Lily Cornell Silver On New Mental Health Series: "[Chris] Would Be Proud Of My Vulnerability"

Lily Cornell Silver has opened up about her new weekly IGTV interview series, Mind Wide Open, and how she wanted to discuss mental health in such detail in honour of her late father, Chris Cornell.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the 20-year-old says that her dad would be "proud of [her] vulnerability" in these detailed chats, adding that, "Helping others and pursuing my passions is something that he always instilled in me."

Read this: Chris Cornell's 12 greatest vocal performances

Lily continues that the title, Mind Wide Open, also came from the Soundgarden frontman, who had previously found some of his old lyrics from the ’90s as part of an assignment for his daughter, and Lily was particularly struck by the words: 'Half alive / Heard the most brilliant lie / Sleep is eyes closed to the light / Death is the mind wide open.'

"When it comes to mental health and launching this series in honour of my dad, there are so many other ways to have your mind wide open," she continues.

"Having these conversations with other people and destigmatising the conversation around mental health is a way for me to have my mind be wide open. So I think losing someone very traumatically, and struggling with my own suicidal ideation, inspired me to think of what are other ways that you can allow your mind to be wide open. And this series is definitely one of them."

When asked what she wishes more people understood about depression, Lily replies inspiringly: "Everybody experiences it. Everybody struggles with it. There should be no shame around it."

With the series initially launching on Chris' birthday, the singer's daughter Toni also paid tribute to her dad on the day – by covering Pearl Jam's Black.

"I’m so grateful that I was lucky enough to have a dad who was also my best friend," she said. "Music was our life, so it really created a special bond between the two of us, even when we weren’t on the road. Here in this studio, he taught me how to play the guitar, how to record songs."

Watch the first episode of Mind Wide Open below, and see more information at mindwideopenproject.com

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