They fooled around with several incarnations, going glam for a while and even gigging under the name Fuck. Later they struck a compromise – Cantrell would play guitar for Staley’s ill-fated funk-rock band, and the singer agreed to howl for the warehouse metal crew. “The place was open twenty-four hours, and there were always bands playing, chicks going in and out, beer and drugs everywhere, some really wild times.”Ī Vietnam veteran’s son who cut his teeth on old AC/DC, Kiss and Ted Nugent albums, Cantrell had joined up with bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney but couldn’t convince Staley to join the group. “It was in this huge warehouse called the Music Bank that had fifty different rooms,” Cantrell says. It takes a few deep bites to get what it’s all about”.Īlice in Chains formed during the late eighties when Staley, then singing in a different band, offered aimless Tacoma guitarist Jerry Cantrell his rehearsal studio as a place to crash. Even if I can’t put my finger on it, there’s an individual identity to the bands.”Ĭantrell adds that Alice’s heavier sound and misanthropic attitude initially made it an outcast from the city’s alternative scene: “Some stuff grabs you right away ours is really an acquired taste. These are just words I’m pulling off the top of my head.
ALICE IN CHAINS DIRT ALBUM COVER INSIDE FULL
Pearl Jam is a soul that’s full of life and invigorating, and Nirvana is kind of beautifully dysfunctional…. Ours is a little more brooding and introspective. “We all play rock music, so there is some similarity,” he continues. Their triumphs may be running concurrently, yet “each band has its own soul,” says Cantrell, 26, when asked about the Seattle connection. With “Would?” leading the way, Dirt entered stores the same week that the Singles soundtrack and Pearl Jam’s debut also hung in the Top Ten, following earlier chart assaults by fellow locals Nirvana and the resurrected Temple of the Dog. “Just because we play a certain breed of music doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a lot of other, lighter feelings or lighter art.”
ALICE IN CHAINS DIRT ALBUM COVER INSIDE MOVIE
“The movie touched on some really heavy feelings and emotions, and that’s what we’re about, too,” he says. Though Alice’s nightmarish style may have seemed at odds with the soft, fuzzy, feel-good tone of Singles, the band’s charismatic guitarist, Jerry Cantrell, enjoyed the film. Photos: Motley Crue, Slipknot, Alice in Chains Rattle the Heartland That movie’s soundtrack considerably boosted the group’s profile when the crunchy dirge “Would?” caught on. Before recording Dirt, the foursome kept busy by quietly releasing a mellow, guest-laden EP titled Sap and making an appearance in Cameron Crowe’s recent Seattle-based film, Singles. The group emerged in 1990 with its debut album, Facelift that LP’s single “Man in the Box” garnered both Grammy and MTV award nominations last year. In fact, hard work has been a key factor behind the rise of Alice in Chains. “Most bands would have stopped immediately, but we kept touring.” “Layne didn’t break his voice, and he doesn’t do any high kicks or dance moves,” Kinney says. “I don’t know, it somehow makes Layne look more … evil.” The band’s stringy-haired beanpole of a drummer, Sean Kinney, 26, feels Staley’s determination to perform right after his accident is a sign of Alice’s fortitude. “I really like the wheelchair effect,” says bassist Mike Starr, 26. In Dallas, during a moody new song about heroin called “God Smack,” Staley scoots around in a wheelchair, repeatedly jabbing his arm with the microphone, simulating a junkie’s needle. Photos: Alice in Chains Throughout the NinetiesĪ real trouper, Staley has been performing on crutches, bellowing his cathartic anthems of despair as he hobbles around the stage. Staley, whose aching vocals and frequently haunting lyrics provide Alice with much of its dark, dangerous sound, has been in a cast since late September, when he ran over his foot riding a three-wheel all-terrain vehicle backstage at a show in Oklahoma City. He’s drunk off his ass, laughing it up, trying to get in on the action while enduring some very real pain himself. This particular October evening, several dominatrixes in body paint lash a patron’s bare back with their riding crops, dig their nails into his shoulder blades, then pour vinegar into the wounds before rubbing honey and pillow feathers over his upper torso.Īlice In Chains Bassist Mike Starr Dies At 44Ī few feet away, taking this all in, sits Layne Staley, the troubled, enigmatic twenty-five-year-old lead singer of the Seattle hard-rock band Alice in Chains. The whips come down hard at the Basement in Dallas, an underground club where the last night of every weekend is celebrated as Sadistic Sunday.