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Music Quotes by Chris Cornell

45 Music quotes by Chris Cornell

All Music quotes Chris Cornell’s page

Chris Cornell talks about why music should feel inspired and how older blues players keep playing into their seventies. He says a simple instrument can hold a room’s attention for hours, and even sad songs can help lift a heavy heart. He also mentions the deep trust he feels with a partner like Timbaland.

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Music is supposed to be inspired.

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

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There's a lot of music that I don't like.

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

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

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The focus on my wife and my children, it really helps me make sense of the music side of it somehow.

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There are a handful of Soundgarden songs that work acoustically, but only a couple. It's not who we were.

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I learned to read music when I was 10 and did piano and took lessons.

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

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

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

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Seattle very much benefited from this geography where it was a town nobody had really heard of in terms of a music…

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That's the miracle of music. No one can reinterpret a Picasso, but a song can be remixed and covered and interpreted in…

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There's something about that blind trust between Timbaland and me - two people that have almost nothing in common except for a…

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You can really walk around a song and completely, if it's a good song, look at it from a lot of different…

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I have a hard time narrowing things down to ten or 12 songs. If I walk off stage in anything less than…

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When I met my wife Vicky's family, I had to go out of my way to convince them, to show them, that…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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I felt very proud to be part of a music scene that was changing the face of commercial music and rock music…

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I would look at older blues musicians who just keep going into their seventies. They keep doing it until they drop dead.…

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I've always felt like there's a certain amount of doing what I do, and performing and making records and doing interviews and…

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I'm interested in where I'm going and the people I am there to see. Going to Cuba was a great example of…

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To a degree, rock fans like to live vicariously and they like that, music fans in general, but when indie music sort…

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I've always liked depressing music because a lot of times, listening to it when you're down can actually make you feel less…

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Soundgarden signing to a major, then Mother Love Bone, and seeing the same happen to Alice in Chains. We were all suddenly…

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Oftentimes, especially in the context of an acoustic song, I'm motivated to write by some amount of melancholy.

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I feel like you're not a real musician or entertainer if you can't go into a room, pick up an instrument and…

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What formed me as a musician, a songwriter, the sound and personality of my band, a whole lot of that happened well…

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There was a period in my life where most of my musical career was spent in a band that was very aggressive,…

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The first time I ever went to Hawaii, I was listening to island music, thinking, 'I could've been born here, and I'm…

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There was this moment when we made 'Superunknown': the Seattle music scene had suddenly ended up on an international stage with huge…

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Radio and TV can still push a band, but things need to be shaken up. There is the Internet, but mostly what…

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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…

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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…

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I remember hearing songs from the Mother Love Bone album, and hearing Alice in Chains, and feeling like this is more than…

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When we've toured with Skid Row and G N' R, we probably turned a few people on to our music, but I…

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My first favorite band that made music important to me was the Beatles. I was a little kid. I didn't know who…

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When I started writing songs for Temple of the Dog, I went to my room with my acoustic guitar, and I was…

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More by Chris Cornell

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…

Music is supposed to be inspired.

I think it's important for fans to know that but if I'm doing something that inspires me musically then I think it will inspire…

As a child, I was this record collector/listener that would sit in a room and listen to the entire Beatles catalog alone, over and…

When you start your first band and it has an impact on the rest of the world you go through a lot with those…

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

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 would look at older blues musicians who just keep going into their seventies. They keep doing it until they drop dead. And I've…

I used to work in jobs I hated because I needed the money to buy a guitar. I know what it feels like to…

When that much time goes by, you're really listening to your old music differently. At the time it's written, it was the beginning of…

Due to irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences, I am permanently leaving the band Audioslave. I wish the other three members nothing…

It's good for me to be involved in different things.

I started as a drummer, so I sort of took on singing duties by default. I had sung backgrounds and some lead vocals from…

And if you dont believe the sun will rise, stand alone and greet the coming night in the last remaining light.

Companies figured out that the easiest way to make money was to reissue records that the accounting department had paid for years ago and…