ALICE IN CHAINS Hasn't Commenced Work On Follow-Up To 'Rainier Fog': 'We Planned On Taking A Year Off'

During an appearance earlier today (Tuesday, December 1) on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney were asked about a possible follow-up to their "Rainier Fog" album, which came out in August 2018. Jerry said: "We actually planned on taking a year off. This thing that happened to us" — referring to the coronavirus pandemic — "all hit a window when we planned on being off. So we're just waiting to see how this pans out and plays out. Obviously, a lot of people are affected. We're pretty blessed and lucky where we are while we're all weathering this together. But, as you know, we're part of a community that relies on getting people together to work and have fun. So we're just seeing how this all plays out. And [we're] hopeful for the vaccines. And we don't wanna go back to work until it's safe to work, and I don't think anybody will. So I'm kind of thinking we're gonna be off again for about another year."

"We just kind of planned on taking a year off," Sean echoed Jerry's words. "Jerry had a solo thing he wanted to do. Will [singer William DuVall] was gonna go do his thing and was starting up on that. So it was kind of a plan to take this time off and people could go do whatever they wanted to do — do their own deal. And then this kind of shut those things down to a degree. So we haven't really had a discussion of if, when, where, what, why, but I would assume, probably… Like Jerry said, I don't think we're gonna magically be okay to go back and everybody get back to the life they had before within the next year. Maybe by this time next year, if there's enough vaccine.

"Our industry, as you know, is completely existent upon people having disposable income — a little extra dough to buy a ticket or something to go see something — and then cramming as many people as you can as close to each other into whatever-size venue you can fill with people," he added. "So it is the worst situation, probably, of anything."

Later tonight, ALICE IN CHAINS will be presented with this year's Museum Of Pop Culture (MoPOP) Founders Award. This one-night-only benefit will feature performances by ALICE IN CHAINS, as well as an acclaimed lineup of guest and youth musicians who will put their own twist on some of the band's most iconic songs. Set to appear are KORN, METALLICA, MASTODON, Billy Corgan, Dave Navarro and Krist Novoselic, among others.

Over the course of its remarkable career, ALICE IN CHAINS has garnered multiple Grammy nominations, sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, and amassed a diehard international fanbase whose members number in the millions. Their discography features some of the biggest and most important albums in rock history, including 1992's quadruple-platinum-certified "Dirt", 1994's triple-platinum-certified EP "Jar Of Flies", which was the first EP in music history to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and 1995's self-titled double-platinum-certified "Alice In Chains", which also entered the Billboard Top 200 at No. 1. They returned in grand style in 2009 with the critically acclaimed "Black Gives Way To Blue", which hit No. 1 across the rock and alternative charts, earned a Grammy nomination, was certified gold and hailed by Vice as "a record that's as powerful as anything the band has done." The band’s latest album released in 2018, "Rainier Fog", hit No. 1 across Billboard's Rock, Alternative and Hard Music charts and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock album chart and earned them a Grammy nod for "Best Rock Album." ALICE IN CHAINS remains one of the most successful and influential American rock bands of all time.