Say Hello 2 Heaven

This song is a tribute to Andrew Wood, lead singer of the Seattle grunge band Mother Love Bone. Wood died of a heroin overdose in 1990, and his bandmates Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard joined Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron from Soundgarden, and Mike McCready to form Temple Of The Dog. The song is a very emotional one, with Cornell coming to terms with Wood's death. They were very close, living together for a while and often bouncing musical ideas off of each other. In the song, Cornell seems troubled by how Wood didn't let on that he was suffering: He hurt so bad like a soul breakin' But he never said nothin' to me These lines became even more poignant after Cornell died by suicide in 2017.

Along with "Reach Down," this is one of two songs Chris Cornell wrote about Andrew Wood following his death. Cornell wasn't sure what to do with them because they weren't right for his band Soundgarden. After talking to Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard about it, they decided to form Temple Of The Dog and make a full album.

This is an usual song for Cornell because it's written about a specific person. When Temple Of The Dog got back together for a tour in 2016, he told Rolling Stone: "I don't really remember doing much else after the funeral other than just being swept up in the grief of the moment, but after a couple of weeks I wrote two songs ['Say Hello 2 Heaven' and 'Reach Down'] for Andy. I don't remember recording the demos, but I remember the ideas and writing the lyrics because they were really different and they involved a real person. That wasn't something I'd normally do. I'd normally write a character that was part me and part a fictional character. But these lyrics specifically reflected Andy and my feelings about him. I didn't let anything else in. It was precious."