The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Alice In Chains

Nirvana might have been the biggest name in grunge, Pearl Jam the most enduring, and Soundgarden the most hard-hitting, but as Stephen Hill of Louder tells us, it was Alice in Chains that first brought the genre into the mainstream with their sublime 1990 debut album, Facelift. Armed with a brand new sound that incorporated elements from heavy metal to the famous grunge drop-D tuning, the twin vocals of guitarist Jerry Cantrell and the charismatic frontman, Layne Staley, and the album's most iconic single, "Man in The Box," the band were instrumental in grunge's breakthrough. With their follow-up album, Dirt, Alice in Chains proved that they were far from a one-trick pony, and singles like "Would?," "Rooster," and "Them Bones" propelled them to further success.

However, despite their considerable fame and fortune, the band has had more than their share of disasters, thanks to an array of drama, unfortunate incidents, and rock star excess. Today, we'll take a look at the tragic real-life story of Alice in Chains.

Alice In Chains' guitarist and co-vocalist Jerry Cantrell may not have lived quite as rough a life as the band's famously tragic frontman, Layne Staley, but that doesn't mean he hasn't got his own share of past awfulness. As Louder reports, the aspiring rock star's difficult relationship with his father was such a case. Cantrell lost both his mother and grandmother at a relatively early age, and his relationship with his father was extremely strained, due to the fact that Cantrell Sr. had his share of psychological issues from his time in the Vietnam War. This, as Cantrell puts it in an interview with Rolling Stone, caused "a lot of problems and occurrences," which ultimately played a part in breaking up the family, leaving Cantrell and his father estranged. 

Fortunately, the Cantrells eventually managed to grow closer after the guitarist was inspired to write a song about his father's experiences in Vietnam. He named the brooding, dark song "Rooster" after his dad's old nickname, and Cantrell Sr. was so fond of the end result that he agreed to appear in the music video.

Layne Staley was a charismatic frontman with a golden voice, but according to the A.V. Club, the year 1996 marked a point when he turned his back to all of it. Like, literally all of it, except for drugs. Staley distanced himself from his band and the world in general, opting instead to taking copious amounts of narcotics and playing video games. Over time, this less than healthy lifestyle started taking a toll on the singer, who kept on keeping on down his dark path despite the numerous attempts his bandmates made to lure him back in the land of the living. Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney, in particular, attempted to contact Staley three times a week for years, but Staley refused to even talk to him.   

Rumors about the vocalist's condition started making rounds, and some said he'd even lost an arm to gangrene. On the few occasions when Staley emerged from his self-imposed exile where drug dealers left illegal substances at his doorstep, he indeed resembled a shambling, grey zombie who'd even lost one or two fingers from collapsing veins, and generally looked "like an 80-year-old version of himself." 

Alice In Chains might seem like a band that ended its existence in a tragic way when singer Layne Staley died, only to later rise from the ashes as a sort of 2.0 version of themselves with the advent of guitarist-singer William DuVall. According to Revolver, however, the band had started cracking at the seams well before Staley passed away, to the point that they even went their separate ways for quite a while. 

The band had their last full tour with Staley in 1993, when they were co-headlining Lollapalooza. In 1994, they were set to tour with Metallica, but they ended up canceling just before the first dates. The reason? Staley's heroin addiction. Staley had recently gone to rehab, but soon afterwards, he showed up in a band rehearsal under influence. As Jon Wiederhorn of Rolling Stone writes, the rest of the band were less than pleased, to the point that drummer Sean Kinney swore he'd never play with Staley again. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell agreed with the sentiment, and just like that, Alice in Chains was on a break. They managed to patch things up six months later, but unfortunately, there was more awfulness on the horizon.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jerry Cantrell recalled that the road to their fifth studio album, 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, was a painful one for him. The guitar maestro developed a repetitive motion injury and had to have surgery to fix the issue. According to Revolver Mag, the band had started working on the album soon after wrapping up their previous tour. However, after recording just one song, Cantrell started experiencing excruciating pain in his arm, which he described feeling "like an icepick in your joint." It turned out that the guitarist was suffering from a cartilage injury he had been sporting since 2005, as the years of intensive guitar heroics had worn down the glenoid labrum in his shoulder socket in a similar way that sometimes happens to baseball pitchers, leaving the bones to essentially grind on each other with painful results. 

The injury and the ensuing surgical procedure set the musician (and the entire band) back several months. Still, Cantrell ultimately came to see a silver lining in the painful situation, as it forced him and the rest of the band to recharge their batteries before jumping right into a labor-intensive album cycle.

When someone mentions drugs and Alice in Chains in the same sentence, most people probably think about singer Layne Staley. However, as Rolling Stone notes, poor Staley was hardly the only member of the band to struggle with addiction. Mike Starr, the band's original bass player, also developed a taste for narcotics early on. Starr took care of bass duties on Alice in Chains' beloved debut studio album, Facelift, as well as their even more esteemed sophomore effort, Dirt. He was there when they toured with giants like Van Halen and Iggy Pop — but sadly, so was his drug addiction. 

Alice in Chains and Starr parted ways in 1993. Layne Staley said that Starr left because he didn't want to keep up with the band's hectic touring and press schedule, while Starr later said that he was straight up fired because of his addiction issues. Regardless of what actually happened, this marked the start of a long downfall. A year or two after his Alice in Chains days ended, Starr got in trouble for stealing luggage at an airport, and spent 90 days in jail. Later, he became something of a mainstay in reality shows of the Celebrity Rehab and Sober House variety.

As John Benson of Reuters tells us, the surviving members of Alice in Chains (guitarist-singer Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez, and drummer Sean Kinney) reunited in 2006 without a particularly clear vision of the shape of things to come. However, they soon discovered William DuVall, who ended up joining the band as a vocalist and a guitarist. In 2009, the new lineup released the fourth AiC studio album, Black Gives Way to Blue, and they've kept busy ever since. 

As you can probably imagine, this didn't sit too well with many people, who saw the death of Layne Staley as the end of Alice in Chains, as well. The band continuing with its new lineup prompted criticism from such fans, and as Loudwire tells us, in 2018 the band decided to fire a volley right back at their critics. Cantrell pointed out that DuVall wasn't replacing Staley any more than Inez had replaced former bassist Mike Starr. "We never looked at it as a part of somebody is replaceable, because Layne Staley is not replaceable, Mike Starr is not replaceable," Cantrell said. "Their period of time with us in the band, on those records is indelible and completely unique." The guitarist also noted that while the negativity toward DuVall was still ongoing in 2018, Alice in Chains is ultimately their band and they are free to "create new chapters" for it as they see fit.