Has ALICE IN CHAINS' WILLIAM DUVALL Ever Felt LAYNE STALEY's Presence While Singing A Song?

In a recent interview with Madness To Creation, ALICE IN CHAINS frontman William DuVall was asked if he ever felt Layne Staley's presence or felt a loved one's presence when he performed a song. He responded: "This was a time before they decided to ever bring back ALICE IN CHAINS. There was a time when my band COMES WITH THE FALL, we were playing outside of Seattle at an outdoor thing. It could have been in 2001 or 2002, something like that. We were doing the song 'Down In A Hole'. Come to think of it, it was in 2002 at a time after Layne had passed. We were doing that song, and it was one of those times were something definitely came over us. And I was told afterwards by the drummer that it happened. We were told that during the song where the two-part harmony hits that a bird flew and stayed right in front of me for a length of time and then flew off and everybody saw it but me because I had my eyes closed when I was singing and everybody was freaked out by it. That would probably be one time where feeling that presence qualified."

Staley's well-publicized battles with drug addiction brought ALICE IN CHAINS' career to a virtual standstill in 1996, with his death seemingly putting an end to the band as well.

But ALICE IN CHAINS regrouped in 2006 with DuVall, who had been part of guitarist Jerry Cantrell's solo backing band.

Prior to joining ALICE IN CHAINS in 2006, DuVall was a member of punk rock bands AWARENESS VOID OF CHAOS, NEON CHRIST, BL'AST! and FINAL OFFERING. DuVall's long musical history also includes COMES WITH THE FALL.

Cantrell befriended the members of COMES WITH THE FALL in the early 2000s, playing shows with the band on the West Coast, then enlisting the musicians to tour with him as both opening act and backing group in support of his album "Degradation Trip".

DuVall appears on the last three ALICE IN CHAINS albums: 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue", 2013's "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" and 2018's "Rainier Fog".

DuVall will release his debut solo album, "One Alone", on October 4 via DVL Recordings. The disc was described in a press release as "a smoldering, all-acoustic affair — part late-night confessional, part living room concert."