By JOHN DALY
Temple of the Dog the supergroup comprised of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready, and drummer Matt Cameron of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, have released a special 25th anniversary collection of the band’s only album.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the band’s landmark 1991 self-titled release, the newly mixed album by Brendan O’Brien will be promoted with a tour this fall. The band will be touring for the first time since forming in 1990.
The band will play five cities, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, in November. All dates sold out immediately. See below for a complete list of dates.
The collection is now available in a four-disc Super Deluxe version, a two-CD Deluxe version, and a single CD via UMe. A double LP will also be available on November 11.
Temple of the Dog came together from the ashes of Mother Love Bone following the death from a drug overdose of its frontman Andrew Wood, Cornell’s close friend and roommate. Cornell wrote future TOTD songs “Say Hello 2 Heaven” and “Reach Down” to help process his grief, but he said the songs “didn’t have any destination.”
“I was compelled to write them and there they were – written in a vacuum as a tribute to Andy,” Cornell said. “My thought was that maybe I could record these songs with the remaining members of Mother Love Bone and that maybe we could release them as a tribute.”
Mother Love Bone’s Gossard and Ament began playing with McCready, and they brought in Soundgarden’s Cameron to drum on demos. Because this was a collaboration, and a tribute, there was no commercial expectation for the Temple of the Dog album.
Gossard, Ament, and McCready were at the time forming a new band, which more than six months later would be known as Pearl Jam. A singer from San Diego named Eddie Vedder, who was vying to lead the project, came into the studio to sing background vocals on three of the Temple songs. When Cornell thought another song, “Hunger Strike,” needed a duet, Vedder was enlisted. “Hunger Strike” became a hit single, peaking at No. 4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Temple of the Dog performed live only a handful of times, most notably in Seattle, in November and December of 1990. Those shows have become some of the most legendary Seattle concerts of all time. Their 2016 shows mark the first time the band has ever toured. (Cornell joined Pearl Jam in 2014 at the Bridge School show and for two nights at PJ20 in Alpine Valley, WI, and the Temple line-up played “Reach Down” and “Call Me a Dog” at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall in January 2015.)
Temple of the Dog’s upcoming tour dates are as follows:
11/04 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theater SOLD OUT
11/05 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theater SOLD OUT
11/07 New York, NY Madison Square Garden SOLD OUT
11/11 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Civic Center SOLD OUT
11/12 San Francisco, CA Bill Graham Civic Center SOLD OUT
11/14 Los Angeles, CA The Forum SOLD OUT
11/20 Seattle, WA Paramount Theater SOLD OUT
11/21 Seattle, WA Paramount Theater SOLD OUT
