{"id":490,"date":"2020-03-19T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T07:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pearljamnordic.net\/?p=490"},"modified":"2024-10-18T14:44:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T13:44:34","slug":"today-30-years-without-andrew-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pearljamnordic.net\/?p=490","title":{"rendered":"TODAY: 30 years without Andrew Wood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In 2020, we celebrate three whole decades of Pearl Jam. But March 19, 2020 also marks the 30th<\/sup> anniversary of Andy Wood\u2019s death. Aged just 24, the Mother Love Bone frontman died of a heroin overdose right before his band\u2019s debut album Apple<\/em> was released and was promised to shoot the band to stardom in the early grunge days. Surviving bandmembers Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament decided to start over with a new band, that would later be known as Pearl Jam. The life and death of Andy Wood are therefore important to how Pearl Jam was created and maybe even how the musical landscape of the early 90s was drawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is a big fan’s portrait of Andy Wood and a discussion of what might have happened, if history had been different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Early life and Malfunkshun<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1966, Andrew \u201cAndy\u201d Patrick Wood was born on January 8 \u2013 a birthday he shares with legendary musicians like Elvis Presley, David Bowie and The Doors\u2019 Robby Krieger. Together with his parents and two older brothers Brian and Kevin, Andy grew up in Columbus, Mississippi, until the family moved to the colder and wetter Bainbridge Island, Washington, before Andy was a teen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Baby Andy in the late 60s in Columbus, Mississippi.
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From a very early age, Andy liked performing. He wanted to be country singer Glen Campbell, and at the age of three, he created his first little song for his father, who was serving in Vietnam. When Andy got older, he wanted to be a rock star, so he kickstarted an appropriate lifestyle by committing minor crimes and smoking pot at the age of 12. He and his brother Kevin started jamming together – Kevin on guitar and Andy on bass and vocals – and around 1980, they teamed up with local drummer Regan Hagar and formed the band Malfunkshun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Malfunkshun in the early 80s. From the bottom left to the top right: Regan Hagar, Kevin Wood and Andy Wood.
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Inspired by performers and musicians like KISS, Freddie Mercury and Elton John, Andy created his own stage persona. He named himself Landrew The Love Child after the character Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars<\/em> movies, a name he also presents in Malfunkshun songs like My Only Fan <\/em>and Shutgun Wedding<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Landrew The Love Child playing the bass for Malfunkshun.
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As Landrew, Andy often dressed in drag \u2013 sometimes even sexy lingerie \u2013 put on white face painting and talked back at rude people in the crowds. He was energetic, funny, charismatic, and he treated his concerts like big arena shows, despite not many people showing up. But he did have a fan in a young man named Kurt Cobain. Kurt went to a Malfunkshun concert, where he sat in a chair in front of the stage pretty much asleep \u2013 until he woke up mid-set very confused, because Andy was singing to him and dancing around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malfunkshun\u2019s genre and characteristics can be called a mix of falsetto glam rock and punk with some piano and a charming, nasal, crispy voice. Andy himself called it a T. Rex, KISS kind of a band, but he also invented a new label for his band and all his future music: love rock<\/em>. Some of Malfunkshun\u2019s songs were funny and energetic and fitted their wild and hilarious shows like The Words Of Love.<\/em> But love rock was also sad, tragic and beautiful songs like Region<\/em> and the almost eight minutes long Winter Bites<\/em>, which tell stories of failing love and self-loathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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