces, the Yardbirds, Free, the Byrds -- what came out of those bands? If you look at the family trees of some of the British Invasion groups, a lot of those guys wound up in the most successful groups of the '70s. So you do find a lot of super-groups in that era. In a sense, Led Zeppelin was that.

8. When I was maybe nine years old, I listened to the entire Beatles catalogue, non-stop, for about a year, being a naive child, I didn't know who sang what song. I didn't know it was a different guy. I didn't know it was Paul singing Helter Skelter. I didn't know it was John singing Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey.

12. I don't think that fans of RAGE or Soundgarden will be disappointed.

13. Music driven by money deserves to fail.

16. I don't think a band should compromise themselves for anything. Not for an audience, not for a record label. Because if you compromise yourself, I don't think a fan is gonna believe in what you do.

17. I don't think there are too many rock bands in history that can look at the beginning and middle and ending of themselves and see what I see when I think of Soundgarden. I think from the beginning through the middle and the end it was such a perfect ride and such a perfect legacy to leave

18. I didn't have the same focus (when I was in Soundgarden) I have now. Now everything has come together. The focus on my wife and my children, it really helps me make sense of the music side of it somehow

19. The only criteria I apply when making music is 'Does it make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end? It doesn't matter what style it is, what it reminds me of, what it doesn't remind me of. If it doesn't give me that feeling of inspiration, then it's not there yet.

20. In a lot of ways being a rock musician is an oppurtunity just be be a kid, to stay irresponible.

29. I have really early memories of life, so don't freak out. As a child I'd get caught up in how words didn't make any sense. I remember hearing the song 'She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes,' trying to figure out what the fuck the guy was talking about.

30. The Beatles were my first love. My friend John Zimmer's oldest brother was kicked out of his house, and his parents put all of his stuff in the basement, where it was getting destroyed by flood waters. He had about fifteen Beatles records. So I stole the whole stack -- lovingly put paper towels between each of them. For over a year I listened to nothing but the Beatles. It was my music school.

31. At a talent show in sixth grade at Christ the King, my Catholic school in Seattle. I remember being incredibly nervous and also bringing the house down. Teachers were crying. I sang a song called 'One Tin Soldier.' A girl in my class knew it on piano and accompanied me.

32. He was always hidden somewhere having a personal crisis -- always. One time I was in the room when he was talking to his manager, Doug Goldstein, about wanting the Goodyear blimp for the show. I said this as a joke -- even though it was true -- that the Fuji blimp was the largest blimp in the world. Axl was like, 'That's it! It's gonna be the Fuji blimp!'

35. Of course, there are hard rock fans who only like hard rock and that's OK, but I think the majority of the people out there are rather open minded. I always liked a lot of different styles and hard rock was just one of them.

36. It's strange, simply because when the format changed, it wasn't really an organic change. It was a forced change. If you go into Tower Records, Sam Goody or Musicland, the places where 80% of people buy their music, there's no option to buy vinyl. It's not there and it's too bad. The funny part is, I remember when I was younger, the only shops that would sell CD players were the audiophile shops where everything was really expensive. Now the only place you can buy a new turntable is those same places that were responsible for switching the format. A lot of the audiophiles like the vinyl so much more.

37. Our record company wanted us to do a greatest hits album. Well, we thought it would be really funny to put out an album and call it B-sides instead of A-sides. We were never a band who tried to produce hit singles. I don't even think we've got something like 12 top-20 singles. That's one of the reasons why we all think the compilation should consist of rare recordings.

38. It's quite funny; Soundgarden were always part of a certain scene but now two years after our split, things seem to have changed. They're playing our songs on the radio, but they label us as classic rock. I'm really proud. After all, it means that they regard us as an important band. I didn't think it would happen so quickly.

39. The story of Soundgarden is my own story in a way, so why should I be afraid to talk about it? There's always a question that leads back to Soundgarden and I'm proud that I was part of the band, so why should I mind talking about it? After all, it was a great time for the most part of it.

40. I had offers from at least 20 different bands. It wouldn't be fair to mention names, but some bands were really known, some were not, and there were countless calls from musicians who wanted to be on my album.

42. Chris has a very penetrating and unique artistic vision that, when melded with ours, makes for a unique band chemistry. It's such a different vibe than any of us has ever experienced before. There's a great deal of camaraderie.