Chris Cornell

"No favorites. I think of them [my songs] as children with strengths, weaknesses & secrets that reveal themselves over time."

"Ive always said that my albums are the diaries to my life. Im not one of those guys who looks out the window and sees something, then goes and runs home and writes about it. Its more constant observation. Im not a big talker and Im 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 Ill see things that show up later. As Im sitting and writing a song I find that it sort of becomes about that."

"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."

"I met Chris at the end of 85 at a Halloween party, at an artist studio in Belltown, and I was out on the town that night with my dear frien Chuck, a.k.a. Upchuck from the Fags. And Chuck dresses me up as him in drag – he was in drag most of the time – so I had a long blond fright wig and a kimono and pancake makeup. Soundgarden was playing the party, as a three-piece, with Chris on drums and vocals. They were amazing. Id worked with Ben McMillan in a vintage clothing store in town called Tootsies. And Chris came in to talk to him, and the story that Chris told me is that I caught his eye. So he kept coming in and trying to get my attention, but I paid him no mind. Partly because I had just broken up with Gordon earlier that year, so I was in a pretty dark space. After the band played, Chris came up to me and recognized me, which he got huge points for because I was in full drag-queen regalia. He said the band were trying to get a show in Vancouver, so I told him that I was going up there to a show in the next week, and if he wanted to meet, I would take a tape for them. So we met, and he gave me that tape, and we saw each other a week later at the Vogue. After that, we went to a 24-hour dinner. We tried to go back to my house, but Id lost my keys. We made out for a while, and then he took me to my moms in West Seattle, and it was just on from there. At the time, it was healing for me."

"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."

"They didn’t have such a long time together, no, but they were of the same mind and heart. Chris was a very kind and compassionate person too. And Chris said that Andy showed him how to be a rock star. Andy said, “Come on! Follow me! I’ll show you!”. And he just showed him. And Chris, of course, developed his own style. He was wonderful. Chris was wonderful. They loved one another. Andy used to make Chris, Chris Cornell, just… you know, they’d write songs together. But Andy would write eleven songs to Chris’ one. And then Chris would say, “Most of it was shit but one or two would be diamonds. He would write eleven songs to my one, you know.” They’d be in a competition together. You know, Andy couldn’t… they wouldn’t let him go when he was dying, until Chris got there."

"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."

"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."

"The title came from us being on the L.A. freeway about three years ago. I just started looking at the traffic and realizing there was such an array of vehicles, from Mexicans in f---ed-up Chevys with dents and white guys in f---ed-up pickup trucks to guys with orange sun-bed tans in Porches and limos. And youd always see these f---ed-up cars on the side of the road. The idea of seeing a couple of limos smashed into one another, Id never seen that before, and I thought these people in expensive cars - especially the limos where the windows are blacked out and someone else is driving - they seem to have a feeling that theyre not susceptible to mortality. During our trip down the freeway, I was talking to this guy who drove a limo, and he said that once this guy was in the back and some supposed vagrant came up and started knocking on the window. The guy opened the door like, "F--- you, you cant touch me, Im in a limo." And a bunch of other vagrants came up and beat the shit out of the guy, almost killed him. The song describes that sort of decadence and this strange perception that youre so high on the social or political ladder that youre somehow beyond all that. But its not true."

"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 cant imagine life without her."

"It’s that weird magic of if you sing a song you’re connecting to emotionally, its going to trick me into feeling my emotions. Im not feeling your [pain], I dont know what happened to you, but you have just tricked me into feeling my own pain and my own emotions and that is an amazing thing. Thats this miraculous thing about music. Film can do it too, art can do it, but music does it great. That’s where making an album like this [Higher Truth] is exciting and special. The downside is you pretty much have to do it on every song. You don’t get a free pass unless you write a joke song, which Im not good at. If I wrote like the [Beatles’] ballad ‘Rocky Raccoon’ or something I could get away from it for a second. A song about a raccoon that gets in a gun fight."

"Chris and I got married in 90 and weve been together since 85. We learned, luckily, sort of early on, that we needed to make time for business and that I couldnt bring business home every day, as was my inclination. It was such an exciting time time for me in the late-eighties and early-nineties; they were pretty unbelievable. Just to feel things brewing in the late-eighties without having the goal of were gonna make this into an international superstardom. But just that it was growing and we were all gathering experience and momentum. And those were really exciting times that I wanted to talk about twenty-four hours a day. I needed to learn not to bring business home so I wouldnt strictly represent business every time I walked in the door. [Chris and I] just created boundaries. Our relationship is a little-known secret because its nobodys fuckin business [laughing]!"