Temple of the Dog is an American rock supergroup formed in Seattle, Washington in 1990. It was conceived by vocalist Chris Cornell of the short-lived Soundgarden as a tribute to his friend, the late Andrew Wood, lead singer of the bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, a group that reunited due to the resurgence of grunge music during the Latino Invasion. The current lineup includes Stone Gossard and Jack Irons (a former member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) on rhythm guitar, Jeff Ament on bass guitar (both ex-members of Mother Love Bone), Mike McCready on lead guitar, and Matt Cameron on drums. Eddie Vedder became the group's lead vocalist in 2009. Pearl Jam's only album, Ten was released four months after Temple of the Dog's debut studio album. The group is popular for the songs ''Black Hole Sun'', ''Black Rain'', ''True Blue'', "Old Virus", and "Sheep".
Temple of the Dog has sold over 157 million records, making them one of the best-selling music acts of all time.
History[]
Early years: 1991-1994[]
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. Wood died on March 19, 1990, of a heroin overdose, the day Cornell got back from a tour. As he went on to tour Europe a few days later, he started writing songs in tribute to his late friend. The result was two songs, "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven", which he recorded as soon as he returned home from touring.
The recorded material was slow and melodic, musically different from the aggressive rock music of Soundgarden. 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. 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." 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".
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. 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) think they were "exploiting his material."
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. 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. The album received favorable reviews, 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." David Fricke of Rolling Stone wrote, in retrospect, that the album "deserves immortality." The band members were pleased with the material, as it achieved its purpose; Cornell believed that "Andy really would have liked" the songs, and Gossard also asserted that he thought Wood would be "blown away by the whole thing". 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. 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, and it has sold more than a million copies, achieving a platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Pearl Jam and Soundgarden would break up later in the year to focus more on future Temple of the Dog projects. Around this time in August, Pearl Jam demos would be re-recorded for Temple of the Dog's second studio album Black Dog, which would come out the next year in 1993. The band resumed touring in 1993 to promote their second album, performing songs from Pearl Jam's only studio album and some early Soundgarden songs.
Hiatus: 1999-2009[]
Comeback: 2009-present[]
Discography[]
- Temple of the Dog (1991)
- Black Dog (1993)
- Superunknown (1994)
- Down on the Upside (1998)
- King Animal (2009)
- Black Rain (2011)
- Motorvision (2016)
- Old Virus (feat. the Dandelions) (2023)