In interviews in the years that followed the 1996 breakup of Alice in Chains and later on the death of singer Layne Staley the other band members didn’t rule out the possibility they would return to Alice in Chains.
Guitarist Jerry Cantrell, in an interview in 2002, noted that he talked with his former band mates, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney, on a regular basis, and that they were on good terms.
The absence of firm denials seemed to create a certain inevitability to an Alice in Chains reunion. And in a phone interview just prior to the start of the group’s fall tour of the United States, Cantrell suggested that it was a matter of when, more than if, the three surviving band members would play together as Alice in Chains at least one more time.
Asked why now was the right time for the reunion, the guitarist offered some insights on how circumstances finally aligned for a tour.
“It was an issue we were going to have to face at some point, and it took as long as it took. That’s really all I can say about it,” Cantrell said. “So whatever it takes to go through the process to come to terms with what had happened, eventually that conversation was going to have to be had. Where it went from there was completely up to whatever was happening at the time.”
The conversations about regrouping, at least for a concert tour, gained momentum after Kinney recruited Cantrell and Inez to play at a 2005 concert to benefit victims of the Indonesian tsunami. With several singers including Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Ann Wilson of Heart and Pat Lachtman of Damage Plan – filling the role of Staley on various songs, the concert marked the first time the surviving members had played together in eight years.
“That kind of fed the seed. It was really just getting up on stage and going ‘Yeah, that was pretty good. That wasn’t too bad. That felt great.’ So it feels really good to be together again,” Cantrell said.
All three band members had stayed involved in music after Alice in Chains essentially broke up in 1996. But rumors of a reunion persisted until Staley’s death from a drug overdose in April 2002.
When the band’s plan to do the reunion shows was announced in the spring, Cantrell, Inez and Kinney (who recruited singer William Duvall) seemed careful not to talk about any future beyond the tour.
Now Cantrell isn’t discounting the possibility that the reunion might lead to new music.
“We still are that band, and unfortunately we went through what we went through, losing our friend, Layne,” he said. “But people all throughout life go through a lot of loss and continue on, you know what I mean, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility, either. …
“People go through traumatic changes in their lives, life partners, deaths in family or whatever. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be with anybody else for the rest of your life. It’s more to me about traveling through that kind of experience and moving on with your life. That’s part of what this is about as well as celebrating the music we made and our life with our friend.”
There are those who see the tour as an opportunity for Cantrell, Inez and Kinney to begin to make up for a career of a band whose tenure ended prematurely or, if the reunion ends with this tour, to at least gain a sense of closure about the band.
The band, which formed in 1987 (with Mike Starr, who was replaced by Inez in 1993, on bass), released three full-length studio albums “Facelift” (1990), “Dirt” (1992) and “Alice in Chains” (1995), along with the EPs “We Die Young” (1990), “SAP” (1992) and “Jar of Flies” (1994).
The group, whose droning brand of hard rock influenced a legion of newer bands (think Godsmack and Staind), fizzled out precisely at the point when it seemed poised for a monumental breakthrough. The 1995 self-titled CD featured five hit singles, including “Heaven Beside You” and “Over Now.”
Cantrell said, though, that he and his band mates have never dwelled on the past or what could have been for Alice in Chains.
“Hey man, it is what it is,” he said. “We were fortunate enough to do what we did, and we aren’t any different, obviously, than anybody else. We’ve gone through our struggles and losses and we also climbed some serious peaks and achieved and we’ve walked through life like men. It’s been a good thing. I’ve got nothing to regret. Of course, it would be great if my buddy was here, but I didn’t have a choice in that.
“Sometimes you just get dealt a bad hand. You play it out and stick around to play another instead of copping out. That’s the best I can put it.”
Alice in Chains original members – Jerry Cantrell, Mike Inez and Sean Kinney – are joined by William Duvall for this tour.
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