Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell has opened up about his late bandmate Layne Staley in a new interview with Rick Beato.
“We liked a lot of the same music, but we also had a very individualistic tastes,” the rocker said of their similar taste. “Things that he liked and things that I liked that were that were ours, and then we shared a bunch in the middle. He had a really uncanny ability where he could, like, cop anybody’s accent just by hearing it once, or make a joke if he heard a line in a movie, and just verbatim repeat it. He had that kind of mimicry.”
“But we shared that in common, and it’s something we created together and [it] still makes me feel good to continue that, and makes me think of him. Of course, I miss him to death, but I appreciate the time we had, and the music we made together, and I carry on the tradition we started together,” he added.
The band recently celebrated the 15th anniversary of their album ‘Black Gives Way To Blue,’ their first studio album after the original frontman’s passing. The title track was a tribute to Staley. It was written and sung by Cantrell and was accompanied by Elton John on piano.
When news broke in 2008 that the band had entered the studio for new songs, some fans reacted negatively, and even viewed it as a betrayal of the original singer’s memory.
“To continue that legacy, for us it’s a big move to f*cking stand up and move on,” drummer Sean Kinney said of the album during another interview. “The music connected so strongly with some people. It’s amazing that they have such a connection but they seem to act like it happened to them. But this happened to us and Layne’s family, not them. This is actually our lives, so we appreciate that but it’s irrelevant. If we can be OK with it why can’t you? This happened to us, this didn’t happen to you.”
Staley passed away on April 5, 2002, from a speedball overdose.
Alice In Chains currently has no scheduled tour. Their only performance is set for the Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival on May 11, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio.