Chris Cornell’s mental health and struggles with fame have appeared at the centre of discussion surrounding his passing almost a year ago. The grunge legend suffered privately with addiction, eventually leading to his untimely death that was ruled a suicide.
Now, Heart’s singer Ann Wilson has opened up about her friend Cornell in an interview, as reported by Alternative Nation, detailing how Cornell was a “pure being” and felt uncomfortable with the fame handed to him, leading to his mental downfall.
In the interview, she discusses the Audioslave song ‘I Am The Highway’ from the band’s self-titled 2002 debut album, saying that the track deals with the themes of alienation and Chris’ dissatisfaction with himself.
“The Audioslave number is my favourite Chris Cornell song. It’s just all about, I’m not the thing, I’m the bigger thing, I’m not your magic carpet ride in the sky. It’s a really great song, it has a lot of particular meaning to me because Chris was my friend. The words in I Am The Highway talk about dissatisfaction, and alienation, and someone who is just on their way. They’re not going to hang out with the friends and liars.”
“Whenever I hear that song I think about Chris a lot because he was always at odds with his success. The expectations that were put on him being the voice of a generation and a superstar of the 90’s and 2000’s and stuff was too much for him.”
“It was really uncomfortable, and he wasn’t just bragging about being uncomfortable, he was. It was too much.”
Wilson also went on to hint at Cornell’s inner conflict surrounding his persona saying, “he had one foot in wanting to be famous, and one foot in just being so uncomfortable there, that he was caught somewhere in the middle. He was so beautiful, and handsome, but tender. He was a really, really good person. But this world was just, he went as far as he could go.”
