JERRY CANTRELL On Guitarists Who Influenced Him: 'I Think RANDY RHOADS Might Qualify As An Otherworldly Being'

During a new appearance on "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell was asked about some of the guitarists who influenced him over the years, either tonally or with their technique and musicianship. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, God. There's just too many to too many to single out. Tonally — tone's a really unusual thing, because you can line up 50 guys with the same guitar on the same amp and plug them in, and they're all gonna sound a little bit different. It's the relationship between the flesh and the wood and the metal, with the electricity running through it, and soul of the individual flowing through it. So it's so unique, and it's like a fingerprint — it really is. It's unique to them. And I grew up listening to Davey Johnstone and Lindsey Buckingham and the Young brothers and Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page. Billy Gibbons. I can go down the list. Ted Nugent. Tom Scholz, for that matter. I've taken a little piece from anything that inspires me or makes me feel good, or songs that I keep coming back to, or albums that I still love listening to. And so the dream then is the same as it is today. I wanna make something that makes somebody else feel — makes me and somebody else feel like that record made me feel when I was a kid, made me want to become a musician and make music myself. So it's hard to really boil it down to who maybe influenced me the most. There's standouts that are just like aliens to me. [Jimi] Hendrix was one. Eddie Van Halen is another. I think Randy Rhoads might qualify as an otherworldly being."

This past May, ALICE IN CHAINS canceled all of its previously announced concerts due to drummer Sean Kinney's health. The decision came after a previous gig was called off on May 8 because Kinney experienced medical complications.

ALICE IN CHAINS was scheduled to appear at a few festivals in May, including the MMRBQ in Camden, New Jersey, Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio and Welcome To Rockville in Daytona Beach, Florida. They had also lined up several other headlining shows, in Nashville, Tennessee and Dothan, Alabama.

Kinney had recovered enough in time to join his ALICE IN CHAINS bandmates at the final BLACK SABBATH/Ozzy Osbourne show on July 5 in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

In the last four years, Cantrell has released two solo albums, 2021's "Brighten" and 2024's "I Want Blood", and has toured extensively in support of both efforts, performing material spanning his solo career and ALICE IN CHAINS.

ALICE IN CHAINS regrouped in 2006 with singer William DuVall joining the band, and released its third LP with DuVall in the lineup, "Rainier Fog", in August 2018.

Prior to joining ALICE IN CHAINS, 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 and Cantrell's solo work.

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 the aforementioned "Rainier Fog".