ALICE IN CHAINS Guitarist: 'Some Camps Like To Rewrite Our History As If We Didn't Exist'

Dan Weiss of Noisey recently conducted an interview with ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Noisey: The new [ALICE IN CHAINS] album ["The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here"], in a weird way, seems like the most positive, optimistic album you've ever made.

Cantrell: It's funny, I've heard people take it both ways. There's a camp that sees it as a very dark record, and there's a camp that sees it as a very "up" record. I guess sonically it reaches a little further back to classic rock and there's some pop elements, and metal as well. All those elements reach a little further back in time. Lyrically… [laughs] it's as harsh as any record we've done. Lyrically, it's pretty dark. Sonically, it could be taken to be a more "up" record. But I think that's always been the trick with this band, even if the music is kind of soothing or sparse, the lyrics always bring things back to reality. I've said this a few times about our music, but it's like saying something horrible in the most beautiful way.

Noisey: Do you think you'll ever do another EP like "Sap" or "Jar Of Flies" again that's a departure from the harder-rocking albums?

Cantrell: It's something that we've done in the past, and of course, who knows what we're gonna do in the future? Over the last couple years I think we've all come to the conclusion that the best recipe is in the moment and to deal with what you're dealing with now. I'd never say we'd never do one but I think the last two records we've put out have elements of both those EPs, with acoustic guitar kind of blended in with the heavier elements. Maybe this one more than the last one, but there's some really nice moments on "Black Gives Way To Blue"… "When the Sun Rose Again", "Your Decision", on the last record. This record has maybe a couple more songs geared toward that vibe of the band. This one's pretty much an equal mix toward that side of the band, the EPs and the "Unplugged", but also the heavier stuff.

Noisey: What aspect of the band do you think doesn't get enough credit?

Cantrell: I don't know! As time goes by, the story seems to kind of change a little bit. We've been around for a long time, and we were part of a very significant moment in music, not just in our hometown, but around the world in the late '80s and '90s when music took a turn. And it meant a lot to us even just to do it. As for where we didn't get credit, I mean, we get a lot of credit. Some camps like to rewrite our history as if we didn't exist, or that we didn't come from the town that we came from somehow. I've seen a few things happen that way, that somehow we get bumped out of the story. At the end of the day, we're not doing this for someone else's interpretation of what our life was. I know how it went, I'm still living it, I'm still doing it, and I'm still adding to it. I'll think about that shit when I'm sitting on the porch unable to do anything else. Maybe I'll have had a little time to look back at it then. But like I was saying earlier, it's good to stay in the moment, think about the next few steps in front of you. I've been doing it more or less with my friends for the last 26 years and we're still on the journey, still in the process.

Read the entire interview from Noisey.