Many of you have heard the line "I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota." Well, if you didn't already know, that's from this song - the ultimate modern blues song, washed in a Black Sabbath bath.

Personally, I know that Minnesota is a beautiful place to live, winters included. But I know what Chris Cornell was saying. I'm sure he would've said "Feeling Washington," but he's from there and disregards the equally negative popular image of their gloomy weather. Plus, "Washington" rhymes with nothing.

Here's a cool interview snippet from Cornell about that line:

"One of the first times I remember writing something personal was on tour. I was feeling really freaky and down, and I looked in the mirror and I was wearing a red T-shirt and some baggy tennis shorts. I remember thinking that as bummed as I felt, I looked like some beach kid. And then I came up with that line—’I’m looking California / And feeling Minnesota,’ from the song ‘Outshined’—and as soon as I wrote it down, I thought it was the dumbest thing. But after the record came out and we went on tour, everybody would be screaming along with that particular line when it came up in the song. That was a shock. How could anyone know that that was one of the most personally specific things I had ever written? It was just a tiny line. But somehow, maybe because it was personal, it just pushed that button."

My takeaway: In art, in anything, be yourself and don't worry about achieving a popular affectation. Honesty is always more attractive.

That's a bigger lesson than maybe it should have to be. But the pleasant surprise of its truth, as Cornell experienced, is a good moment.