Temple of the Dog

Temple of the Dog was started by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who had been a roommate of Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone.[1] Wood died on March 19, 1990, of a heroin overdose, the day Cornell got back from a tour.[2] As he went on to tour Europe a few days later, he started writing songs in tribute to his late friend.[1] The result was two songs, "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven", which he recorded as soon as he returned home from touring.[1]

The recorded material was slow and melodic, musically different from the aggressive rock music of Soundgarden.[3] Cornell approached Wood's former Mother Love Bone bandmates Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament—who were still figuring out what to do after the death of their singer and lyricist—with the intention of releasing the songs as a single.[2] Ament described the collaboration as "a really good thing at the time" for Gossard and him that put them into a "band situation where we could play and make music."[2] The band's lineup was completed by the addition of Soundgarden (and later Pearl Jam) drummer Matt Cameron and future Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready, who was Gossard's childhood friend. They named themselves Temple of the Dog, a reference to a line in the lyrics of the Mother Love Bone song "Man of Golden Words".[1]

The band started rehearsing "Reach Down", "Say Hello 2 Heaven", and other songs that Cornell had written on tour prior to Wood's death, as well as re-working some existing material from demos written by Gossard, Ament, and Cameron.[4] One such demo became a song for two bands, recorded as "Footsteps" by Pearl Jam and "Times of Trouble" by Temple of the Dog.[5] The idea of doing covers of Wood's solo material also came up, but was abandoned quickly, as the band felt it would make people (including Wood's close friends and relatives[1]) think they were "exploiting his material."[2]

The release of a single was soon deemed a "stupid idea" by Cornell and dropped in favor of an EP or album.[1] The album was recorded in only 15 days, produced by the band themselves, along with Rick Parashar of London Bridge Studio.[1] Gossard described the recording process as a "non-pressure-filled" situation, as there were no expectations or pressure coming from the record company.[2] Eddie Vedder, who had flown up to Seattle from San Diego to audition to be the singer of Ament, Gossard, and McCready's new band, Mookie Blaylock (named for a basketball player, the band would later be renamed Pearl Jam), was at one of the Temple of the Dog rehearsals, and ended up providing backing vocals on a few songs,[6] with "Hunger Strike" becoming a duet between Cornell and Vedder. Cornell was still figuring out the vocals at practice, when Vedder stepped in and filled in the blanks, singing the low parts because he saw it was hard for Cornell.[7] As Cornell later described it: "He sang half of that song not even knowing that I'd wanted the part to be there and he sang it exactly the way I was thinking about doing it, just instinctively."[2][8] "Hunger Strike" became Temple of the Dog's breakout single. It was also Vedder's first featured vocal on a record.[9] In the 2011 documentary Pearl Jam Twenty, Vedder states: "That was the first time I heard myself on a real record. It could be one of my favorite songs that I've ever been on — or the most meaningful."[7]

Temple of the Dog, the band's self-titled album, was released on April 16, 1991, through A&M Records and initially sold 70,000 copies in the United States.[4] Ament recalled requesting that A&M include a Pearl Jam sticker on the cover—as they had just picked their new name—because "it'll be a good thing for us", but they refused.[4] The album received favorable reviews,[10] but failed to chart. Critic Steve Huey of AllMusic later gave the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, stating that the "record sounds like a bridge between Mother Love Bone's theatrical '70s-rock updates and Pearl Jam's hard-rocking seriousness."[11] David Fricke of Rolling Stone wrote, in retrospect, that the album "deserves immortality."[12] The band members were pleased with the material, as it achieved its purpose; Cornell believed that "Andy really would have liked" the songs,[2] and Gossard also asserted that he thought Wood would be "blown away by the whole thing".[1] Soon after the album's release, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam embarked on recording their own albums, and the Temple of the Dog project was brought to a close, without a promotional tour for the album.

In the summer of 1992, the album received renewed attention. Although it had been released more than a year earlier, A&M Records realized that they had in their catalog what was essentially a collaboration between Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, who had both risen to mainstream attention in the months since the album's release with their respective albums, Badmotorfinger and Ten. A&M decided to reissue the album and promote "Hunger Strike" as a single, with an accompanying music video that had been previously filmed. The attention allowed both the album and single to chart on Billboard charts and resulted in a boost in album sales. The album ended up being among the 100 top-selling albums of 1992,[13] and it has sold more than a million copies, achieving a platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.[14]

McCready, Ament, Cameron, and Cornell later reunited under the name M.A.C.C. to record a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun)" for the 1993 tribute album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix. The song has since been included as part of the band's live set. In a 2007 interview with Ultimate Guitar Archive, Cornell stated he would be open to a Temple of the Dog reunion, or "some collaboration with any combination of those guys".[6] He also revealed that Temple of the Dog was the reason he joined Audioslave, as the experience made him "keep an open mind" about collaborations with musicians from other bands.[6]

• 1991 – "Hunger Strike"
• 2016 – "Hunger Strike" (2016 Mix)