Temple of the Dog and Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard discussed Temple of the Dog’s 2016 tour with Chris Cornell in a new Let There Be Talk interview. He discussed covering the Led Zeppelin classic “Achilles Last Stand.”
“I don’t think it was Chris, I think it might have been me. He was so open to anything. That was such a fun tour, and it is such a joy to practice for that – and try to get good for it.
“We were all so excited because of him and his crazy talent, and us making that record with him, and it being such a good record, and us again rehearse for fucking one week and go in and make one of the great records of our entire career.
“Why? Well, because you have an incredible singer-songwriter in Chris Cornell who knows how to do it, and he knows how to let you be you, and you have Matt Cameron, who fucking needs one drum take to make it.
“Both of those guys at the peak of their powers and inviting us to be part of the process, and we brought something that was special to those guys because Soundgarden was pretty rigid.
“And we just have a little bit of smear that we brought in that was just like a little that Stones-ness, a little bit more bluesy-ness that ended up being such a nice touch to that record. It’s one of the highlights of my life, for sure…
“In my mind, it’s all about Chris’ generosity. He wrote a song about his friend who died [Andy Wood], and then he invited his friend’s band, who was in a band with him to play on the record. I think when you start with that kind of generosity, everybody is present, everybody understands that it’s not about being an all-star band.
“This is something special, this is bigger, this is like what they did in the ’60s when people were sharing music with each other.
“I really do think that it’s the motivation of where the songs came from and then sharing it with other people that loved Andy. You got a spirit there that is just gonna help it along.” Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his comments.
