Temple of the Dog, the ’90s grunge supergroup comprised of members of Soundgarden and what became Pearl Jam and formed to honour late Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, have suggested a new album from the group and even a world tour is a possibility.
Temple of the Dog was conceived by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who was Wood’s roommate. After the latter died of a heroin overdose, Cornell began writing songs in tribute to his late friend, eventually recruiting members from his own band and Wood’s band to help.
A young Eddie Vedder, who’d flown in to Seattle from San Diego to audition for Mookie Blaylock (which eventually became Pearl Jam) also joined in on the sessions and the band released their immortal self-titled debut album in 1991.
The band recently reactivated to celebrate 25 years since the album was released with a North American tour and a reissue of the album. But according to a recent Rolling Stone interview with Cornell and guitarist Mike McCready, the reunion may go further.
Asked about the possibility of a new album, Cornell told RS, “We’d have to feel really great about the songs. It’s a scary thing. I don’t want to say they’d have to live up to the [first] album, but I wouldn’t want it to take away from it either.”
“It was the same issue with reforming Soundgarden. I’m super excited about writing new songs as long as we don’t detract from what came before, and ultimately we did that. I think the same thing would apply to Temple.”
As for a world tour, McCready said, ‘I hope if these [gigs] go well, there will be more in the future. That’s kind of why we didn’t want to do an extensive tour. We just wanted to feel out the landscape. I hope we can go to Europe. It depends on how much fun we have with it, and how much people get out of it.”
