Grunge band Alice in Chains was fronted primarily by two talents: songwriter and occasional singer Jerry Cantrell and singer and occasional songwriter Layne Staley. Together, they were a two-headed monster that rose up through the ranks to become one of grunge music’s most successful bands.
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Sadly, Staley died young at just 34 years old in 2002. Since then, Cantrell has carried on the band, which released its most-recent album Rainier Fog in 2018 with new lead singer William DuVall. Yet, the partnership of Staley and Cantrell lives on in the band’s early hits and performances like their iconic MTV Unplugged session.
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Here below, we dive into four songs you likely didn’t know Staley and Cantrell wrote together for Alice in Chains.
“Sickman”
Written by Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley
This song, along with two others on this list, have to do with drug use. In the 1990s in the Pacific Northwest, where Alice in Chains originates, heroin use was rampant and many of Seattle’s biggest artists suffered from addiction. Principal among them was Staley, who died of a drug overdose on April 5, 2002. “Sickman,” from the group’s seminal 1992 album Dirt, has Staley singing over heavy guitars,
What the hell am I?
Thousand eyes, a fly
Lucky then I’d be
In one day deceased
Sickman, sickman, sickman
I can feel the wheel, but I can’t steer
When my thoughts become my biggest fear
Ah, what’s the difference, I’ll die
“Junkhead”
Written by Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley
Another track from Dirt, this song deals with the naive side of drug use. As Cantrell told RIP magazine in 1993, “Junkhead” is about the feeling that “drugs are great, sex is great, rock ‘n’ roll, yeah!” But then the realization of what price of all that behavior amounts to. On the song, Staley sings,
A good night, the best in a long time
A new friend turned me on to an old favorite
Nothing better than a dealer who’s high
Be high, convince them to buy, yeah
What’s my drug of choice?
Well, what have you got?
I don’t go broke
And I do it a lot
“Dirt”
Written by Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley
This title song from the 1992 album is as depraved as it gets. Staley sings about wanting to die and not deserving to live. In retrospect, many of the songs he and Cantrell wrote together seem like cries for help, despite the fact they were radio hits and beloved by hard-rock fans all over the world. Listening to them today, there’s something supremely sad about it all. Upon writing “Dirt,” Staley said it was about someone who “basically buried my ass.” So, he dedicated the track to that person (many fans believe the song is about his former fiancé Demri Parrott, who is said to have introduced him Staley to heroin). On it, Staley sings,
I want to taste dirty, a stinging pistol
In my mouth, on my tongue
I want you to scrape me from the walls
And go crazy like you’ve made me
“God Smack”
Written by Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley
Another about drugs, this song is a brutally honest song about wanting heroin and being unable to stop that feeling, no matter how negative, painful and bad it is. On “God Smack,” Staley sings,
What in God’s name have you done?
Stick your arm for some real fun
For the horse you’ve grown much fonder
Than for me that I don’t ponder
As the hair of one who bit you
Smiling, bite your own self too
Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images
