Lily Cornell Silver has honoured her the memory of late father Chris Cornell by launching an IGTV series discussing mental health amid the global pandemic.
Launched on July 20th — which would’ve been the Soundgarden frontman’s 56th birthday — Mind Wide Open came about after Lily turned to the internet in search of resources in dealing with her own struggles over her father’s death in 2017 as well as the pandemic, only to find that appropriate info was severely lacking.
“It’s such an unprecedented experience that there were no resources around dealing with mental health in a pandemic because unless you’re, like, 100 years old, nobody has experienced it,” she told Rolling Stone. “That was what I was mainly looking for in this time and not really able to find, so that’s something that I was wanting to create.”
Adding that she’s “obviously not a mental health expert,” the 20-years explained that she’s “just a college student who has experienced a lot by way of grief and trauma. So it’s really important to me to be in conversation with experts in that field.”
Speaking of her beloved father Chris Cornell, Lily revealed that the pair would regularly discuss their mental health with one another.
“We talked about our shared experiences with mental health. I’ve had anxiety since I was a little kid and he was really validating and reassuring for me in that way,” Silver recalled. “When I was like 12 or something, he was like, ‘When I was 12, I would be laying awake in bed at night and my heart would be pounding. It felt like I was going to have a heart attack.’ He would always say, ‘You come by [your anxiety] honestly, and it’s something that I’ve struggled with my whole life.’ And it was just that reassurance, like ‘You’re gonna be OK.'”
“Something he used to say to me that would crack me up was, ‘Stupid people don’t have anxiety. The fact that you’re worrying about what the outcome is going to be and thinking what every possible option could be and worrying about all the ways that things could go wrong, it’s because you’re very smart and because your brain works really fast. And even though it sucks, and it can feel like a total burden, you’ll harness it and you’ll figure out how to use it in ways that are helpful to you and others.’”
Love Classic Rock?
Get the latest Classic Rock news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
If you or somebody you care for needs help or information about depression, suicide, anxiety, or mental health issues, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Check out ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Chris Cornell:
