Like a Stone is a song by Audioslave, released as the second single from their eponymous debut studio album Audioslave in January 21, 2003. The band’s singer, songwriter, Chris Cornell, explains that Like a Stone is a song about focusing on the afterlife that you’d expect, rather than the normal monotheistic approach: you work very hard all your lives to be a good person, a person moral, fair and generous, and then you go to hell anyway.
The melancholic tone and certain parts of the lyrics of Like a Stone have led some to question whether Cornell wrote the song about the late Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley, who died in April 2002. Cornell has denied this, saying “No. I’m not one of those guys where something happens and then I’m running, ‘Ooh, 9/11, and now it’s 9/12, let me write about it.
I wrote the lyrics before I died. … It’s very easy to misinterpret those things, but I don’t usually sit down and plan to write about a specific topic. They come up or they don’t.” A CD Single version of Like A Stone released in the United Kingdom in 2003 contained the following tracks. All lyrics written by Chris Cornell; all music composed by Audioslave, except Super Stupid written by George Clinton, Eddie Hazel, Billy Bass Nelson and Tawl Ross.
Tracklist:
- Like a Stone
- Like a Stone (live on BBC Radio 1)
- Gasoline (live on BBC Radio 1)
- Set It Off (live on Late Show with David Letterman)
- Super Stupid (live on BBC Radio 1)
- Like a Stone (music video)
The music video for Like a Stone was written and directed by Meiert Avis, produced by Oualid Mouaness, and edited by Jim Rhoads. As of October 9, 2022, the music video has reached over 1 billion views on YouTube. It is set in an old Spanish mansion on Silver Lake in Los Angeles, where Jimi Hendrix once lived and wrote. Commerford‘s 1-year-old son Xavier appeared in the video. It shows the band performing inside the mansion where they also set up a recording booth.
Like a Stone Lyrics
On a cobweb afternoon
In a room full of emptiness
By a freeway I confess
I was lost in the pages
Of a book full of death
Reading how we’ll die alone
And if we’re good, we’ll lay to rest
Anywhere we want to go
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
And on my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a pagan to anyone
Who will take me to heaven
To a place I recall
I was there so long ago
The sky was bruised
The wine was bled
And there you led me on
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
Alone
And on I read
Until the day was gone
And I sat in regret
Of all the things I’ve done
For all that I’ve blessed
And all that I’ve wronged
In dreams until my death
I will wander on
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
Alone
Songwriters: Chris Cornell, Brad Wilk, Timothy Commerford, Tom Morello
AUDIOSLAVE
Chris Cornell: lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Tom Morello: lead guitar
Tim Commerford: bass, backing vocals
Brad Wilk: drums
Chris Cornell (July 20, 1964 – May 18, 2017).
