Like a Stone: Chris Cornell’s Fascination with the Afterlife
This is a very interesting song for a couple of notable reasons. First off, as explained by Chris Cornell, the subject is “a guy sitting in a hotel room contemplating death” and more specifically, in terms of the concept of death, “where you go, what it means and all the different possibilities”. That explanation may not be overly intriguing in and of itself. But what makes it profound in this case is that, as you may already know, this selfsame Chris Cornell eventually and surprisingly committed suicide, at the age of 52, some years after this track was dropped.
Based on another explanation he offered, the lyrics do not reflect “the normal monotheistic approach” to the concept of an afterlife – one in which, as he understands it, a person can live a pious life but still “go to hell anyway”. Instead, this track is based on its subject “concentrating on the afterlife (he) would hope for”.
The First Verse of “Like a Stone”
So with that being established, what we are met with at the beginning is the vocalist situated in a setting that reads like it may be a motel room. Therein, he is reading what’s described as “a book full of death” which, as concluded by many analysts, would most likely be the Bible. And yes, if you want to look at it that way, there is a fair amount of dying going on in the Good Book. Moreover, the way the vocalist is interpreting what he’s reading is as it being centered on “how we’ll die alone”.
Who’s Supposed to Be The Subject?
At this juncture, it should be pointed out that the subject of this song is not supposed to be Cornell himself but rather – according to an explanation the singer provided to his bandmate and fellow credited writer of the track, Tim Commerford – an old man who is anticipating his own death. Furthermore as implied by Tim, it isn’t as if the character Chris is portraying is fascinated with the afterlife in and of itself. The old man is rather compelled to ruminate on such a topic because by the looks of things he wouldn’t be around much longer.
“In your house, I long to be
Room by room, patiently
I’ll wait for you there
Like a stone
I’ll wait for you there
Alone”
The Chorus of “Like a Stone”
The chorus is quite compelling, because first of all we find the vocalist singing to an unspecified addressee. And what he is telling this entity for starters is that he ‘longs to be in (their) house’.
The general understanding is that in this passage, Chris is addressing a personification of death. But the interesting thing about the terminology he uses to do so, going back to the Bible, is that Jesus presented Heaven as a “house” with “many rooms”. And the vocalist does proceed to note how he intends to spend the afterlife in the addressee’s “house… room by room”.
The Biblical Implications Of The Chorus
So it is very much possible, given Cornell’s explanation above, that he is referring to Heaven as depicted in the New Testament. That is to say that if the subject is indeed reading the Good Book and looking forward to “go(ing) somewhere… that’s really cool” under the impression that he’s “been good enough in… life”, then that somewhere would of course be Heaven as depicted therein. And yes, Chris was known to incorporate Christian ideas into his music as well as, it can even be argued, rockin’ a Jesus-inspired look during his latter days.
Like a Stone?
But with all of that being said, why he proceeds to tell the addressee that he’ll “wait for you there like a stone” and being “alone” in the process is not clear. One possible explanation is that the last two lines of the chorus, unlike the first two, are set in the present as opposed to the future, thus pointing to the vocalist being “alone” in his own house “like a stone”. Or if we wanted to go even further out on a limb, perhaps the “stone” word is meant to allude to one of Jesus’ popular nicknames, which is “the Chief Cornerstone”.
But what is arguable nonetheless, as we will get more into later, is that the chorus may actually have two different addressees. In other words, as put forth above, the first two lines are perhaps being relayed towards Jesus or are based on the notion of Heaven as found in the Bible. But with the latter two lines, it may well be that the vocalist is singing to someone who is here with him on the mortal plane.
The (Somewhat Confusing) Second Verse
The beginning of the second verse goes on to verify that even if this piece was inspired by the Bible, it isn’t actually Christian in nature. Instead we are met with the vocalist’s intent, once he is “on (his) deathbed”, to “pray to the gods and the angels like a pagan”.
This harps back to Chris’s earlier admittance that even though this song does possess what may be considered a religious undertone, said undertone isn’t based on monotheism. Rather, the singer’s goal is to make good with any spiritual being who he believes “will take (him) to heaven”.
But the second half of the verse is yet another point where things get a bit confusing. What we haven’t mentioned earlier is that in one of his explanations, Cornell more or less described heaven, i.e. the place where one is received favorably into the afterlife, as “somewhere you remember that’s really cool”.
And here in the second verse, he also describes it as ‘a place he recalls’ and “was there so long ago”. But then Chris proceeds to depict that setting, metaphorically, as being the scene of Jesus’s crucifixion. Or at least that’s what many analysts have concluded when the singer mentions a ‘bruised sky’, ‘bled wine’ and being “led… on” by an unidentified addressee.
A (Mildly Perplexing) Sense of Regret
After the second verse comes a repeating of the chorus and then the bridge, which is the last part of the song to feature lyrics that have not already been rendered earlier.
What’s being relayed here, as with the rest of the song more or less, is open to interpretation. But it can also be argued that the lyrics of this segment are more direct than any of the others. And perhaps the simplest way of deciphering what’s being expressed in the bridge is a sense of “regret” on the part of the vocalist.
In other words, as someone who is seemingly under the impression that his death is imminent and who also believes in an afterlife, the subject is obviously concerned about how he will be received into the latter.
It is not clear what exactly Chris means when he sings of being regretful “for all that he’s blessed and all that he’s wronged”. That is to say that logically, if a person does believe in spiritual judgment, ‘all that they’ve blessed’ – which we will take as meaning that which they have rightfully edified – shouldn’t be amongst the list of things to be regretful for. And it is that particular lack of logic, if you will, which makes the bridge confusing.
But overall, this segment’s main point appears to be clear. And that would be, most simply put, the subject being in a state where he is constantly thinking about his own personal afterlife.
All Lyrics of “Like a Stone” Considered
Indeed, logic would dictate that for those of us who do hold certain common spiritual/religious beliefs, this is likely a common phenomenon. In other words, it makes sense that as a person ages and gets closer to death, he or she would also start to increasingly ruminate more on whether they actually lived a life worthy of exaltation or punishment in the hereafter. And as also implied in the Bible, no one really knows the answer to that question until they actually get there.
When this song was dropped, the members of Audioslave were all in their 30s and, as far as we can tell, in good health. That would explain why Chris cast himself into the role of an old man for the sake of dropping this song, to add that dimension of imminent death as being a palpable possibility. But the fact that Cornell who, as can be deemed from his explanation of “Like a Stone”, was also personally reflecting on such a topic at the time, coupled with the fact that he actually went on to commit suicide, does theoretically speak volumes, as if he wanted to hasten his entry into the afterlife.
Why Did Chris Cornell Commit Suicide?
For a popular musician to commit suicide really isn’t as common an occurrence as some of us may presume. Unintentional, self-induced death through overdosing does happen fairly often, especially as far as far these rock artists are concerned. And yes, Chris Cornell did have issues with drug abuse, which included a stint in rehab back in the days. That was a habit which unfortunately he began developing even before he was a teenager.
But how much of a role, if any, that drugs actually played in his suicide by hanging is a matter of debate. For example, despite having a number of medications in his system at the time of death, Cornell’s official autopsy, which was published a couple of weeks afterwards, states specifically that the drugs which were detected “did not contribute to the cause of death”.
Did Drugs (i.e. Ativan) Play a Direct Role?
Chris’ widow, Vicky Cornell, as well as other family members of his believe his over dependency on an anti-anxiety medication known as Lorazepam (or Ativan), put him in a state whereby he was not cognizant that he was committing suicide at the time.
With that in mind, they actually proceeded to sue one Dr. Robert Koblin for prescribing the singer more drugs than he actually needed, and the parties did reach an agreement concerning that matter in 2021. In other words, the singer’s family has argued that Cornell wasn’t so depressed that he would take his own life. Or as Vicky more specifically implied, Chris would never commit such an act knowing the negative effect it would have on their children, who were both pre-teens at the time (not to mention that he also had a child from a previous relationship who was concurrently in her teens).
The Demon Of Depression
But that said, Chris had a pretty well-documented history of depression, once again dating back to his early teens, when he formed a dependency on PCP and subsequently alcohol.
The late vocalist is also on record, from way back in 1996, as saying that he “know(s) how it feels to be suicidal”. And even back in those days Cornell read like an expert on the topic, going on to say, actually using the example of someone “hanging from a rope”, that it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between a “run-of-the-mill” case of depression and a person who is actually suicidal. And yes, the fact of the matter is that many of us have had suicidal thoughts, but we never proceeded to actually kill ourselves. However, on the fateful day of 18 May 2017, Cornell did proceed to take his own life by hanging.
Was Cornell Past His Prime?
By that time, it could be said that Chris’s musical heyday was behind him. Audioslave, which he had fronted since 2001, had for the most part permanently disbanded in 2007. Soundgarden, whom Cornell had been down with since 1984, were extremely successful during the 1990s, but their last studio album dates all the way back to 2012’s “King Animal”. And as for his solo career, Chris did drop a studio LP not too long before committing suicide, which would be 2015’s “Higher Truth”. But in terms of chart success, let’s just say that it wasn’t his best-performing effort.
The Life of A Rockstar
That said, Cornell was still an established A lister amongst the metal/rock crowd. For instance, the Washington native committed suicide in Detroit after performing a show, and Soundgarden was concurrently on tour with six dates remaining. Or put otherwise, he was living the type of life that many of us dream of. For example, at the time of his passing, it has been reported that Chris’s net worth was a very wealthy $40 million.
So all of this is another way of saying that by the time all is said and done, it’s likely that no one but Chris Cornell would know exactly why he committed suicide. On one hand he was living the life of a bona fide rockstar, which is generally considered to be one of the most envious in the world. But on the other, he had a notable history of depression and drug abuse. And even though, by the looks of things, Cornell wasn’t using any illicit drugs circa his death, what has been concluded, if nothing else, is that he was intentionally ingesting an unhealthy amount of Ativan.
The Mystery of The Great Beyond
Considering the nature of the lyrics of “Like a Stone”, some have also exercised the possibility that maybe Chris was looking for something in the afterlife that he didn’t get from or perceive within the mortal plane. That understanding would imply that depression per se didn’t cause him to kill himself but also, let’s say an unquenchable interest in what happens after death. But as generally understood, even though Cornell put up an admirable fight, he never completely bested the demon of depression nor the one of drug abuse.
The Suicide of Chester Bennington
As noted earlier, music stars committing suicide really doesn’t happen that often. That would be one of the reasons why the rock world was disturbingly caught off-guard yet again in mid-2017 when, just a couple of months after Chris Cornell forced himself off of the mortal plane, another of the genre’s luminaries, Chester Bennington, proceeded to do the same at the more tender age of 41.
Bennington’s Successful Career
Bennington had been the frontman of the well-known rock band Linkin Park, an act that originated in his home state of California, since 1999. The group’s heyday was during the aughts, during which all three of the studio albums they dropped during that decade proved to be multi-platinum successes. That includes “Hybrid Theory” (2000), their debut LP, which has achieved the highly-elusive RIAA diamond status, meaning that it has sold in excess of 10 million copies in the United States alone.
At the time of Chester’s death, Linkin Park weren’t selling records like that anymore. However, they did drop an album just a couple of month beforehand, on the day after Chris Cornell committed suicide, titled “One More Light” which, even though it wasn’t viewed favorably by professional critics, instantly proceeded to top the Billboard 200. So it isn’t as if, at the time of his death, Bennington was lacking in popularity or success. To the contrary, he was reportedly worth about $30 million, which is a whole lot more money than most of us will make in a lifetime, besides also being a rockstar.
Chris Cornell And Chester Bennington, True Homeys in Life (And Death?)
Of further interest is the fact that Cornell and Bennington were close friends, so much so that the latter was visibly shaken by the former’s death. And they were in fact genuine besties, considering for instance that Chester sang at Chris’s funeral and is also the godfather of Cornell’s only son.
So to some degree, even though there’s no solid evidence of such, we have to believe that Bennington was compelled to follow Cornell’s lead in committing suicide. For instance, it is quite telling that Chester chose to take his life on what would have been Chris’s 53rd birthday.
As one expert put it in relation to these types of unfortunate situations, “suicide is contagious”. Or as more specifically explained by said Dr. Ronald Maris, when a person commits suicide, then the idea is also planted in the heads of those around him.
Also as with Cornell, Bennington unfortunately suffered from depression and developed a substance abuse habit very early in life, which he more or less had to contend with throughout. So it’s understandable that like Chris, Chester also appeared to be one of those types of people who believed that “the next life” may be preferable to this one. And it’s interesting how he pointed out that for artists such as himself and presumably Cornell also, they were put in a position, via the music industry if you will, in which they actually became rich and famous dropping songs about their personal struggles, thus perpetuating them in a way.
Is Chris Addressing Chester In The Chorus Of “Like A Stone”?
The close friendship between Chris and Chester began in 2007, when the two singers found themselves as part of the same tour. So it cannot be logically concluded that Chris composed “Like a Stone”, which came out quite a few years prior, specifically with Chester in mind. However, what can be reasonably argued is that Cornell penned the song taking likeminded individuals, i.e. his soul brothers or kindred spirits, into consideration. And of course, Bennington proved to be one of such people.
Back To the Chorus of “Like a Stone”
So what we are offering, as another way of interpreting those last two lines of the chorus, is that the vocalist may actually be putting forth that he’s ‘waiting like a stone’ in the afterlife for someone who is, like himself, still alive.
The character Chris is portraying, as noted above, would be one who has already lost all of his loved ones. But as also pointed out earlier, the way the chorus is worded gives the impression that this person, i.e. the addressee whom Cornell is relaying the titular sentiment to, is here on Earth, not the hereafter. In other words, it isn’t likely the vocalist would have to wait in the afterlife for someone who has already been there prior to himself.
“I’ll wait for you there alone, alone”
So with that in mind, it is possible that Chester could have interpreted this piece as if Chris were singing to him personally. Or put more simplistically, he could identify with what the subject on the song was going through, i.e. wanting or longing to be dead. That much is at least obvious, considering that Chester actually (and also) proceeded to take his own life. And to reiterate, Chester waited, if you will, until Chris’s birthday to do so. Or relayed from a different angle, we have to believe that Chester expedited his own death under the belief that doing so would hastily reunite him with his dead homey in a place that is potentially more ideal than the situation they found themselves in on the mortal plane.
A Suicide Pact?
With the above theory in mind, it has been suggested by one of the members of our team, who is an actual Chris Cornell fan, that maybe the nature of this song is akin to a suicide pact. That notion is based on actually listening to “Like a Stone” as opposed to analyzing its lyrics on paper, as we have done throughout most of this analysis. And from an audio perspective yes, there does appear to be a special emphasis on how the phrases “I’ll wait for you there like a stone” and “I’ll wait for you there all alone” are rendered.
Perhaps it can be argued that such is to be expected, considering that those two lines serve as the de facto thesis sentiment or highlight of the chorus. But given their nature, that they are overtly, we can say, related to the notion of propagating death, that fact is still particularly noteworthy in this case. Or let’s more precisely say that it sounds more or as if the vocalist is inviting the addressee to join him in the afterlife as opposed to waiting for this person per se. And to further note, Chris especially stresses that he is “alone”, as if it is the addressee’s responsibility, if you will, to join him.
Does such an understanding of “Like a Stone” imply that Chris and Chester had a suicide pact?
All things considered, it’s safe to say that only the two of them would know if they struck such an agreement. As noted earlier, a person committing suicide can inspire other depressed individuals in their orbit to contemplate the same. According to Chester’s widow Talinda, “those signs… were definitely there”, i.e. Bennington being woefully depressed before taking his life. If Talinda was actually a mental-health professional, she may have been able to actually pick up on his suicidal tendencies beforehand. But in her own defense, she also noted that Chester behaved like that all the time and not just after Cornell’s death.
But with that being said, it is once again quite telling that Bennington chose Cornell’s birthday, out of all of the days of the year, to commit suicide. It is that particular fact that really makes the theory that they had some type of pact in place more credible than it would be otherwise. Or let’s say that out of all the famous musicians who have committed suicide, there doesn’t appear to be any other pair who were close homeys and furthermore did so within such a short timeframe of each other.
The Long and Short of “Like a Stone”
It can be reasonably argued, all things considered, that the lyrics of this song reflect Chris Cornell’s vision or least ideology of the afterlife. He may not have been a particularly religious person, but he did obviously feel that he was someone who deserved to be received favorably in the spirit world after death.
Religious adherents tend to be such that they believe the road to Heaven is found through their respective belief systems. But since Chris – or at least the vocalist in this song – doesn’t actually subscribe to any particular system, then, as sorta expressed in the second verse, he is hoping that being a good person in general is sufficient for whoever is in charge of entrance into the pearly gates. And it is highly likely that Cornell’s homey, Chester Bennington, thought along those same lines.
These Dark Chapters of Our Lives
Unfortunately, many of us go through negative experiences in our youth, including the development of self-destructive habits, which continue to plague us thereafter. And as illustrated by the likes of Cornell and Bennington, even being the recipient of all of the success in the world doesn’t cause those issues to magically disappear. So in hindsight, perhaps we can say that instead of dropping songs about drug abuse and depression, they should have been a bit more dedicated to actually rectifying those issues in their lives.
Although the lyrics of “Like a Stone” are not overtly religious in nature, certain segments do possess what can be deemed as a discernible Christian element. And as generally understood in Christianity, as well virtually all major religions, suicide is a no-no. In other words, deciding to do so likely wasn’t an easy decision on the part of the spiritually-minded Chris Cornell. Therefore, if it was actually drugs and depression which drove him over the edge, then both afflictions must’ve had a really powerful presence in his mind on that fateful night.
