Like a Stone Album: Audioslave (2002)
Doesn't Remind Me Album: Out of Exile (2005)
Audioslave
According to Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell, who wrote the lyric, "Like A Stone" is about death, and finding the afterlife through means other than the traditional monotheistic way of thinking.
"It's a guy sitting in a hotel room contemplating death," he said in an interview. "Where you go, what it means, and all the different possibilities. And then coming up with an image he likes, going with the philosophy of, maybe when you die, if you've been good enough in your life, you get to go somewhere you remember that's really cool."
Audioslave formed when Zach de la Rocha left Rage Against The Machine. The remaining members hooked up with Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell to create the band. "Like A Stone" was their second single, following "Cochise." It's one of the group's most popular songs, earning lots of airplay on rock radio and going to #1 on the Modern Rock chart.
If you thought this was a love song, take comfort in knowing that Audioslave bass player Tim Commerford did too, figuring the guy in the song was waiting for his true love. But when he asked, Chris Cornell told him the song is about an old man waiting for death. He sits in a house alone after all his friends and family have passed on before him, waiting to be reunited with them.
"I got saddened about what he's singing about," Commerford said. "I'm picturing this man in a rocking chair waiting to die."
With a new understanding of how Chris Cornell writes, Commerford had another listen to the Soundgarden catalog to suss out the deeper meanings. "Cornell fooled me," he said. "I thought some of the things he was singing about were trivial, but they're never trivial. He's really deep."
At concerts, Cornell has stated that "your heaven is what you make it," indicating that "heaven" is in the eye of the beholder. >>
The video was shot in Jimi Hendrix' old house where he wrote "Purple Haze." At the time, Audioslave were just rehearsing, but they had cameras there and they just shot the video there and then.
There was some speculation that this song deals with the death of Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley, but according to Chris Cornell, they wrote the song before he died.
Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell lists a number of things he enjoys, all for the same reason: they don't remind him of anything.
"Doesn't Remind Me" is open to interpretation and can have very different meaning depending on the listener. Enjoying the simple pleasures in life is one key to happiness, in part because that's time not spent dredging up painful memories. The lyric could sound trite if not delivered by Cornell, who even when singing about gypsy moths could bare his soul.
Many who dealt with substance abuse issues found solace in this song and identified with Chris Cornell, who battled addiction for much of his life. Cornell hanged himself in 2017 at age 52.
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