On This Day, 1991: Temple of the Dog releases its one and only album
Combining the efforts of artists who would help define 1990s rock music, Temple of the Dog released its only album 30 years ago Friday.
The story of how Temple of the Dog came together started on a sad note. On March 19, 1990, Mother Love Bone front man Andrew Woods died as the result of a heroin overdose at age 24. Mother Love Bone’s debut album was set to hit store shelves a month later.
One of the remaining band members, Chris Cornell wrote two songs as a tribute to a fallen friend (“Say Hello 2 Heaven” being the most notable one). Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready and Matt Cameron also formed the new group, named after a lyric line written by Wood.
I want to show you something like joy inside my heart, seems I been living in the temple of the dog.’
Pearl Jam, originally named Mookie Blaylock after the NBA player, was beginning to come together. Eddie Vedder came to Seattle to audition, and he was at a Temple of the Dog rehearsal. Here’s how Cornell recalled it, via Loudwire.
[Eddie] was at one of our rehearsals for Temple of the Dog because he had flown up here. It was the week he was trying out for [Pearl Jam] I guess, and he told me afterwards that he really liked that song and the thing about that song among a couple of others that were stylistically the vocals really weren't anything that I had done before, on a record anyway. It wasn't really the way I was used to singing, and I thought his voice suited that song really well and I thought it would be a great duet … He sang half that song not even knowing that I'd wanted that part to be there and he sang it exactly the way I was thinking about doing it, just instinctively."
”That song”, as Cornell referred to it, was “Hunger Strike.”
After that lone Temple of the Dog album, released on April 16, 1991, Cornell and drummer Matt Cameron went back to Soundgarden. Vedder, Gossard, Ament and McCready became the core members of Pearl Jam.
Check out “Hunger Strike” and “Say Hello 2 Heaven” below.