Source on Jerry Cantrell

“(November 13, 2013), A Looking In View: Jerry Cantrell on Alice in Chains' legacy, publisher: The Skinny I don’t Twitter. I don’t Facebook. I think it’s ridiculous that people are that important that people really need to know they are going to the grocery store or what club they are at [laughs]. I think it’s pretty ridiculous and self-indulgent. I’ll interact with my fans when I see them. We do our Web site, and that type of stuff, but I’m not interested in [social networking] at all. You shouldn’t know that much about people, you know what I mean? Because when it really comes down to it, people aren’t that fuckin’ interesting. They really aren’t. It’s more than a little creepy. You shouldn’t know everything. Everything shouldn’t be so transparent. There should be a little mystery and magic to life, and also people should have a little bit of privacy. Everybody deserves a little bit of that.”

“(September 8, 2009), Jerry Cantrell Creeped Out By Facebook, Twitter I'm not on Twitter. I don't think anybody needs to know anything more about me than what they see on the stage or what they listen to on the record, pretty much. I'm not that interesting.”

“Interview with WAAF Radio (August 23, 2010) When we were just getting Alice in Chains together, I actually went and saw Guns N' Roses at the Seattle Center, and I brought a demo tape down to give the band. I met Axl after the show actually, I gave it to him, and as he was walking away I saw him throw it away.”

“Jerry Cantrell recalling when he gave Axl Rose an Alice In Chains demo tape after a concert in Seattle on June 1, 1988 and seeing Axl throwing it away, quoted during a tribute to Guns N' Roses' guitarist Slash at the Sunset Strip Music Festival on August 26, 2010, work: YouTube I think I was with [The Cult’s] Billy Duffy, and Axl [Rose] came in, and I saw him come in. He kinda locked eyes with me, and then he kinda started walking towards me with a purpose. He comes over and he’s like, ‘I heard you tell that story about you giving me that demo tape… Are you still with that girl that you met there?’ Because I’d told the story that that’s where I’d met my girlfriend Courtney at the time… and he was more curious about if I was still with Courtney, which was pretty cool. And we chatted for a little bit. It's kind of one of those fun things, where you’re proud of your band when you’re kind of unknown… and they were pretty damn huge,” Cantrell says. “People still give me their demo tapes all the time too, it’s old school.”

“(September 14, 2021), Axl Rose threw away the Alice In Chains demo I handed him, recalls GN’R fan Jerry Cantrell, work: Metal Hammer We all partied, man, so to point the finger at [Layne] — might as well point the finger at all of us. Unfortunately, he's the lead singer, and the lyrical content of what he was writing – he was putting it out there. I always thought that was very brave of him, and I always stood behind that. It's the type of thing that we always supported ourselves in – going all the way with it, whether it was good or bad. I mean about expressing it artistically. We dicked around – I don't think none of us can say we didn't try it, in one form or another. I was first introduced to it in Europe on one of our first tours. There was, like, two days missing that I don't remember very clearly – except all of us being very ill on a bus. I guess it's something that spoke to Layne, but his experience wasn't anything different than ours. We all had our little vices. If you fuck around with that long enough, it's going to turn on you.”

“quoted in the book *Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, pages: 335—336 Schedules in music, I know people have done it and say you need an album out by this date and you're talking about album tour, it can burn you out quickly. It did with our band. We've been fortunate to be partnered up with companies that respect the process. We're never really forced to make music. If it doesn't happen, then it doesn't.”

“Chat with Jerry Cantrell at ESPN.com (November 29, 2011) When I write, I'm usually hating it, not feeling really balanced, and my way to speak is through my music. Instead of keeping feelings inside, all twisted up, we let it out in the music. It's out of your body, out of your soul, and spoken. Taking something that's ugly and making it beautiful is something that's interest to me. I think Dirt it's a dark album and very harsh, but I also think it's beautiful as hell. I'm really into duality. You have to have positives and negatives. I guess that's what we do subconsciously. There's that word again! Subconsciously. People's perceptions get very distorted. We do what we do, and we live life the way we live it. We're searching ourselves a lot on Dirt, but the songs are not all personal diaries or our personal horrors. We did a lot of soul searching on this album. There's a lot of intense feelings. We've had some interesting and some hard times. We had a great year last year, but along with success come some of the darker things. With this record we've crossed another hurdle; we've grown a little bit more.”

“Interview with RIP Magazine, February 1993 Success has changed our personal lives tremendously, and not at all. From the time we started six years ago, we've gone from living in rehearsal halls with rats to living together in one-room apartments, to having our own places. On the other side, we're always on the road so we never get on enjoy it.”

“Interview with SPIN Magazine, July 1993 There's no denying our metal roots, but we're also into everything from The Beatles to Pink Floyd to Hank Williams. We pop all our ideas in a mixing bowl and see what comes out.”

“Interview with SPIN Magazine, July 1993 We caught flack for being a druggie band. People who thought we were aimless heroin addicts were missing the whole point.”

“Interview with SPIN Magazine, July 1993 When I was a kid, I had a little Dr. Seuss My Book About Me book. I would fill it in, and in the section about what you want to be when you grow up, there were pictures of policemen, firemen, and stuff. Mine said 'rock star'!”

“(March 1993), Misery Loves Company, work: SPIN Magazine, page: 38 My career goal, at the end of the day, has always been to be an old motherfucker, sitting on a fuckin’ porch with my kids, and my wife bitching at me and whatever - and being able to put on any one of the records I’ve done and saying "That did not fuckin’ suck - that kicked ass!". So far, I could say that about everything I’ve put out. Once I’ve done that, I’ve got nothing else to prove, other than to just go out there and play it live as best I can. I ain’t done bad so far.”

“(May 14, 2001), Taking a Solo Trip, work: Metal-is.com It's difficult to do interviews - it's hard to talk about it [Layne Staley's death]. I'm just thankful to have a tour and work - something I can focus on.”

“Farber, Jim (June 30, 2002), Cantrell breaks his chains with new CD The shows I played between the time I got the word about Layne and Layne's funeral were very important to me in terms of being able to continue on. It's one of those things where if you take a break and allow things to settle in, it might be harder to get up again.”

“(May 17, 2002), Making music sees Cantrell through death and dark times, work: SeattlePi.com [Layne Staley's death] It's something I'm still dealing with, and I still think like he's here. I miss him tremendously. I love him and have to move on. I'll remember him and respect the memories of what we did together and just enjoy life... and that's all I'll say about it.”

“(July 1, 2002), Jerry Cantrell Missing Lost Friend, Moving On With Trip, work: MTV News There are two things you never want to get into a conversation or argument about: politics and religion. But fuck, I guess we’re going to be talking about this for awhile [Laughs]. Read a fucking paper. What I’ve seen is the most basic message to most faith systems is in contradiction with how it gets applied. The human element seems to fuck it up. It seems to fuck up the basic truths of acceptance, loving your brother, helping each other out, not trying to kill each other or steal each other’s shit. Those are all pretty good ideas. And most of your major religions have those things as basic tenets of the belief system. It always amazes me that some of the most hateful and hurtful things are done in the name of some sort of belief system.”

“On the religious themes of The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.**Interview with Revolver Magazine, March 2013 He's my absolute best friend. I've never been committed to anything for this long through the good and the bad. And we're still doing this, which says a lot. It's meaningful.”

“On his longtime friendship with Alice In Chains' co-founder and drummer, Sean Kinney, quoted in *(May 29, 2013), Through the good and the bad, Alice in Chains unbroken, work: Los Angeles Times Jimi Hendrix is one of our local heroes in Seattle, and we only have a handful. He walked the same streets than we did. Interestingly enough, he had to come over here [The UK] to break out. We were always proud to be from the same town that he came from. I remember in the very early days of this band [Alice in Chains], we would drive to the cemetery, go to his grave and crack a few beers or whatever. We knew that a lot of people did that too. So if we were low on weed, we could probably show up and always find at least a joint or two... Which we did more than a couple of times too [laughs]! People would leave guitar picks, half burnt roaches, sometimes full joints. And we would hang out with Jimi and smoke the pot that people left on his grave. He was a phenomenal guitar player. The band that he had, the trio on that record [The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced], it's legendary. Are You Experienced? is the first of his albums I was introduced to. And I still think it's the best. He was an innovator, he was extremely unique. He had a uniqueness that passed the test of time. And the only other guy, for me personally, to make that sort of a change, another guitar player of the same calibre that I kind of acknowledge as "this guy is the fucking shit!" is probably Eddie Van Halen, a couple of generations back.”

“(June 28, 2013), Trace The Bloodline: Jerry Cantrell Of Alice In Chains' Favourite Albums, publisher: The Quietus I’m really proud of the musical history of where I’m from, I think the reason so much of the music from Seattle is as cool and as individual as it was is because Seattle is, geographically speaking, outside the business. It’s way the hell out there and was able to develop on its own and nurture itself without any real outside help or goals like getting signed to a major label and shit like that. That was really hard to do because nobody gave a fuck unless you were from New York or LA. The business didn’t make Seattle, Seattle made the business. That afforded us opportunities to take it to the next level and we took advantage of that, but first and foremost it was about making great music.”

“(November 13, 2013), A Looking In View: Jerry Cantrell on Alice in Chains' legacy, publisher: The Skinny A big part of life is learning how to deal with loss. We have a limited amount of time here; you should spend your life doing what you want to do because you only get a certain amount of it and you never know when that’s going to stop. Life takes work, and you don’t do that on your own. I’ve got that with my band, family and friends.”

“(November 13, 2013), A Looking In View: Jerry Cantrell on Alice in Chains' legacy, publisher: The Skinny We're not in this to win awards. And that's the attitude I went there with. And I have to say, in fairness, that my opinion was a bit changed by being a guest with Heart and seeing how much it meant for them. It was a cool show, it was with a lot of respect. I was kind of moved. The best part was [Rush guitarist] Alex Lifeson's speech, but I also liked what [drummer] Neil Peart said: 'For years, we've been saying that this isn't a big deal. Turns out: it's a pretty big deal!' It was cool to see him say that.”

“On the possibility of Alice In Chains getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. **(August 26, 2013), Alice In Chains On Intolerance, The Rock Hall And Jane's Addiction, work: Radio.com via YouTube I didn't really know Kurt that well, but there was a guy I always admired. We didn't spent much time together, but the few times we did spend together, you know, were times I'll always remember. You know, he was a really sweet guy, and a really genuine soul, you know, and an incredibly talented artist.”

“On Kurt Cobain. **(April 4, 2014), JUDAS PRIEST, KORN, ALICE IN CHAINS, Ex-PANTERA Members Pay Tribute To KURT COBAIN, work: Blabbermouth I was surprised to see them [Nirvana] go in before Pearl Jam. They went in for 'Bleach,' which wasn't a big record till 'Nevermind' became a big record. It’s well-deserved. I loved those guys. If even one of our group was considered and inducted, it says a lot for them and, associatively, about our whole city.”

“On Nirvana being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. **(May 13, 2014), Nirvana's Rock Hall induction raises hopes of Alice in Chains' co-founder Jerry Cantrell, work: Cleveland.com The great thing about being a writer is you can be whatever you want to be. You can make things autobiographical, or you can make them sound autobiographical and they’re not. They’re about little bits and pieces of other things all put together. As long as it tells a little bit of a story, I guess, and has some emotion in it and performed like you mean it, and for us, we’ve probably leaned on the sharper edge of that throughout our career, and that was a conscious decision to do that. So there’s a lot of us in there, and has been throughout our career. I personally like to leave things a little open and vague and you can find what you want to find in there, as you should.”

“(May 1, 2014), Guitar gods: Zakk Wylde and Jerry Cantrell on wielding the ax, work: Weekender I asked her [his mom], ‘Why didn’t you take us to church? What am I? Am I Christian? Am I Lutheran? Blah blah blah,’ and she’s like, ‘I wanted you to make up your mind for yourself. You be whatever you want to be. You be what makes sense to you,’ and that’s cool.”

“(May 1, 2014), Guitar gods: Zakk Wylde and Jerry Cantrell on wielding the ax, work: Weekender The singer who probably caught my ear first was Elton John. That was when the light bulb went on for me.”

“(July 16, 2014), Heroes & Villains: Jerry Cantrell, publisher: Louder Sound After my mother passed away, her brother Miland told me: “You have a chance here to give your dream a shot. It was your mom’s dream too to be a musician, but she never got to do that. You don’t have anything holding you down now so go for it.” It meant a lot that he would say that.”

“(July 16, 2014), Heroes & Villains: Jerry Cantrell, publisher: Louder Sound I’ve had conversations with both James and Lars from Metallica throughout the years. And we were pretty tight with Chris Cornell and the guys from Soundgarden. I still look up to those guys.”

“When asked if he gets advice from other musicians, quoted in **(July 16, 2014), Heroes & Villains: Jerry Cantrell, publisher: Louder Sound Chris [Cornell] represented a strong strain running through our whole town – he was always so honest, from the moment I met him. I share a lot of the issues Chris communicated in his songwriting. And there's a power in sharing your weakness with the people who need to hear that, so they can consider, 'Fuck, that guy's dealing with it.' You don't feel so alone. he was the last guy in the world I thought that [suicide] would happen to. That's not the way that book was supposed to end. And it was not the way that book was going. Cornell always had it, the same thing as when I saw Layne [Staley] for the first time – the commitment to take that ride. There was something that I recognized and aspired to – to have your own voice and sound. Nobody else sounds like that guy. Nobody will. There is a space now and forever empty because of that. It's never going to make sense. It's never going to feel right. And it's always going to hurt.”

“(May 29, 2017), Chris Cornell: Inside Soundgarden, Audioslave Singer's Final Days, work: Rolling Stone Chris [Cornell] was a friend for many years, and an incredible artist, a wonderful human being. I’ve always been inspired by his work ethic and talent, and his band Soundgarden, they were a big influence on us. It’s obviously very sad, I still don’t really know how to really discuss it personally, but I think at this point it’s time to maybe focus on the type of man he was, and the type of human being, and the type of artist. And [his] incredible depth. Our bands helped each other in the early days, we were all under the same roof with Susan Silver managing them, Kelly Curtis managing Mother Love Bone and then Pearl Jam, and they jointly managed us. We were all in the same little office above The Central Tavern, and that was the home base. I’m going to miss him immensely, but I also celebrate his life and his life’s work. Ann Wilson called me and said she was thinking about doing something for our friend [the tribute to Chris Cornell during the 2018 Rock and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony], and asked me if I would join her. Anytime she calls I’m there, and if it’s for Chris, of course, absolutely.”

“(April 14, 2018), Jerry Cantrell talking about Chris Cornell at the press room of the Rock and Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, work: YouTube I'm a kind of a bury-myself-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods writer, where I prefer to go out there and have everybody leave me alone until I'm done. It's a little bit of a trek into yourself. Which can be fucking scary, man—your head is not a neighborhood you should always travel in alone.”

“(June 7, 2018), Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell Revisits the Band’s Five Records, work: Noisey Everybody was affected by the tsunami, even if you weren’t personally affected by it. Across the world people were holding benefit shows and raising money. After Layne had passed, we were, “That’s it. We’re done. We’re not gonna fucking do this again.” [Prior to that] we’d had a conversation here or there, there and I was like, “We didn’t leave it in a good place. Maybe we can invite our friends, do a limited run thing. And we bring Layne with us—we honor our bro, and also honor ourselves and the people that supported it.” And Sean wasn’t that into it. Then the tsunami happened. And Sean called me up and said, “Let’s do it for this thing.” And that’s what we did. We made some money for the cause. But for our purposes, that was a really heavy night to stand up there without Layne and play those tunes. It was fucking heartbreaking. But it was also very triumphant and cathartic.”

“(June 7, 2018), Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell Revisits the Band’s Five Records, work: Noisey Layne was just an incomparable talent. He was like a fucking myna bird. Any accent or sound or voice, he could just immediately repeat it. He just had a gift. And I’d like to think that I have a bit of a gift myself. One of the funniest descriptions I’ve ever heard, and I don’t know that it’s true, but it just sounds fucking great, was we sound like “the satanic Everly Brothers.” Together we were kind of a two-headed monster. It added a lot of depth to the material the way we worked together; and that would be later continued with the addition of William.”

“On Seattle bands imploding after their success, *(December 26, 2002), Degradation Trip: An interview with Jerry Cantrell I think I heard about Nirvana from Chris – Cornell would wear Nirvana T-shirts. The first time I heard Bleach, I hated it. I can say the same for a lot of my favorite all-time records. It was like, "This guy fucking sucks. He can't play guitar, blah blah blah." Self-righteous shit, and also having some attitude about your own band. One particular listen at one time, and everything changed – I'm like, "Oh, I get it. I fucking get it. These guys are great." But it took a while, I didn't know a whole lot about them. I didn't see a whole lot of their gigs. I remember the guys in the band [Alice in Chains] were really stoked on it – Layne [Staley] and Sean [Kinney] really liked it a lot. I was a little bit hesitant – it took me a couple more "bites" to realize that I loved it [laughs].”

“quoted in the book *Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, page: 167 I thought it was amazing. It was a serious step up from the record before. It was like three or four steps up.”

“On Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind, quoted in the book *Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, page: 276 It [Ten] was a rebirth for those guys. They had such an unfortunate blow with the loss of Andy [Wood] right as their album is coming out. There was a real kind of a brotherhood between all of the artists in Seattle and it was really meaningful to see them pick themselves up, start again and invite Ed and Dave [Krusen] into the band. To have that record have the sort of impact that it has is really powerful. It was very right for those guys all find each other and we were really, really, really happy for that — I still am. They’re one of the greatest bands in the history of rock and roll and they made one really important record together. “Black” is a great record, just as a piece of work, but every track on the album I think is really important. They started out with “Alive” in 91 and then “Even Flow” and “Jeremy” huge fucking song. But “Black” has always been my favorite from the record. They deserve a ton of credit for fighting through adversity and starting anew. That record is still really powerful.”

“On Pearl Jam's debut album, Ten. **(August 27, 2021), 30 Artists Reflect on 30 Years of Pearl Jam’s Ten, work: SPIN Magazine It was ’92 when that record really took off and when everything really came together. Nevermind is one of those records, forget rock and roll history, it’s just it’s a really significant record. It’s a perfect piece of work is what it is. There was a good handful of those I would argue in our little town. That one I think is obviously the crown jewel, nobody can really compete with the reach of that record. It’s perfect from beginning to end. The artwork is amazing, the band was in perfect form on that record. Bleach was cool as fuck, but this was something else. This was a whole other level. Every song on it is great. But my personal favorite is probably “Come As You Are.” This has got that real dreamy cool roll to it and it’s sexy and well written. Kurt truly was an amazing songwriter. He did a lot with a little, you know what I mean? Very simple. Very simple songwriting. Super powerful. Great melodies, great lyrics. And the band is badass, Kurt Krist and Dave — it was just amazing.”

“On Nirvana's Nevermind 30th anniversary. **(September 24, 2021), 41 Artists Reflect on Nirvana’s Nevermind Turning 30, work: SPIN Magazine”

“Jerry Cantrell's former manager Bill Siddons quoted in **(April 19, 2002), Fans mourn death of Alice in Chains singer I lost my grandfather in the same week [that Layne Staley died], so Cantrell and I both hit the road with immense personal losses dogging us. There were times on stage—there was one show in Charlotte where it was just so heavy. I'm holding back tears onstage, and Jerry would start crying onstage too a lot at that point, and a lot of times we would just look at each other when we were singing the stuff because it was the only way... it was heavy. I can't quantify it really in words.”

“William DuVall ''quoted in **(September 24, 2003''), Banged Up But Still Unbreakable: Comes With the Fall, work: PopMatters Jerry's a very complex person. He's very guarded of himself and especially of those whom he cares about. It's very hard, because he has so many different sides to him, and it just depends on what side you get in the morning. I never, ever thought he would be as big as he is today. I thought he would end up working for Safeway or at a video place or something.”

“Jerry Cantrell's sister, Cheri, quoted in **(February 8, 1996), Alice in Chains: To Hell and Back, publisher: Rolling Stone When it comes to guitar playing, I think the layering and the honest feel that Jerry Cantrell gets on the new Alice in Chains record [Dirt] is worth a lot more than someone who plays five million notes. I was listening to two songs off Dirt with him in L.A. and Jerry was saying that he just did his solos, and he was just playing around letting it come out, and not planning on keeping 'em. But the solos were so good the band wanted him to keep them. I think Jerry played his ass off on that record. That’s what I’m into, not all this total perfection shit.”

“Dimebag Darrell quoted in **(September 1995), Diamond “Dimebag” Darrell: The Pantera Interview, publisher: Guitar International Show & Tell: Speaking of working with people you admire, Jerry Cantrell jumped on for a single. Patrick Lachman: Oh man, JC. Awesome. That’s one of those things... It’s gonna get a little surreal now. I’ve worked with Halford, I worked with Tommy Victor from Prong, working with Vinnie and Dime is just a dream come true on a daily basis and then, “oh shit, here comes Corey Taylor singin’ on the record, and here’s Zakk Wylde, one of the most ridiculous guitar players on the planet and oh, here comes Jerry Cantrell, he wants to sing on a song with me?” I mean, Jesus Christ! [laughs] It’s off the hook. But yeh, fucking Jerry is amazing. Great guitar player, great singer, amazing lyricist, fucking melodies and harmonies... I mean, that dude is personally responsible for creating a fucking style that everyone has ripped off. Him and Layne, just fucking groundbreaking. Shit, I’d never thought in a million years that I’d be working side by side with Jerry Cantrell. Basically he had come down for Thanksgiving, he usually comes down has Thanksgiving at Vinnie’s house every year. I just turned around and there he was, no warning [laughs]. We had this song, and it was actually the first song that Vinnie and Dime did when they started writing this stuff, and it was kind of a departure from what you hear on the record and we sorta didn’t know what to do with it and it kinda got set on the backburner. And it wasn’t until JC came down and he heard it and he’s like, “man, I really like those chords,” and he just came up with this melody off the top of his head and Dime just grabbed him and pulled him in the other room, stuck a 4-track and a microphone in his face and said, “just fucking lay it down.” He came out an hour later with a fucking masterpiece.”

“Patrick Lachman talking about Jerry Cantrell's collaboration with Damageplan on the song "Ashes to Ashes", quoted in **(January 29, 2004), An interview with Patrick Lachman of Damageplan, publisher: Show & Tell At the end of 2007, Jerry dug deeper than I've ever seen him dig and wrote many of the songs [from Alice in Chains' album Black Gives Way to Blue, and in 2008, they decided it was time to lay them down.”

“Alice in Chains' manager, Susan Silver, quoted in **(September 18, 2009), Alice In Chains Are Back In 'Black', publisher: Billboard The guitar players that inspire me today are basically all the same guitar players that inspired me when I first started. That hasn't really changed, but additionally I think that Tom Morello, Jack White & Jerry Cantrell are great and are some of the really inspiring lead guitar players that have come out in the last 20 years.”

“Slash, quoted in **(September 14, 2010), An Interview With Slash, publisher: Epiphone When I met with the band, I told Jerry Cantrell, ‘Metallica took Tony Iommi and sped him up. What you’ve done is you’ve slowed him down again.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘You got it.’ That’s how I got the gig. I totally understood what they were doing.”

“Producer Dave Jerden talkig about the making of 'Facelift', quoted in **(October 30, 2013), Production legend Dave Jerden on 13 career-defining records My best friend in music… I don’t think anybody’s ever asked me that question before! That’s a tough one… My best friend… Jerry Cantrell from Alice in Chains.”

“Lars Ulrich, quoted in **(April 2, 2017), Lars Ulrich Interview with Sonar FM, publisher: Sonar FM When the person who made you fall in love with playing a guitar gives you his guitar you absolutely fucking lose it. Thank you*liceinchains I love ya.”

“Dallas Green's post on his Instagram account about Jerry Cantrell giving him one of his guitars during a concert in Montreal on April 27, 2019. **(April 28, 2019), Dallas Green Instagram post They [Alice In Chains] definitely had a huge impact on us, what a fantastic band. Those harmonies are incredible, just haunting and perfect. Jerry Cantrell writes amazing riffs, they’re not super technical and yet it’s hard to make anything sound the way he does. Sometimes the technicality doesn’t have to be 32nd note picking, but rather just how a part is played. Some of the easiest stuff to learn can be the hardest stuff to replicate. His tone is very recognizable and heavy… they were a fantastic band back then and they still. They still put out all this amazing music.”

“Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand, quoted in **(December 13, 2019), Stone Sour's Josh Rand on how he changed from bass to guitar by accident and what's next for the band, publisher: Guitar World Bringing Jerry to the Gibson to family is a dream come true. He is one of the riff lord heroes that personally influenced and inspired me to play guitar. It’s a privilege to have such an icon become one of our ambassadors. He continues to shape sound in a way that is unique to his artistry. Together we will be a on quest to make music matter more than ever.”

“Cesar Gueikian, chief merchant officer at Gibson, quoted in **(January 17, 2020), NAMM 2020: Jerry Cantrell joins Gibson The band [Alice in Chains] and I have seen the world together, celebrated many successes and mourned too many losses — including two of the original members of this band, Layne Staley and Mike Starr. After the 2004 tsunami hit Southeast Asia, the three remaining members came back together for a benefit to help the survivors. Their performance reignited their passion and purpose to be Alice in Chains," she continued. In 2005, they invited William DuVall into the band and they toured tirelessly for the next three years while new music of reclamation and healing brewed inside them. Alice in Chains released Black Gives Way to Blue, their first full-length release since 1995's Alice in Chains and their first with DuVall on vocals, in 2009. When the record was finished, my then nine-year-old daughter Lily asked me, 'Mama, what does Black Gives Way to Blue mean?' I suggested we call her uncle Jerry [Cantrell]] and ask him. Jerry ever-so-patiently explained to Lily that sometimes there are very dark and challenging times in life and it may seem like things will never get better. But if you stay strong and keep moving forward and look out on the horizon, you'll start to see a little point of light way out there. And slowly, the black would give way to blue.”

“Susan Silver, ''Alice in Chains' manager, quoted at MoPOP Founders Award Tribute to Alice in Chains on December 1, 2020 while introducing her daughter Lily Cornell Silver. **(December 4, 2020), Lily Cornell Silver with Chris DeGarmo - "Black Gives Way To Blue"”