What does Like a Stone mean?

Audioslave: Like a Stone Meaning

Album cover for Like a Stone album cover

Song Released: 2003


Like a Stone Lyrics

on a cold wet 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

(chorus)
in your...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 25th 2007 !⃝

    If anyone of you were real Audioslave fans then you would have seen the DVD by now where Chris Cornell himself explained what the theme of like a stone is. obviously considering he WROTE it then it would be correct.

    The song is about sitting in an empty house watching the people you are close to dying around you and waiting for your turn. He also believes that heaven is what you make it so the place where you are happiest is the place you wish to go when you die.

    This comes from a teenager so all you genius adults should get your stories straight.
    =]

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    cynic
    click a star to vote
    Dec 12th 2007 !⃝

    It's about an old man who lost all friends and all of his family and is waiting to die to be re-united with the ones he love in the afterlife

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 29th 2013 !⃝

    The book he is referring to is the Bible he is reading it. understands he needs forgiveness for all that he has done. He has a fear of death because of his past like a pagan he will pray to anything that will get him to Heaven But comes to the conclusion..In your house I long to be (Gods house)..I will wait for you there like a stone.. (unmoving) I will wait for you there alone (face to face no one else to intervene just himself) Clearly wants redemption

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 7th 2022 !⃝

    He's sitting in a run down hotel room in some small city and picks up the Bible and starts to read it. He had faith at one time and strayed from God's message. He has done good but also has sinned. Maybe he was exploring other religions, too. But I think he's feeling all alone and wants to find his way back to God. He alludes to the fact that he continues to read (assumably)the Bible. He says when he is on his deathbed he needs to pray to God or, at this stage in his life, any other religions representation of their Gods to save him from eternal damnation. He is putting his faith back into the hands of God. He dies alone and will wait patiently in God's house (like a stone) metaphor for he's in limbo in death state) until Judgement Day when all those worthy will arise and be allowed into Heaven...God's Mansion permanently. Just my interpretation from bits and pieces of every ones interpretations.

  5. anonymous
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    Oct 25th 2021 !⃝

    Lucifer was in gods house so long ago and he ran gods house and god loved him so dearly maybe by reading the book of death was his interpitation ...maybe Satan would wait at his door to find forgiveness

  6. anonymous
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    Feb 1st 2020 !⃝

    This song is definitely has a lot of meaning from the Bible. He was Christian and he also suffered from depression. For anyone that suffers from depression and has thought at least a few times about getting out of the pain of life. He longs to be in God's House to relieve him of his pain. Depression can be extremely painful and a person might think the only way out is death. He longs to be in His house patiently waiting room by room. In the Bible Jesus tries to comfort the people by telling them My Father's House has many Rooms (mansions, dwelling place according to what version of the Bible you read. This is the very interesting part! As a theologian I truly believe that God is a truly loving forgiving God and I do not believe he would send one soul to Hell for eternity for making mistakes while living. Because really imagine a large blank wall and think of a very small box in the corner. Almost so small you can't even hardly see it. How could our loving God who created us and saved us send anyone to Hell for ETERNITY (which is the Lg white wall) and our lifetime is that little box in the corner. That box is so miniscule compared to eternity! So I do believe in Universal Salvation. But the interesting part is for me is "going room by room patiently" This is just kind of thinking outside the box if you are offended I am sorry. If you think of that tiny box as a room and then moving to another room, then another. Each room is a Different Life. It would explain a lot of mystery's in our world today. Children who remember events that happened lifetimes before birth and impossible to have known. There have been apparitions that cannot be explained, predictions about the future. Yes of course there are conmen & women out their. But like most TV shows the idea came from someone. All ideas come from someone. God is not a Fad that people go though and then change to something else. Look at the ideas that have lasted centuries! There is something to it. Just don't let society lock you in a box. Dare to think outside the box.

  7. anonymous
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    Nov 14th 2019 !⃝

    The song itself is about how he wrote the song. From what I know, he was on tour and this was a rained-out show date. So he is stuck in his motel/hotel room, comes across the Bible in the drawers and begins thumbing through it. I can't really discern where his Christian beliefs come from, but I'm not really sure it matters.

  8. anonymous
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    Oct 8th 2018 !⃝

    This song is about religion and how difficult it is to get out of the bullshit, once you're a grown-up.

  9. anonymous
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    Jan 17th 2018 !⃝

    The dude that said it was a fallen angel is correct, congrats, you actually have knowledge to comment. For anyone that has even a basic understanding of the Bible, the obvious answer is that Chris was speaking through the perspective of a demon. Its different from Sympathy for the Devil, which is more obvious. Nevertheless, rock n roll has a long history of this kind of thing.

  10. anonymous
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    Dec 22nd 2017 !⃝

    Not waiting to die but waiting to enter Heaven.

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 2nd 2017 !⃝

    this is so easy,unless you chose to not believe. his life is a spiritual seeking of the truth. this song is a moment of belief and surrender. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. steadfast wait all day long job had lost everything be God came to him. I wait for you like a stone! room by room means day by day.... if you read his lyrics watch his interviews in order of his life. HE TELLS US IN PLAIN ASS ENGLISH !There is no doubt in my mind this man is in Heaven. oh yea HE DIDDNT KILL HIMSELF either... the truth will come out.. bet that up!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Jun 20th 2017 !⃝

    Well he did die it was sad I was crying,he had depression according to his wife he was found with a hanging tool,they were searching his insides they did not find drugs I think a demons possessed him and kept telling him to do it (hang himself ) that's when his wife told a frienfriend to check on him, his friend got in but the bathroom door was locked. So his friend broke it down and found cornell on the floor.thats when people reported this to the news
    Chris will always be missed

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 20th 2017 !⃝

    Well he did die it was sad I was crying,he had depression according to his wife he was found with a hanging tool,they were searching his insides they did not find drugs I think a demons possessed him and kept telling him to do it (hang himself ) that's when his wife told a frienfriend to check on him, his friend got in but the bathroom door was locked. So his friend broke it down and found cornell on the floor.thats when people reported this to the news
    Chris will always be missed

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 21st 2017 !⃝

    This song can be interpreted in many ways, it's clearly a personal choice, for me it means that a man waiting to die to be with his lost love & praying to God n Angels to forgive his pass sins so he can be with the 1 he misses more than life itself..... that's my take because I am that guy, but to all you jackasses that can't be nothing but cruel & thoughtless about a songs meaning, your all shallow human beings that need a recourse in humility.........

  15. anonymous
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    Apr 26th 2017 !⃝

    Sounds like he's in a nursing home, to me.

  16. anonymous
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    Nov 2nd 2016 !⃝

    This song is clearly a rip off from someone who was at the same place as it was created ! that being said the song title changed from like a stone to Wait now back to the original ! Chris are you capable of telling the truth or you like telling different versions of it ! I Complained enough you might of run into someone i vented to . Shame on you My soul bled writing this song and its melody ! I have more i could say why bother I am done being depressed about it .

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  17. robert.murphy.75873708
    click a star to vote
    Sep 22nd 2014 !⃝

    Im so tired of people saying that there's no right or wrong interpretation that a bunch of b.s song writer's when they wright a song they have a one true meaning or message if you cant interpret it correctly then the song just not for you

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  18. anonymous
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    Nov 16th 2013 !⃝

    He's reading the Bible in a hotel room. it's about hoping for the promise that there is god and that there is something after death, if you are dutiful believer. And that even IN death, you will just lay there waiting for that promise to be kept, like a stone. Waiting. It's actually more about being mind-numbed by religion to believe. Shaping your life, all in the hopes of "the promise". And how in the end, we are nothing but alone. Laying in the ground like a stone. But here, read this and believe you won't be, its better to go out that way. Please just don't let it end, and be nothing. So we have created this fantasy of Heaven through religion. And all those burial plots we all buy and are buried, those are the "rooms" we all sit in, alone, waiting patiently to be with him in his house (heaven), like a stone.

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