Chris Cornell

“I don't get in there and create a character. It's more of a voice that I hear living inside the music.”

“I've had a long career and I want to continue to have a long career. The way to do that is not to go away.”

“My first favorite band that made music important to me was the Beatles. I was a little kid. I didn't know who was singing what song or who wrote what song.”

“When I was eight, my piano teacher played seven or eight notes, and I sang them. She stopped and looked at me in shock! That was the first time I'd gotten that reaction. I'd had looks of horror, but never shock in a positive way.”

“Soundgarden signing to a major, then Mother Love Bone, and seeing the same happen to Alice in Chains. We were all suddenly making music and recording at the same time, and we had money to do it. It wasn't like a $2,000 recording that you do over a weekend. It's like, 'Wow, maybe this will be our job.'”

“Being solo really lends itself to different interpretations - and everything is in the moment and on a whim. I never realised how far out you can go when you are by yourself.”

“There was a period in my life where most of my musical career was spent in a band that was very aggressive, and there was sort of a wall of volume all the time.”

“What formed me as a musician, a songwriter, the sound and personality of my band, a whole lot of that happened well before 1991.”

“The fans own the records and listen to them and love them. It becomes the soundtrack to some part of their lives, and we don't control that. To me, that's what's exciting about what we do.”

“I had kind of a mean piano teacher. I went to Catholic school, so it was like the typical thing you would imagine - a little kid with a white-haired teacher frowning at the fact that I didn't practice.”

“There's something about losing friends, particularly young people, where it's not something that you get over. I don't believe there's a healing process.”

“Music is supposed to be inspired.”

“An acoustic show is all about you, and any little nuance or mistake is amplified.”

“I think the concept of commercials, for example, I have had offers to do songs in different commercials, and it is not what I have liked.”

“When you have four guys in a room writing songs, it different. It's great - that's what makes a band a band. Audioslave was great.”

“When you see a country take care of its people regardless of class, or how much money they make, or what color they are, that's pretty inspiring.”

“In the beginning of Audioslave, I was very honest. I said, 'We make great albums and write great albums - but don't be under the impression I'm going to be a lyricist that writes anything other than what strikes me as inspiring in the moment.' The lyrics weren't going to be focused politically.”

“'Superunknown' was one of the most dramatic shifts in what we were doing musically. I don't think I realized it at the time.”

“I've always had a really difficult time with loss.”

“It just doesn't get any more stripped down than going out totally alone and doing songs.”