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

A true musician, like Johnny Cash, should be able to walk into a room with nothing but an instrument and capture people's attention for two hours.

Chris Cornell

musician two people

In the United States, workouts tend to focus on body image and how you look. For me, it's really all about the brain.

Chris Cornell

focus workout brain

It's great when you play to an audience that knows the words to all your songs, and sings them back to you.

Chris Cornell

singing play song

To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what.

Chris Cornell

play writing song

At the end of the day it's the fans who make you who you are.

Chris Cornell

the-end-of-the-day fans ends

Most frontmen are not born hams like David Lee Roth. We're more like Joey Ramone: awkward geeks who somehow find our place in the world on the stage.

Chris Cornell

ham awkward world

I think that one of the main privileges of what I do, which I am just starting to learn, is to have the ability to travel all over the world and experience different cultures.

Chris Cornell

different culture thinking

They always say that the entertainment and restaurant industries are the only businesses that don't sink during a depression or a recession. I've done both, and I recommend to anyone who wants to be a rock star, if that doesn't pan out, become a cook.

Chris Cornell

rock-star done

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.

Chris Cornell

going-away careers long

If I'm going to go out to be a solo artist, it's because I want to do something different without having to wait on someone else's schedule or hobbies or be limited by other people's prejudices. I'd be kind of stupid not to exercise that.

Chris Cornell

artist stupid exercise

If I had a musical identity that was definable then it would be time to get into painting or something else. Race car driving.

Chris Cornell

car musical race

I'm looking California, And feeling Minnesota...

Chris Cornell

california feelings life

I started as a drummer, so I sort of took on singing duties by default. I had sung backgrounds and some lead vocals from behind the drums in different bands that I'd been in, and I'd gotten great responses for the songs I would sing. I really started pursuing the possibility of being a lead singer based on the fact that I was working a full-time restaurant job and then playing gigs at night, hauling drums around. One day, it just dawned on me that, 'Hey, I could be in a band and be the singer, and it would be a lot easier!'

Chris Cornell

song jobs night

'The Beatles' did whatever they wanted. They were a collection of influences adapted to songs they wanted to write. George Harrison was instrumental in bringing in Indian music. Paul McCartney was a huge Little Richard fan. John Lennon was into minimalist aggressive rock.

Chris Cornell

rocks writing song

If you are trying to think ahead musically, it is not going to help you. It is better to ignore what is happening melodically and just look at the little dots coming at you and the corresponding colors and try to do it at the right time.

Chris Cornell

color trying thinking

I play Texas Hold'em on my Blackberry. I have amassed a fortune on that. I have almost 30 million dollars from playing. It is unreal.

Chris Cornell

dollars texas play

I don't care what people think of me or for what reason they think of me. I don't feel like I don't know who I am to the degree that I have to change my hair to create a new me.

Chris Cornell

care people thinking

There wasn't a key moment when I knew I wanted to quit.

Chris Cornell

quitting moments keys

I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That's not gone away.

Chris Cornell

gone-away coffee song

What makes that song, I think, is how stark it is.

Chris Cornell

starks song thinking