I’m having a super-extra crazy week, and my brain radio is layering Chris Cornell’s voice over everything.

If there was a soundtrack to my life, at least two of his songs would be on it.

Hunger Strike – The first time I left home was to attend the Recording Workshop. I went through a rude awakening about finances and money, when I ran out of both food and money three weeks into a five-week program. This song was just getting popular.  I literally was going hungry for a while there. My old boss from the newspaper I worked at saved me by sending me a vacation check I didn’t actually qualify for. You could do that back then.

Rusty Cage – Fast forward 20 years, and I was working at The Tampa Tribune, which was a sinking ship. I had been in Florida 20 years, and was ready to move on. I decided to quit my job after 13 years, move back home, and  make the leap to telecommuting/freelancing. The lyric ‘I’m gonna break my rusty cage and run’ kept playing in my head. I listened to badmotorfinger several times on the drive back home.

Black Hole Sun, Jesus Christ Pose, Feelin Minnesota, Fell On Black Days, and Spoonman all bring back memories of specific times, which I won’t get into here.

To me, his death was a result of a side effect of anxiety meds. If suicidal tendencies are listed as a side effect of your medication, and you kill yourself after taking a few pills too many, Big Pharma killed you, IMHO. But that’s another rant.

RIP.