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The surviving members of the Seattle band Alice in Chains — from left, Sean Kinney, Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez — are charting new territory with a new singer, William DuVall (not pictured). THE MITCH SCHNEIDER ORGANIZATION
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| Alice in Chains doesn’t dwell on what might have been
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| By Alan Sculley, For the Tribune |
| September 25, 2006 |
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In interviews in the years that followed the 1996 breakup of Alice in Chains — and later upon the 2002 death of singer Layne Staley — the other band members didn’t rule out the possibility that they would return to Alice in Chains. |
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Conversations about reuniting, at least for a concert tour, gained momentum after drummer Sean Kinney recruited guitarist Jerry Cantrell and bassist Mike 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 of Alice in Chains had played together in eight years.
“That kind of fed the seed,” Cantrell says. “It was really just getting up onstage and going, ‘Yeah, that was pretty good. That wasn’t too bad. That felt great.’ So it feels really good to be together again.”
All three band members had stayed involved in music after Alice in Chains 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 to fill Staley’s role) 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 says. “But people all throughout life go through a lot of loss and continue on. . . . 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 that ended prematurely — or if this reunion ends with the tour, to at least gain a sense of closure about the band.
The group, whose droning brand of hard rock has influenced a legion of newer bands (Godsmack, Staind), fizzled at precisely the point when it seemed poised for a breakthrough. The 1995 self-titled CD had featured five hit singles, including “Heaven Beside You” and “Over Now.”
Cantrell says, though, that he and his band mates have never dwelled on the past or what might have been for Alice in Chains.
“Hey, man, it is what it is,” he says. “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,” Cantrell says. “You play it out and stick around to play another instead of copping out. That’s the best I can put it.” |
| Contact Alan Sculley by telephone at (480) 898-6500. |
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