On April 16, 1991, Temple of the Dog released a self-titled album that didn’t get much attention at first, but eventually became HUGE.
When Andrew Wood, singer for ‘Mother Love Bone’ passed away from a heroin overdose on March 19, 1990, it inspired the formation of Temple of the Dog.
Chris Cornell was on the road when he heard about Andrew’s death, and was quoted saying, “I figured it would be this great thing, because I would be away from home and I wouldn’t have to look at places where I saw him or see things that would remind me of him and I thought it would be really great but it was awful because I couldn’t talk to anybody. So I started writing songs. That was the only thing I could really think of to do.” That’s when the first songs for ‘Temple of the Dog’ were born.
Besides Chris Cornell, Temple of the Dog members included:
Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament (both ex-members of Mother Love Bone). Later, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden. Also, Eddi Vedder was a guest to provide some lead and back up vocals.
I got to see Temple of the Dog perform in Seattle in 2016. It was 8 months before the death of Chris Cornell. Was an incredible show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hURFXazJG7U
