The Meaning Behind Alice In Chains' Band Name
Long before Layne Staley or the rest of Alice in Chains had risen to fame to become one of the most important rock bands of the 1990s, alongside fellow Seattle stars Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam, they all played in various bands. In 1986, Staley was in a band called Sleze, mostly covering songs from the likes of Mötley Crüe and Slayer. But they were kicking around looking for another name. A conversation at a party between one of the band's guitarists, Johnny Bacolas, and Russ Klatt, the lead singer of Slaughter Haus 5, somehow devolved into a discussion of Alice in Wonderland, but with bondage, and Klatt came up with Sleze's new name: Alice in Chains (later changed to Alice N' Chains).
A year later, after Sleze broke up, Staley joined guitarist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr in Diamond Lie. Again, a name change was in order and they ended up using Staley's old band name, but with the "N'" replaced by "in." There's some dispute as to exactly how and when the decision came about — but the name stuck, and the band rode it to the top of the charts.
The band's name was not mother approved
After that fateful party in 1986, Johnny Bacolas excitedly told the rest of the group — vocalist Layne Staley, drummer James Bergstrom, guitarist Ed (Zoli) Semanate, and bassist Byron Hansen — about the new band name at their next rehearsal. Everyone loved it but there was a problem. Alice in Chains, with its connotations of bondage, wasn't going to fly with most of their conservative Christian mothers who paid for the teenage band's rehearsal space and other costs.
Staley's mother, Nancy Layne McCallum, was especially incensed. "I had a sense of humor about the name Sleze," she recalled in "Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music." "But when he came home and said they were changing the name to Alice in Chains, I was not happy." She believed the name was offensive and the two argued. Bacula and Bergstrom's mothers weren't happy with the new name either. The band came up with a compromise by calling themselves Alice N' Chains, which could be interpreted as Alice and Chains. But then the brand broke up and it seemed the name might die with its disbandment.
A new band with a slightly altered old name
A decade before he died, Layne Staley told Rolling Stone in November 1992 a slightly off-kilter version of how the name came about. "The name came from a side project of my old group," Staley said. "We were going to have this band that dressed in drag and played heavy metal as a joke." Staley's answer may have simply been a put on, since none of the other members of the original Alice N' Chains have mentioned this aspect of the name's origins.
Fast forward to 1987, when guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell enlisted Staley in his band Diamond Lie, which went through a few names, including F**k. Their manager, Randy Hauser, on the advice of an Atlantic Records exec, suggested the band needed a catchier moniker. Hauser recalled in "Alice in Chains: The Untold Story" suggesting they use a slightly altered version of Staley's old band name, Alice N' Chains. He pulled out an old banner with the name and added an 'i" to it with black paint. Others remember it differently, but the band changed its name and adjusted the spelling nonetheless. Staley had to call up his former bandmates to get permission to use the name. They eventually agreed and Alice in Chains, with its dark roots in Alice in Wonderland and bondage, became the name that the band still uses today even after the death of Staley.