Andrew Wood Ex-GF Not Happy with TOTD Reunion

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/temple_of_the_dog_reunion_blasted_by_andrew_wood_girlfriend

Reunited Pearl Jam/Soundgarden offshoot Temple of the Dog just hit the road for their first-ever tour, and though plenty of grunge fanatics are happy to see the Seattle outfit on the road, the girlfriend of late Mother Love Bone vocalist Andrew Wood isn't as happy with the band's latest moves.

While Temple of the Dog were originally formed in tribute to Wood, who passed away at age 24 back in 1990, his former partner and muse Xana La Fuente isn't at all pleased with the current state of the reunion. On her personal website, she ripped Chris Cornell for both his recent Temple of the Dog performances and handling of the reunion, calling him a "chode" in alleging he never gave her songwriting credit and took a number of Wood's belongings following his death. Not to mention the fact that he's "suffering from Alzheimer's."

"Every day lately I get messages regarding this tour. People asking if I have extra tickets. Asking to interview me and 'talk about my feeling.' Well I am sick to death of all of it and just want it and The Mustache with his shitty lame rendition of a song about ME to GO AWAY," she wrote. "It's bad enough he never gave me credit for partial lyrics I wrote in the chorus to 'Times of Trouble.' I have literal proof of this in copyrighted poems I was sent and that were sent to me by a friend in prison."

She continued: "Let's think about why the Temple of the Dog songs were written. Were they not written to console me and others over the loss of Andy? Chris gave me a cassette of songs and told me 'these are for you about Andy.' Then Jeff and Stoney heard them...they asked Chris about the songs and went on to record them, with the (broken) promise that all the money would go to charity. That of course, never happened."

Mother Love Bone was formed by ex-Green River members Jeff Ament, Bruce Fairweather and Stone Gossard, along with frontman Andrew Wood and Greg Gilmore. Ament and Gossard would go on to play in both Temple of the Dog, formed by Cornell in reaction to Wood's overdose-related death in 1990.

La Fuente wrote, "It's bad enough he took all MY BELONGINGS...Andy's lyric books, and all his stuff were in an apt. that only I paid the rent and all the other bills on, he had not worked for years. I was the one working for years to make sure he could stay home and write. I was the one who didn't drink with him, didn't smoke pot with him and certainly did not shoot heroin with him and in fact tried to get all of these guys including Chris, Stone, Jeff, the 'management and his 'family' to LISTEN TO ME and they did not."

In response to Cornell's recent inclusion of "Stargazer" — whose lyrics La Fuente said he forgot — on the tour setlist, La Fuente wrote: "This rendition of a song written for me is not only a slap in the face to me, but it's a slap in the face to Andy. He wrote it for me, so hey Mustache, if your going to sing it-sing it right or don't sing it at all!"

You can watch the band's performance of "Stargazer" below.

In related news, Mother Love Bone were recently celebrated with On Earth as It Is, a new box set out on UMC/Stardog Records. You can learn more about that release here.

UPDATE (11/08, 4:45 p.m. EST): La Fuente has since issued an apology to Cornell and for her original, now-deleted post. You can read her full apology here.

Thanks to Alternative Nation for the tip.