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I never thought of myself as being the singer that wanted to create an identity and then stick to that.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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A lot of people get into alternative music as part of their identity. It's something that isn't the mainstream, that their brothers and sisters don't know about, and that their parents don't like. It's something they can have as their own.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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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 Soundgarden
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No matter what, I can't sound like John Lennon. But I can do Tom Jones.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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I never felt bad about being lumped in with other Seattle bands. I thought it was great.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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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 Soundgarden
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No, I thing 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 Soundgarden
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I think there needs to be a global focus on people taking care of people.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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I'm not a lyric writer to make statements. What I enjoy doing is making paintings with lyrics, creating colorful images. I think that's more what entertainment and music should be.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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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 Soundgarden
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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 Soundgarden
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Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, and Silverchair are taking the simplest elements of Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam and melding them into one homogenous thing.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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One of the main dilemmas that's pretty common to a lot of people who are getting older is the idea that maybe there's a finish line and that maybe there's a time in your life when you start to slow down and stop and smell the roses and just kind of settle into what will be a comfortable period in your life.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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Some of the most brilliant things that someone might do could happen in three minutes because it's something that just occurs to them. And then, there's the example of really chipping away at something to create something great. I don't believe that one is more reliable than the other.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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I guess by taking lessons early on, and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff, and try to have it sound as good as my teacher. It took a lot of practice, which I enjoyed, and still do.
Matt Cameron Soundgarden
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I had to teach myself to let go of the conventional rock way of playing guitar and singing. Some things you wouldn't expect to work, did and some things won't ever work.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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When you start your first band and it has an impact on the rest of the world you go through a lot with those guys and you become very protective of that legacy.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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I was going to be a musician, no matter what it took. I supported myself with blue-collared jobs so I could write music and be in a band and play shows. I even got into an underground art scene. I was going to do whatever.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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If you sold a million records, the only way you could be disappointed is if the guy down the street sold seven million. But you've got to start dodging bullets once you've sold that many records, because everybody wants to kill you. We're not in that position. We can still be very successful and not have to worry about wearing bulletproof vests.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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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 Soundgarden
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I learned to read music when I was 10 and did piano and took lessons.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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There's this existential argument that comes in, at some point, when you're over-thinking the songwriting process. There's no guarantee that the more time you spend or the more you concentrate on certain aspects that that's going to produce a better result, especially in the arts.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
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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 Soundgarden
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I actually think to some degree that people are down for longer shows with an acoustic show.
Chris Cornell Soundgarden
