Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [114]
XANA LA FUENTE Andy’s dad said, “Xana, thank you for keeping him alive all these years. We’re sorry we didn’t listen to you, we’re sorry we didn’t understand.” I kept trying to tell them and tell them and tell them, and all they wanted to hear about was the record deal.
ROBERT SCOTT CRANE Regan was sitting behind me and Chad “Slam”—“Chadwick” is what Andy called him—who was a big supporter of the scene. At the service, Chad held up the Mother Love Bone EP Shine and a lighter. And he yelled, and he doesn’t have the greatest-sounding concert yell—it’s somewhat like a wounded animal. Right after a lot of serious speeches about drug addiction! We had just lost the angel of Seattle!
CHAD BLAKE I was holding the Shine EP that Andy autographed for me before he went bye-bye. The lighter? I thought it was a good thing to do. It was spontaneous.
ROBERT SCOTT CRANE It’s like, that’s where Andy is. Because this is fucked. This whole thing is so morose and dark, and the opposite of Andy. And Regan yelled out something like, “This is a memorial! Put that down!” Shunned him. This is serious. This is a memorial. To hear Regan tell him to stop—oh, I just wanted to leave. Social convention’s not Chad’s forte. That’s how he’s expressing his pain. Andy was alive in that one moment where Chad held up that lighter. It makes me cry thinking about it, because Andy would’ve fuckin’ loved that.
KEVIN WOOD We had our own private ceremony afterwards, with just family, at the gravesite. Most of the people were at the Paramount because it was a big event. They didn’t even know Andy, although I’m sure everybody felt like they knew him. It seemed kind of tacky.
SCOTT SUNDQUIST After a while, Chris and I just wanted to get out of there. We grabbed a handful of helium balloons from inside the venue and took them outside. We let them go, as if we were letting go of Andy. Chris and I had a lot of unspoken moments, a connection to each other as friends. That was one of those moments where it was just a glance, and we knew where the other was at. And then we went on to a house somewhere with other musicians for a bit of a wake.
NANCY WILSON There was such an amazing community that only gelled further from Andy’s memorial. ’Cause everybody came to Kelly Curtis’s house that night. I had three springer spaniels and I decided to bring those dogs to the house, and everybody at the place took turns getting down on the ground and hugging the dogs because it was really comforting. There’s such a family aspect to the Seattle music scene. We just felt really completely honored to be included because we figured they’d written Heart off a long time ago as just some dinosaur.
CAMERON CROWE I loved Mother Love Bone, so when I was writing the movie that would end up being Singles, I wanted to interview Jeff and Stone to explore the whole coffee-culture, “two or three jobs, one of which is your band” lifestyle. The terrible turn of events that took place was that Andy died. And everybody just instinctively showed up at Kelly’s house that night. For me it was the first real feeling of what it was like to have a hometown—everybody pulling together for some people they really loved. That was a pivotal moment, I think, for a lot of people there. It made me want to do Singles as a love letter to the community that I was really moved by.…
CHRIS CORNELL We were crammed in a smallish living room with people sitting on every available surface.… I remember Andy’s girlfriend looking at everyone and saying, “This is just like La Bamba,” then suddenly I heard slapping footsteps growing louder and louder as they reached the front door and Layne flew in, completely breaking down and crying so deeply that he looked truly frightened and lost. Very childlike. He looked up at everyone at once, and I had this sudden urge to run over and grab him and give him a big hug and tell him everything was going to be okay.… I didn’t get up in front of the room and offer that and I still regret it. No one else did, either. I don’t know why.