Follow My Way

I think this song is about how we look at people like Chris, who seem kind of superhuman in comparison with ourselves. At every point in this song he is perhaps trying to persuade us that his way of life is actually less rewarding than lives led by ourselves, which we may think are rather dull in comparison.

"Little one don't be a fool, I'm a wreck when I look mighty " The way he refers to us and him is ironic. He addresses us in the way we would expect of somebody much higher up than us "little one". He says do not to be fooled because when he looks his most mighty, he may be extremely stressed or depressed as a result of the pressure.

"In euphoria I'm bruised" - Euphoria means bliss. We associate blissful things with pleasure alone. In what we see as his blissful way of life he tells us he is actually extremely hurt by it.

"in confusion next I'm lightning" - To me this refers to his state of mind when we'd think he's at a 'high point'. He will jump from confusion in every day life to extreme productivity in his work very quickly. So perhaps he is torn apart by his obsession with performing and the time he spends working on it. Yet to us he seems to have it all made, because we only ever see the finely tuned performance.

"In complacence I am small, through oblivion I charge " - In his own pleasure (his complacence) he has nothing. Through what we see as his brilliance he is soaring. Yet he sees this 'brilliance' as his oblivion. Suggesting that he believes he cannot escape it, so has to keep charging forward into it.

"You're just looking for a boy bathed in infrared and sunlight" - He is telling us that all we really want is a rockstar and a stage full of artificial lights.

"I'm all polish and reward, when I'm confident I'm hopeless. Just like everybody else right before they fall apart" - He is polished and has rewards to us, yet he feels very hopeless. So hopeless that the only way he can describe it to us is by saying "I feel like what you'd feel like when you finally fall apart."

"When I'm the pain, fever and sweet relief in one" - When he seems to be in pain, because maybe an album didn't do well or his 'fans' have rejected him - he feels a bit hurt by it, but it's actually a relief to escape it.

"So follow my way when I am falling from your heart" "So follow my way when I'm not leading anyone. Open and frayed, when you can see that I'm unsure" "Out on my way I'm only pure when I get lost and you're only needing, when you're finding that I'm not"

• He is trying to tell you that you'd be better off following him when he seems 'lost'. We assume that what he means by 'lost' is to have no preconceived goals - and therefore to be free. He is telling us that only at this point would we see the real person, yet we carry on wanting 'Chris Cornell' 'that cool singer guy'. It seems that he wishes that we'd love him for what he wants to be (free) rather than what we want him to be (a rockstar).

"Though I'm not worthy of your trust. Follow me down into a swan dive, all eyes closed tightly" - He feels guilty for living out this fake and materialistic rockstar image. Yet wants you to let him take you on a journey of what he really is. He may or may not know who he is and we certainly don't. Therefore it will be a leap of faith.

"Lowly, slowly. Now I know I like where you go when you're gone" - In one way it could mean the people who didn't follow him into the swan dive. After going on the leap of faith, he likes these people now that their gone, out of his way, out of his life.

"Warm your hands inside my veins. I might be contagious" - It seems like a bitter and sarcastic remark. He is telling us if we love his rockstar life so much then go and kill him with it and take it upon yourself. He thinks of it as a disease, so it is possibly a contagious thing.

"When I derail. Calm in the patience of remorse" - He thinks that when he steps out of the rockstar life he lives, he feels calm but also has a strong sense of remorse for what he has done with his life. He could be telling us to enjoy the calm while he is dealing with this remorse.

"When all you know, is that I don't know where we are. When all you know, is that I don't know. Follow my way" - He is saying perhaps that he is only worth following if he is living as a free man. To him, being a free man is perhaps not knowing what comes next. Just taking it as it comes.