Only These Words

While most people believe that Chris Cornell’s song "Only These Words" from Higher Truth is about his younger daughter Toni, I’ve always felt that it might actually be about his older daughter, Lily. When I first read the lyrics, something struck me deeply. The song describes a father dreaming of his little girl as a princess, in a fairy-tale castle. But in the final verse, he wakes up — and the castle is gone. There are "no more kings and no more queens." The girl is no longer a child; she has grown up. This shift feels more like a father reflecting on a daughter who has already grown into a teenager or young woman — someone he can no longer hold in his arms the same way, or call "princess" every day. That makes me think of Lily, who was a teenager at the time Chris wrote this album. It’s important to remember that Chris spent his last years more closely connected to his second family, and he was reportedly more isolated from Lily and some close friends. Many people close to him have spoken about this distance. When I read the lyrics through this lens, it feels as though Chris is looking back on those early years with Lily — the "good old days" — and longing for the closeness they once shared. The song repeats "I love you" as if trying to reach out across time and distance. It’s as if he is trying to say the words he didn’t get to say enough, or at least not in the way he wanted. He wrote this song thinking of the innocence of a little girl he can’t fully reach anymore. Every father calls his daughter "princess." And in this song, Chris seems to be saying: even if she is no longer a princess in a castle, even if she’s grown and they are far apart, he still wishes her love, warmth, and a future with someone who will cherish her — just as he always did. In the end, this song feels like a tender, bittersweet letter from a father who misses the small child he once held close, and who now can only watch from afar as she lives her life.