The crowd response was overwhelmingly positive. “It was a really cool thing to do in the hometown, and we probably didn’t really think about it until we were up onstage. We were like, ‘Whoa…’ playing those songs without Layne. That was a heavy thing, and it was also kind of a healing thing in a way, too, dealing with that reality,” Jerry would later recall.19
“The crowd went apeshit. I think that might have been the point where those guys stepped off and said, ‘Okay, I think we can do this again.’ And they looked great—they sounded just so powerful,” Gilbert said. “It was brilliant. It was a very healing moment to see them come back out, like, ‘We’re not dead yet.’ They tore it up, big-time.”
* * *
After the band regrouped in spring 2006, Duff McKagan temporarily joined as a rhythm guitarist. While there was criticism about the band carrying on without Layne, McKagan was unapologetically for it. “These guys had to move on because they still had way too much to offer the rock-and-roll world. In an age of paint-by-numbers corporate rock, we fucking needed Alice in Chains,” he wrote in his memoir. For the first rehearsal with William, the plan was to ease him into it, but he went straight for “Love Hate Love,” a more vocally challenging song, and nailed it. After they finished, Sean looked at William and the others and said, “I think the search is pretty much over.”20
William’s first public performance fronting Alice in Chains took place on March 10, 2006, at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Alice in Chains and other musicians had been invited for an episode of VH1’s Decades Rock Live! honoring Heart. It was the second time Alice in Chains had performed publicly in a decade—their biggest show since Layne’s final shows in 1996—and it was going to be filmed for a television special.21
The plan was for Alice in Chains to perform “Would?” with ex-Pantera front man Phil Anselmo handling vocals—a performance he dedicated to Layne and his slain former bandmate Dimebag Darrell; “Rooster” with Ann Wilson; and “Man in the Box” with William. During a camera rehearsal, Wilson hadn’t arrived yet, so William stepped in and sang “Rooster.” Wilson arrived in the middle of the performance and, after hearing him, told William, “Okay, you’re going to have to do that song.”
Of Ann Wilson’s decision to cede her spot to him, William said, “Her moment was supposed to be ‘Rooster,’ they’d been talking about it in all the papers and everything, ‘Wait till you hear Ann sing “Rooster,”’ and then she gave the song to me! It blew the whole thing out of the water. It was great because her doing that guaranteed me a spot in the show when it was broadcast, which gave birth to this proper resurrection of the band.”22
The taping was significant to Susan, who had signed settlement agreements with Chris Cornell a few days earlier. “I realized that it was OK. As much mental anguish as we had gone through—‘Is it OK to go on without Layne?’—this mantra kept going through my head as I’m watching these guys rehearse, ‘Choose to live, choose to live.’ They chose to live and what they love to do—play music. That was really inspiring,” Susan said. She compared what Ann did for William that night to what Cornell had done for Eddie Vedder nearly sixteen years earlier—giving her blessing to the new guy on a nationally televised program. “I know that it’s really personal for me, but it was also a historic moment. That specific acknowledgment towards how things are now, that there’s a history not to be forgotten, and there’s a history about to be made.”23
William’s second show would be much smaller: an invitation-only show at the Moore Theatre in Seattle. But he arguably performed under much greater pressure, not only because the venue held historical significance for Alice in Chains but also because audience members included Layne’s parents and Kim Thayil.24 Jeff Gilbert was there for that exclusive show, and he was impressed by what he saw and heard. “The minute he opened his mouth, it was like, ‘Holy crap! Where does he get that sound and that power?’ You wouldn’t think somebody that thin can push that much air out of his mouth to get that sound,” he recalled. “That’s a pressure cooker of a situation to walk into, in a town that loved that band so much, and to step into Layne’s spotlight. I mean, that’s got to be terrifying beyond belief. But he did it with such class and grace and power, and they delivered a perfect freakin’ set. I remember turning to somebody and [saying], ‘Can you believe this? They just pulled off the impossible.’”
In terms of William filling the spot held by Layne, Mike said, “I’ve never seen a guy just stand up in front of an audience, look them in the eye, not that he’s trying to fill those shoes, but that was just a really ballsy thing for the guy to do.”25
There was never any plan to change the band’s name, despite arguments among Alice in Chains fans. There are two precedents for bands that have carried on after the death of their lead singers: that of Joy Division, which changed its name to New Order, and that of AC/DC, which carried on with its original name. Alice in Chains chose the latter option. “It never even crossed our mind to change the name,” Sean told journalist Gillian Gaar. “We could call ourselves Leather Snake, go play our songs, and people would go, ‘The guys from Alice in Chains are playing the club down the street!’ They’d never be, like, ‘Hey! Leather Snake kicks ass!’”26 After touring with William for nearly two years, the band began exploring the idea of writing and recording new material for the first time in a decade. After the Alice in Chains/Velvet Revolver tour finished in October 2007, Jerry planned to take a few weeks off. Instead of resting, he started writing new material on his first day home. The band rented a house with a studio and recorded a demo. Shortly after, they signed a deal with Virgin/EMI to release their next album.27
Dave Grohl suggested the band record at Studio 606, the Foo Fighters’s recording studio in the San Fernando Valley, and that they work with producer Nick Raskulinecz. When Raskulinecz got a phone call saying Alice in Chains wanted him to produce their next album, he was hesitant at first. He had grown up listening to Alice in Chains. “How can there be Alice in Chains without Layne Staley?” After getting to know each other, the band played him “Check My Brain,” and he was on board immediately. He told Mix, “As an Alice in Chains fan, and now as their producer, I knew what I wanted to hear: I wanted to hear the record after Dirt, which I don’t feel they ever made.” Jerry and William had no problem creating the band’s trademark two-part vocal harmonies. According to the album’s engineer, Paul Figueroa, “That part of Alice didn’t die; when you hear those harmonies, it’s almost like hearing a ghost.”28
“Check My Brain” is driven by the repeated bending and releasing of two notes on the guitars, giving it a sort of back-and-forth, seasick feeling. Lyrically, the song is about “finding yourself in the belly of the beast, and totally being cool with living there,” according to Jerry. “Every rock band’s got the California tune, so it’s kind of like the anti-California California song, without really bagging on the place.”29 There were preliminary discussions for the band to team up with Mark Pellington again for the music video, but it didn’t work out and they chose another director.
The album’s emotional centerpiece is its title track, “Black Gives Way to Blue,” the band’s musical tribute to Layne. Jerry wrote the song and said of its subject, “We dealt with all of that privately, and are continuing to do so, the reality of Layne dying and the reality of what do you do with the rest of your life, I kind of put that into a song. I guess that was the first time I kind of said it out loud.”30 When it came time to record “Black Gives Way to Blue,” there was a discussion about who should play the keyboard part. Baldy, the band’s blogger and member of their road crew who had worked with them for years, made a seemingly implausible suggestion: “Why don’t you call Elton?”
They laughed at the idea of getting Elton John at first, with Jerry skeptically noting, “Yeah, right! I’m sure he has plenty of other things to do than to come play on our song.”
But Baldy, who had previously worked for him, persisted. “You never know unless you
ask,” he observed. Jerry sent Elton John an e-mail explaining what his music meant to them and what the song was about, along with a demo. Much to everyone’s surprise, he responded, saying he liked the song and he would play on it.
“In the studio he was really relaxed and gracious, and he’s got a great sense of humor,” Jerry recalled. “We were just trying to be cool: ‘Oh, yeah, no big deal.’ But we were excited. [Sean] and I had to walk out a couple of times to smoke cigarettes, like, ‘Holy shit, this is killer.’ It’s one of those highlights you can’t expect in life, and you’re lucky to get them once in a while. And that is one.”
“I was kind of surprised that Alice in Chains would ask me to do anything. I never thought I’d play on an Alice in Chains record,” John told Entertainment Weekly. “When I heard the song, I really wanted to do it. I liked the fact that it was so beautiful and very simple. They had a great idea of what they wanted me to do on it, and it turned out great.”
So it was that Elton John—the man whom Jim Elmer had taken Layne to see for his first concert, whose songs Layne had sung while sitting at a piano and drinking cheap beer during late nights at the Music Bank, who had a profound influence on Jerry’s decision to become a musician—wound up playing piano on an Alice in Chains song about Layne.31
In early July 2009, Susan was having a party at her West Seattle home with forty to fifty guests in attendance, including Jeff Gilbert. At one point during the party, she said, “I’m going to put on some new music downstairs.” Gilbert and about a dozen other guests followed her into the room, where, unbeknownst to everybody, she proceeded to play Black Gives Way to Blue in full—premiering the record to a handful of close friends.
“She put it on and, boy, oh boy, you heard that riff from ‘Check My Brain.’ And, right there, you’ve got that old adrenaline shiver just shot through the room,” Gilbert recalled. There were no fears of the album being surreptitiously recorded and leaked online because the guests were all close friends of Susan’s and because it was a complete surprise.
Black Gives Way to Blue was released on September 29, 2009, and entered the Billboard charts at number 5, eventually being certified gold by the RIAA. One major change in the fourteen years since Alice in Chains had last released an album was the emergence of the MP3 format and file-sharing technologies. It leaked online two weeks ahead of the release date. During an interview with the radio station Q101, Sean jokingly compared it to prison rape: “It’s like going to prison—[you] know you’re gonna get raped, but you’re not ready for it. You think you’re all prepared for it, but you’re not really prepared for how violent that rape is.”32
Following the success of Black Gives Way to Blue, the band took time off. They had a few musical ideas they had come up with during the course of touring—Jerry came up with the guitar riff for “Hollow” while warming up for the last show of the tour in Las Vegas—but a follow-up album would have to wait. Jerry had to undergo surgery for bone spurs and cartilage in one of his shoulders—having already been through the same procedure for the other shoulder six years earlier. He recorded a demo for “Voices” before the surgery. While he was in rehab after the surgery, he came up with the riff for “Stone” in his head, but since he couldn’t play guitar at the time, he started recording on his iPhone and hummed the melody.33
Once Jerry recovered, work on the album began in earnest, with Nick Raskulinecz producing again. Before that, on May 31, 2012, Jerry was honored by MusiCares—a foundation established by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to act as a safety net for musicians during financial, medical, or personal emergencies. He was awarded the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award for “his dedication and support of the MusiCares MAP Fund and for his commitment to helping other addicts with the addiction and recovery process.” The MAP fund allows musicians access to addiction treatment and sober living resources. He would be presented with the award at that year’s MusiCares MAP Fund benefit in Los Angeles, at which Alice in Chains would be performing. Mike jokingly referred to the honor as the “Junkie of the Year” award. Although Jerry was honored by the award, he noted his band’s history in an interview with Rolling Stone: “‘I am nobody’s fucking role model,’ he says. It’s too much pressure: ‘Everybody’s human, everybody has flaws, everybody falls down. It’s just a fucking fact of life. And a lot of people stand and get the fuck back up after falling. Some people don’t get that chance. My band’s been a harsh example of that—what happens when you don’t deal with it.’”34
He gave a brief acceptance speech thanking his bandmates; Susan; the band’s comanager, David “Beno” Benveniste; the other musicians who were performing at the benefit; and his sponsor. He also told the story of how he got sober: “I crash-landed here almost nine years ago, in Los Angeles. Sean was at the door with my brother. So my choices were open the door and go to rehab, or jump out the back window down a cliff into some blackberry bushes—that’s the choice I took. Luckily they caught me, because I couldn’t go anywhere. I was stuck in a bush at the bottom of a cliff, bleeding, and I ended up here.”
He noted, “I’ve had a lot of help, and all I can claim is showing up and doing the work. I am as imperfect as they come. I just try to do what I can to not get high today, and that’s pretty much gotten me to where I am today. I just don’t get high today and wake up the next day to try to do the same thing.” Jerry celebrated the tenth anniversary of his sobriety while on tour in Vancouver on July 1, 2013.35
Work on the album continued. The song “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” found the band dabbling into social commentary, criticizing religion. It was also chosen as the album title, which was announced on the band’s Web site after rearranging the letters into an anagram and encouraging fans to decode it. The album was released on May 28, 2013, and debuted at number 2 on the Billboard chart.36 When the band began touring in support of the album, Sean had a new kick drum with the letters LSMS—Layne Staley and Mike Starr’s initials—stenciled on it.
Nearly four weeks before the album’s release, Nancy Layne McCallum filed a lawsuit against the Alice in Chains partnership, as well as Jerry, Mike, and Sean as individuals. In doing so, she was seeking a letter of direction from Jerry and Sean asking for payment directly to her, without deduction, of half of the royalties due to Layne under the band’s 1989 record deal; for an accounting of all the money received by the partnership relating to the 1989 contract and the sale and use of Layne’s works; for an inventory of all individual assets belonging to Layne or the partnership under the control of Jerry, Mike, and Sean, a request that covers “film, video, unreleased recordings and mixes, photographs, posters, merchandise and artwork”; and for a court-granted temporary injunction that would prevent the band from “licensing or otherwise exploiting Mr. Staley’s personality rights without Plaintiff’s written permission” or from retaining any of her royalties from Layne-related income. The lawsuit does not specify the monetary value being sought, only that it would be “proven at trial.”37
According to the most recent filing available as of this writing and signed by attorneys for both McCallum and the band, “The parties are engaging in the voluntary exchange of information. They believe such an exchange is a more efficient manner of conducting discovery at this stage than the preparation and exchange of the Disclosures.”38
* * *
The year 2015 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of the We Die Young EP and Facelift, which makes the band eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Besides age, criteria for induction include “influence and significance of the artists’ contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll.” The ultimate decision on whether to induct an artist or not is up to an international voting body of more than six hundred artists, historians, and members of the music industry. Musicians with the highest number of votes or who get more than 50 percent of the votes are inducted, typically between five and seven a year.39
One factor that could work in Alice
in Chains’s favor is the fact that many of their grunge and alternative rock peers have become eligible for induction in the past few years. On the other hand, their luck with the Hall of Fame could go in lockstep with their luck at the Grammys—they have yet to win a single award despite multiple nominations over the course of more than two decades. The Hall of Fame has eluded musicians like Deep Purple, The Cure, Willie Nelson, and Soundgarden, who have been eligible for years but have yet to be inducted as of this writing.40
Asked about the possibility of Alice in Chains being inducted, Jerry responded during an interview with Radio.com, “We don’t think about it a whole lot. We’re not in this to win awards, or be part of the thing. I have to say that’s the attitude I went [to Heart’s 2013 induction into the Hall of Fame] with.” He added, “I also have to say, in fairness, that my opinion was a little bit changed by being a fly on the wall and being kind of a guest, a guest alongside Heart, seeing how much it meant for them, and how well they did it. It was a cool show and it was with a lot of respect … It’s always nice to be recognized for your work, let’s put it that way.”41
Of the band’s legacy, Jerry said during an interview with The Skinny, “One of the things I’m most proud of—at risk of sounding self-important—is that I think this has been an important band. We’re a link in the chain. It’s mattered to us and it’s mattered to a lot of other people, too.
“Hopefully we’re making good music and we’re a pretty good band. I think we are. I guess that’s really what it comes down to. I mean, if we were shit I don’t think we would have made it this far. We must be doin’ something right. We are old school, just by the fact of being old! We’re all creepin’ up on fifty here in a few years. We’ve lived a pretty interesting life—wouldn’t change a thing, even the bad stuff. We’re continuing to do what we committed ourselves to. I have this saying: the thing that you did as a kid to not have a job has now become your life’s work. That’s pretty cool.”42
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