One of the most beloved rock tracks of the early 2000s, Audioslave‘s “Like a Stone,” has reached the milestone of hitting 1 billion views on YouTube.
Audioslave formed in 2001 when the members of Rage Against the Machine — minus frontman Zack de la Rocha — joined forces with vocalist Chris Cornell, who’d split with Soundgarden a few years prior and was pursuing a solo career. “Like a Stone” is featured on the supergroup’s self-titled debut album, which came out in November of 2002.
“The short version is just some guy sitting in a hotel room contemplating death and where you go and what it means and all the different possibilities of that, and then coming up with an image that he likes. Going with the philosophy of, well maybe when you die, if you’ve been good enough in life, you get to go somewhere that you remember that was really cool,” Cornell once explained of the song’s meaning in an interview.
Audioslave went on to release another two albums together, 2005’s Out of Exile and 2007’s Revelations, before disbanding later that year. They reunited for a couple of songs in January of 2017 at the Anti-Inaugural Ball, where they played “Like a Stone” together for the final time. Cornell died several months later.
The track was destined to achieve the feat at some point, as it’s one of the Top 20 most-viewed rock ‘n’ roll videos on YouTube, according to this playlist. Guns N’ Roses‘ “November Rain” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Linkin Park‘s “Numb” and “In the End,” System of a Down‘s “Chop Suey!,” Bon Jovi‘s “It’s My Life,” Metallica‘s “Nothing Else Matters” and AC/DC‘s “Thunderstruck” are among the other videos in the Top 20, and they’re all members of the billion-views club as well.
Audioslave – ‘Like a Stone’
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