We've talked about Audioslave before on a previous Y2Kessler. This is the second single off their debut album. A lot of rumors have flown around about what the song was actually about. Several of the band members, Cornell included, have said the song is about the afterlife. It's a lot more bleak than you think. Cornell explains,
"It's a song about concentrating on the afterlife you would hope for, rather than the normal monotheistic approach: You work really hard all your life to be a good person and a moral persona and fair and generous, and then you go to hell anyway."
Before Cornell came out and said that, there was rumors claiming the song was about the death of Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley, but Cornell right out and denied that.
" I wrote the lyrics before he died. [...] You can misinterpret that stuff pretty easy, but I don't tend to sit down and plan on writing about a specific issue. They come up or they don't"
Audioslave - Like a Stone - 2003