I don't really go mountain biking per se, like a proper sport.
— Chris Cornell
Radio and TV can still push a band, but things need to be shaken up. There is the Internet, but mostly what I see there is little kids on YouTube playing music.
What's important is to get into shape and then not to have to worry about it. I don't want to get on stage and not being able to do something. Not being physically fit doesn't work for me.
An acoustic show is all about you, and any little nuance or mistake is amplified.
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.
To a degree, rock fans like to live vicariously and they like that, music fans in general, but when indie music sort of came into prominence in the early '90s, a lot of it was TV-driven, too, where if you saw the first Nirvana video, you're looking at three guys that look like people you go to school with.
The freedom I have as a U.S. citizen is unparalleled. Despite the fact people may not like American passports, having that passport affords me more freedoms than any other passport could.
My brother brought home 'At San Quentin' when I was about 7, and we played it over and over again.
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.
The reason there's no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn't have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think.
I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That's not gone away.
I can go from one extreme to another, from playing at the Sydney Opera House on the Songbook tour to shows with Soundgarden at Voodoo Fest, all in a week.
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.
What do you think Jesus would twitter, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone' or 'Has anyone seen Judas? He was here a minute ago.'
There wasn't a key moment when I knew I wanted to quit.
And if you don't believe the sun will rise, stand alone and greet the coming night in the last remaining light.
I'm not usually in a talkative mode.
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.
In the United States, workouts tend to focus on body image and how you look. For me, it's really all about the brain.
When Soundgarden formed, we were post-punk - pretty quirky.
I'm sure I could start a band tomorrow that would have different influences and would want to do something completely different than anything I've done.
Children should always feel like the adults are living in this world to nurture them, to take care of them, to protect them from any bad thing that might come.
The focus on my wife and my children, it really helps me make sense of the music side of it somehow.
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.
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.
Rock never meant the same thing to everyone, but when I was growing up in the late seventies, everyone could identify the five, ten bands that formed the center.
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.
'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.
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.
Due to irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences, I am permanently leaving the band Audioslave. I wish the other three members nothing but the best in all of their future endeavours.
At the end of the day it's the fans who make you who you are.
A lot of what attracted people to Nirvana was that they were like the people you went to high school with.
I actually think to some degree that people are down for longer shows with an acoustic show.
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.
Once you sit in front of people and start playing songs, it's all on you. No matter what happens, it's entirely your responsibility the entire time. I like that intensity.
If you're an American kid, you can't help but be influenced by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones because they're always on the radio.
There's a lot of music that I don't like.
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.
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.
What formed me as a musician, a songwriter, the sound and personality of my band, a whole lot of that happened well before 1991.
I got in touch with the creative process between the age of 14 and 16, mainly because I was alone so much.
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.
I don't get in there and create a character. It's more of a voice that I hear living inside the music.
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.
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 someone else too.
I feel like you're not a real musician or entertainer if you can't go into a room, pick up an instrument and entertain people.
It's great when you play to an audience that knows the words to all your songs, and sings them back to you.
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.
