Another kick ass honest interview with Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kenny. It’s so cool to see them being serious and honest which was pretty rare back in the day.. In their past interviews it was rare to see any of the guys answering questions seriously and to see them talking about personal feelings? Never. Most of their interviews in the 90′s was of them joking around and just trying to ditch the harder questions. Now that they’re older maybe they feel it’s time to answer some of these questions, the questions people have been wanting to ask for all these years and I personally think it’s refreshing to see them being comfortable in their own skin while being honest and I think honesty can be therapeutic for them. I honestly believe that our secrets can keep us sick.
Sean mentions that he stayed home for ten years avoiding people because he wasn’t ready to talk about Layne or answer any of their probing questions…however he also mentioned that he feels better now that he has started to open up.
For years they were trying to hide the crazy sickness that was eating the band alive from the inside out, Layne’s drug addiction and his wild girlfriend and then there was Mike and his issues.. and they all had they’re own issues but at the time talking about it on MTV was the last thing any of them wanted to do and after awhile if you can’t be honest.. if it’s all turned to shit.. wouldn’t you rather just hide and isolate yourself and tell everyone to Fuck off? I know that I would do the same thing.
Layne’s mom said it perfectly when she told Mike Starr on celebrity rehab.. “Layne could of called the ambulance for himself that night he passed but he didn’t because he was too embarrassed and ashamed.. here he was a talented, beautiful young man who had squandered away his life and he was painfully ashamed of what he had become so instead.. he died alone and in pain. Drug addiction IS shameful. Drug addiction IS self mutilation and Drug addiction WILL kill you in the end. Hopefully someone will learn something from Layne’s death..hopefully someone will look at his story and reach out for help instead of being too ashamed or too full of guilt and fear of judgment. Hopefully someone will.
Layne Rest in Peace my friend.

I really enjoyed this video..it’s just Jerry and Sean sitting there talking freely with Faceculture.. about how they put together (the original) AIC, about the Music Bank, their first gigs, how they all met, finding their sound, first band names..Mike Starr and his sister Melinda, and they also talk about Layne – how they had never given up on AIC until the day Layne passed away. It’s just a great interview that lets us in for a glimpse into how they feel and felt at the time. I really enjoyed it and I hope you do too. ENJOY!!

BLACKDIAMONDSKYE Tickets ON-SALE

Alice in Chains Tour News

Alice In Chains, deftones and Mastodon are teaming up for BlackDiamondSkye, an arena and amphitheater tour that kicks off Sept. 16 in Chicago.
The tour takes its name from the three bands’ latest albums: Alice In Chains’ “Black Gives Way to Blue,” the group’s first new album in 14 years, came out in September and includes the Grammy Award-nominated track “Check My Brain;” deftones’ “Diamond Eyes” dropped May 4th; and Mastodon’s “Crack the Skye” has been out since March of 2009 and is the band’s top-seller to date.

For Alice In Chains, the tour will be the latest move in a carefully constructed comeback that began with the group’s reunion in 2005, eight years after going on hiatus and three years after original frontman Layne Staley’s death.  This past year, they released “Black Gives Way To Blue” and hit the road to perform to sold-out crowds across the United States.

“The cool thing is this band is alive, and we’re alive…We’ve never done things just to do them, and we’ve never done things just to capitalize on an opportunity. We’ve done things because they felt right to do. We always did what’s right for us personally rather than maybe what was good business. And this situation is no different than the way we’ve ever operated.”   – Jerry Cantrell

Alice In Chains is currently in Europe for festivals in early June and July; it will also join Limp Bizkit at Rock Fest on July 18 in Cadott, Wisc.

Links: Alice in Chains official site | Cantrell’s designated charity – Autism Speaks

I found this tonight and thought it was cool. I knew Stone Gossard back in the day as well as his sister Shelley Gossard..both incredible and talented SWEET people. Layne was also friends with Stone so I think it fits here.
Check out the Stone Gossard’s 2008 Project on Youtube.com – Stone Gossard performs live with friends in Seattle, September 2008, performing original songs from an upcoming project. MP3s are available at pearljam.com

I was watching some of the old Pearl Jam videos on Youtube today and if it’s been awhile for you too or if your way younger then me and you never really have.. then I HIGHLY recommend you get too it.

It’s hard to believe I forgot just how much I loved their music. How full of soul and how talented each and ever one of them are. Mike McCready can play the guitar like a god and Stoney with his mellow groove and signature head bob. Eddie and his amazing voice and mellow personality. It’s cool too look back NOW and say WOW I remember being a part of that scene and how amazing it was to be around so many talented young people. I knew it was amazing and I knew I was lucky and that these bands were culture changing bands. These were not just one hit wonder bands. They were truley gifted. I knew it but it was still like no big deal. I guess I learned that just because someone is so talented and so famous that doesn’t make them any different then me or you.

Someday I’ll write about how I met Eddie Veder’s little brother in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara, and how he sold me a demo of his brothers band that was gonna be HUGE someday and he “just knew it”. How I laughed at him but said OK anyway because he was cute, stuck and needed gas money. How I listened to that demo and LOVED it and then how I moved up to Seattle a about a year or so later and the how that kid was right. How I ended up meeting his brother and then running into him again in a bar and he freaking remembered me. How it’s a small world and how amazing life is. Ehh.. I can mark that down as one of things I need to write about. ((wink))

This is what they all looked like when I first met them..

SO Old School!

Alice In Chains Announces New Album “Black Gives Way To Blue” Listening Parties

Alice In Chains are currently set to release their new album “Black Gives Way To Blue” on September 29th. The band has issued the following announcement about two exclusive listening parties for the album:

“Do you live in L.A. or New York? Do you have an unquenchable thirst to hear the new Alice In Chains album now? Do you want to be cooler than everyone else for the next two months? Then check this out…

“There will be two private listening parties coming up, and a very small number of lucky Alice In Chains fans will be able to hear the new album in its entirety long before the release date on September 29th.

“The first listening party in Los Angeles will be this coming Tuesday, July 14th, at 7:00 P.M. The New York Listening party will be on July 21st.

“Here’s all you need to do: Send an email to aliceinchains@velvethammer.net with either LOS ANGELES or NEW YORK in the subject line and include your name, email address, and phone number.

“Five winners will be chosen at random, and the winners will be able to bring one guest. You’ll sit next to record company honchos and industry bigwigs as they all get a sneak preview of Black Gives Way To Blue. Then you can race home and start blogging about the music, and every board member on this site will hammer you with questions for the next two months.

“Here’s the pseudo-legal portion of the contest: Admission is non-transferrable, so if you’re one of the chosen few, this means your name will be your ticket in, and you can’t send your cousin Larry in your place.

“Absolutely no cameras, cell phones, video cameras, or recording devices of any kind will be allowed. You will be patted down and searched before you enter, so don’t try anything sneaky or you won’t be let in. If you look sketchy, suspicious, or just plain weird you will probably be given a body cavity search as well, so take a shower and try and be on your best behavior. And most importantly, LEAVE YOUR CELL PHONE AND CAMERA IN THE CAR!!!

“That’s about it. Winners for L.A. will be announced Monday, winners for New York will be announced July 20th – so send in your emails now and sit back and cross your fingers for the next couple of days.

“Good luck…”

Alice In Chains Reports On “Black Gives Way To Blue” Listening Party

By Metal Underground

Alice In Chains recently held a listening party for their upcoming album “Black Gives Way To Blue,” which will be released on September 29th. The band issued the following report on the party:

“Ive been to a record release party before, but never a listening party. There actually isn’t that much of a difference, but at the record release party the emphasis seemed to be on party, while last night’s emphasis was definitely on listening.

“Oh sure, there were some typical L.A. industry weasels who were more concerned with their hair gel than the album, but the vast majority of people were paying attention and rocking out.

“I couldn’t pick out the website winners from the industry types, but I imagine they may have been the ones that were banging their heads and playing air drums. But then again I saw some label people doing a bit of air guitaring too, so who knows?

“The event was held at the Ricardo Montalban Theater, so instead of standing around schmoozing and sucking down free cocktails all night long, most people sat down and listened to the record as still images were projected on a giant screen onstage.

“There were about 300 people there, and with the exception of a few of them getting out of their seats to go to the lobby (It’s L.A. man, of course there was free food & drinks), they sat in their seats and actually listened for nearly an hour.

“No one knew the song titles, no one knew how many songs there would be, and no one knew that when it was all over the screen would rise and the band would be set up on stage to play.

“The guys started off the short set with Down In A Hole, then Jerry said a few words before they played two new songs; Your Decision, and the title track, Black Gives Way To Blue.

“So now that a few people have finally heard it and Jerry spoke publicly about the lyrical content, I think I can reveal to the rest of you that the title of the album and the song of the same name are dedicated and in reference to Layne.

“For the guys to play it live for the first time was an emotional experience, and it did Layne proud, as it sounded amazing and the crowd went nuts when it was over.

“The whole thing was an emotional experience, but instead of getting all sentimental and Oprah-ey, I think I’ll just quote Jerry, who said to me, ‘We’ve been sitting on this f*%#ing egg for so long, it feels good to finally hatch it.’

“Unfortunately it doesn’t get hatched for real until September, but last night was a nice sneak preview.”

“A Looking In View” Download

Alice In Chains has posted their new music video online for the song, “A Looking In View.” You can check it out by heading to the bands official website.  ”A Looking in View” song is also a free download  (registration is required).

The song is from their upcoming album “Black Gives Way To Blue,” which is scheduled to be released on September 29th through Virgin Records.

Found this online and decided to post it here..

When the Suffering Undoes the Artist

By JON PARELES

Published NY Times: Sunday, April 28, 2002

(NY Times Article)

LAYNE STALEY lived fast, died young and probably did not leave a beautiful corpse when he was found dead in his Seattle apartment on April 19, a few days deceased with heroin paraphernalia nearby. He was the lead singer of Alice in Chains, the grunge band that sold more than 10 million albums and EP’s in the 1990′s, and he had sung as often as not about drugs and death.

”What in God’s name have you done?/Stick your arm for some real fun,” he sang in ”God Smack” on ”Dirt,” the band’s best, best-selling and most chilling album, which was released in September 1992. Like Tupac Shakur, Mr. Staley prophesied his own death in a way that now makes his songs all too realistic.

For some reason, Alice in Chains never quite commanded the cachet that was attached to Seattle bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. It hadn’t struggled on independent labels, and it had relatively quick success. Although its songs had all the somber desolation of its fellow grunge bands, Jerry Cantrell’s guitar riffs and Mr. Staley’s nasal yowl quickly pushed Alice in Chains onto mainstream radio, without the kind of resistance that makes underground legends.

Mr. Staley’s death at 34 may well draw attention to his band’s most grimly powerful songs. But it would be a shame if his addiction became a kind of credential — that the songs were more genuine and real because they were about the drugs that killed him.

A Romantic ideology that predates rock glorifies the self-destructive artist as someone who’s too honest and delicate for this world. As the myth goes, artists use drugs or alcohol to free up inspiration and to insulate their sensitive souls from ordinary life. (It’s not just that they hang out at odd hours with other creatures of the night, or get bored or stuck and fall into bad habits.)

Artists are perceptive, but they choose to write songs (or make movies or paint pictures) rather than simply keeping private diaries. The myth doesn’t recognize a more hard-nosed side of artists: they are also stubborn egomaniacs who are mysteriously — and sometimes correctly — certain that the world needs to know all about the figments of their imaginations and who gear their lives to getting those figments into circulation. It’s not an easy job, and its stresses can take their toll.

1994, Kurt Cobain committed suicide. It's possible that Kurt and Layne died on the same day

The suicides of Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis (not to mention Sylvia Plath) and the youthful deaths of Shakur, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, the Notorious B.I.G., Charlie Parker or Janis Joplin are too often seen as certifying the artists’ art instead of merely bringing it to a sudden end. Often, artists provide vicarious experience for audiences. Gangsta rap has disseminated the lore of drug-dealing and gunfighting, mixing cautionary tales with cheap thrills; from the Velvet Underground to Eric Clapton to Alice in Chains, bands have examined the lure of drugs. When songs sound like first-person accounts, fans may want to believe that they’re hearing about lived experiences, not just observations coupled with imagination. The artist who’s ”keepin’ it real” becomes the stunt double for a more sheltered listener.

And when someone dies in the way their songs predicted, like Mr. Staley or Shakur, audiences can listen in morbid fascination to artists who sacrificed themselves to bring back tidings of mortality.

Yet for every musician who manages to transmute personal suffering into great performances, like Billie Holiday, there are more who are only human, whose excess or misery undoes their art. Mr. Staley was one of them. He, and his songs, would have been better off glimpsing the abyss than falling into it.

There was an ominous immediacy to the most memorable Alice songs, a tone of desolation combined with acceptance, as if the music was already coming from beyond the grave. That tone may have been a close reflection of Mr. Staley’s daily dread. Yet contrary to the myth of noble self-destruction, the music was not some direct impression of a haunted life magically caught by microphones and pressed onto disks. It was a fabrication, created through skill and instinct and shaped by choices of chords and timbres, amplifiers and pedals. It had as much to do with the band’s main composer, Mr. Cantrell, as it did with Mr. Staley’s struggles.

Again and again, the band’s songs described the hold of addiction and its consequences. On the 1994 EP ”Jar of Flies,” Mr. Staley sang ”Swing on This,” in which friends and family say, ”Come home,” but he responds: ”I’m just fine/ Little skinny, O.K./ I’m asleep anyway.”

Convincing as they were, the songs were still only reports from the edge, not field recordings. And if Mr. Staley or his fans thought that he had to stay messed up to maintain his bleak insights, they were wrong. He could have been realistic without being autobiographical.

Mr. Staley held on from the formation of the band in 1987, through a recording career that began in 1990, and through the band’s last tour, as a Lollapalooza headliner, in 1993, to a six-month breakup in 1994. After regrouping, the four-man band had one more album in it, ”Alice in Chains” in 1995. (Without explanation, the cover showed a three-legged dog.) There was one more significant live show; following three years offstage, the band performed on ”MTV Unplugged” in 1996, where a rail-thin Mr. Staley wore shades and sang with a fraction of his old voice. A Rolling Stone interview that year detailed the band’s resentment of an increasingly shaky Staley and noted his needle marks.

In 1998, the other three members of Alice in Chains and their producer got together without Mr. Staley, to record, ”Boggy Depot,” an album of new songs under Mr. Cantrell’s name. And at the end of the decade, Columbia Records apparently despaired of getting any more from the band. As if to wring full value from Alice in Chains’ recording contract, it released a boxed set, a live album and a greatest-hits collection. The albums already felt like memorials.

In the end, Mr. Staley wasn’t cool because he died a junkie’s death after a long downward spiral. He was only cool while he could still sing about it.

Photos: Layne Staley of Alice in Chains: he was found dead on April 19. (Ebet Roberts)(pg. 1); Tupac Shakur: like Layne Staley, he prophesied his own death. (Death Row Records)(pg. 38)

More on NYTimes

• No ‘Just Say No’ Sloganeering For Alice in Chains

A new ALICE IN CHAINS track entitled “A Looking In View” is now available for purchase via iTunes and Amazon

Check out the full stream before you buy on the bands Official website and watch the trailer below. New album, “Black Gives Way To Blue”, is due in stores on September 29th.

The Return of Alice In Chains

Alice In Chains is back with a fresh deal with EMI’s Virgin Records and new singer William DuVall, and is now ready to release their first album of fresh material in over a decade.

The grunge band’s forthcoming album will be released this September, and is the first with DuVall, who has toured with the group since 2006.

The effort was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, (Foo Fighters, Rush) and was mixed at Hollywood’s Henson Studios.

“It’s been a meaningful journey and a hell of a story,” said guitarist Jerry Cantrell. “We’re very excited to have a home at Virgin/EMI and are looking forward to writing new chapters in the book of Alice.”

Drummer Sean Kinney added, “We’re in a good place. We’ve made a record that we’re really proud of, we’ve got a team in place that’s passionate about the music and we’re excited for the fans to hear the new songs.”

The band recently performed at the Columbus, Ohio Rock On The Range festival. Their next outing comes on July 18th with a Detroit gig with Kid Rock. From there Alice In Chains will head overseas for a handful of festival dates with Metallica.

(Read the article)

Alice in Chains is coming to the Roseland Theater on September 26th. Tickets go on sale Saturday but buy your tickets starting now! There is no password, just click the link!

Alice in Chains Presale

I live in Portland and I’d like to go but I think it would just make me sadder then I already feel..seeing them with out Layne and me and Jerry were never really close.  Sean was always cool to me and he always made me laugh. I wouldn’t mind seeing them but I doubt I could even if I did go. Are any of you planing on going?

ALICE IN CHAINS tour dates:

July 18 – Detroit, MI – Comerica Park (with Kid Rock)
Aug. 01 – Dublin, IE – Marlay Park
Aug. 02 – Stevenage, GB -Knebworth House – Sonisphere
Aug. 04 – London, GB – Scala
Aug. 06 – Cologne, DE Essigfabrik
Aug. 08 – Berlin, DE – Columbia Club
Aug. 10 – Hamburg, DE – Grunspan
Aug. 12 – Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg
Aug. 22 – Pomona, CA – Epicenter
Sep. 04 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Sep. 05 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
Sep. 07 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
Sep. 08 – New York, NY – The Fillmore
Sep. 15 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House
Sep. 16 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
Sep. 19 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
Sep. 20 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
Sep. 21 – Minneapolis, MN – First Ave
Sep. 26 – Portland, OR – Roseland Grill
Sep. 28 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore

I JUST FOUND THIS ARTICLE – DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS BOOK WAS EVER RELEASED AND IF SO..HOW CRAPPY WAS IT? I MEAN WHO IS THIS CHICK AND WHAT THE HELL DOES SHE KNOW ABOUT LAYNE’S RECLUSIVE LIFE? NOTHING.
I’D BE INTERESTED TO SEE WHAT SHE THOUGHT SHE KNEW OR FOUND OUT. I ASSUME IT WAS NEVER RELEASED SINCE THIS IS AN OLD ARTICLE AND I’VE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

I think it’s total crap her trying to make people think she had some secret relationship with Layne complete garbage.

It’s pretty funny because if you visit her website http://itchlovestoriesaboutheroin.synthasite.com/ and you click on the link called The Horse Chronicles it brings you to her Financial Advisor website.. so I guess being an author didn’t work out so she thought she’d try her hand at giving advice on money?

Here’s the article…

LAYNE STALEY Book ‘Itch, Love Stories About Heroin’ Due In April – Oct. 10, 2008
A new book based on late ALICE IN CHAINS singer Layne Staley’s last five years of reclusive life in downtown Seattle is scheduled for release in late 2008. Entitled “Itch, Love Stories about Heroin”, the book “will reveal some secrets about the singer, as well as offer an inside look at his addiction and struggles with heroin,” according to a press release.

“It will be a struggle to finish the book,” author Tanya Vece said. “It will be like closing a chapter on his life, and mine — not for good but I think saying what he would want to have said.”

According to the press release, “Staley did call in an interview to Vece’s friend author Adriana Rubio about a month before his passing. Weak and coughing, Staley wasn’t ready to comment on his reclusive life, but did talk briefly about his fight with drugs.”

“Everyone knows he was addicted,” Vece stated. “I want to talk about who he was, and get to the real Layne — addiction and art.”

When asked on her connection to Staley, Vece said “Let me just say there are some things I won’t expand on — some things even I will keep secret!”

Tanya Vece is the current editor of independent art e-zine The Horse Chronicles. She has three other fictional independent books out and is an honoree of the International Press Academy. Her recent accomplishments include press coverage through CNN for the Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

NOW HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK – THIS WAS FOUND ON HER WEBSITE

An excerpt from Itch. Love stories about Heroin.
I remembering walking through a dark hallway and people looked like demons. Their faces were gone, removed from the world, and looking into another one. Everyone’s skin seemed to be on the verge of melting as their eyes were lit with an ominous green glow. They were hyper and distant. They were also ready to kill, hungry for something beyond the taste of blood. They all looked like they were awakened zombies, trying to recapture their youth in this underground melting pot of demons, fairies, and sleepwalkers who just wanted to waste away beneath the Earth’s surface.
As we headed down the stairs, the volume of the techno house music raved through my ears and pulsated in my veins. It overtook me like a tidal wave. He grabbed my arm while leading the way past a sea of people dancing to the same beat. They all looked drugged, numb to each other yet amazingly moving together in sync. Multi-colored lights scanned the pulsating blanket of the beings in search of someone not moving. The lights flashed and spun, chasing hips that were loosing momentum in this dance that blurred the line between feeling alive and allowing oneself to be dead to the world.
“This is new my thing. This is where I have been at lately” Layne yelled at me. People were starting to strip off their clothes ,while others sprayed water into the crowd from embellished tanks on plastic guns.
I moved with him, feeling more and more evil with every self indulging twaddle motion of my weightless arms. The air was overly humid and infused with sweat. All of us, packed together in this basement like sardines, moved together as one. I could feel the music transforming me into an abstract version of myself. As the lights glazed over me, up and down, right to left , and all around -I could feel my eyes transitioning from morbid blue to a drunk with envy green.
All of us were outcasts, out of sorts, out of our minds and some of us on the verge of being out of our bodies. It was a tragically fantastic place to be.
Layne and I circled the room, on the train of unwinding souls with no real destination. All of us just stuck in our places, like the repetitive pace of the blaring bass in the background. As people bobbed and swayed, someone from the outside could have described this place as hell on Earth. Drugs, alcohol and relishing in sin were all staple crops in this rhythm nation. The best part was not one person gave a damn as every-ones eyes were dilated with an oblivious craving to never loose the taste of this parallel universe.
Layne started to throw up blood on the floor , tipping his hat to himself while laughing away the pain in his stomach. The music was becoming louder as horns drilled into the stagnate drum beats that were now screwing the room. Nothing was stopping this party, this was happening before we entered and would continue on far after we left. Being sick here was not an option. I just kept spinning, moving faster and faster trying to create a dizzying blur that would allow me to ignore his illness and my own slow collapse.

OMG THIS IS COMPLETE GARBAGE!!!!!! IF HE WAS WITH HER IN A CLUB IT WAS PROBABLY THE VOGUE OR SOMETHING AND SHE’S JUST TRYING TO MAKE IT SOUND MYSTICAL AND “DARK”. GIVE ME A BREAK. I HAVE A REAL HARD TIME BELIEVING THERE WAS SOME HEROIN CLUB… I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT. LOL! IF THERE EVER WAS SUCH A THING I WOULD OF BEEN THERE. NOPE NEVER.

“Everyone’s skin seemed to be on the verge of melting as their eyes were lit with an ominous green glow” “The best part was not one person gave a damn as every-ones eyes were dilated with an oblivious craving to never loose the taste of this parallel universe.”

THAT’S JUST FROM LIVING IN THE NORTHWEST YOU KNOW ALL THAT RAIN, NO SUNSHINE IT TENDS TO MELT OUR SKIN AND PIN OUR EYE BALLS IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SOME UNDERGROUND DRUG SOCIAL SCENE.. Haha!

Revolver TV has uploaded a short interview with ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell conducted by Full Metal Jackie at the first annual Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which was held on April 7 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. Watch the two-minute chat below.

ALICE IN CHAINS has signed with Virgin Records, a division of EMI Music, for the release of the group’s first new album in 14 years. According to a feature in the Los Angeles Times, the yet-to-be-titled disc will be out in mid-September. Production on the project was completed last month after more than a year of writing and recording. The Times writer, who got a preview of some of the material, called the album “recognizably thundering and gloomy,” with an acoustic track called “Your Decision” followed by what the reporter described as “a seven-minute epic built on heavy slabs of guitar, drums and bass, something like BLACK SABBATH but far quicker.”

The disc will mark the recording debut of vocalist William DuVall, who joined the group in 2006. Original singer Layne Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002 after nearly seven years in which the band was all but inactive.

Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez regrouped in 2005 for a charity show before embarking on several tours in 2006 and 2007 with DuVall on the mic.

When asked about stepping into the shoes of Staley, DuVall told the Times, “It’s a big thing. I’ve joined a group that has a strong identity and a strong legacy. Nobody’s sitting here who wants to, in any way, disrespect or sully that legacy. You want to add to it.”

All of ALICE IN CHAINS’ previous albums and EPs were on Columbia Records.

Alice in Chains at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards!

Alice in Chains at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards!