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GW Back in 1991, Alice in Chains opened for Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer on the Clash of the Titans tour, and the crowds were incredibly hostile.

CANTRELL We took some serious abuse on that tour. When we played Red Rocks [in Denver, Colorado] it was like that movie Hero, with the arrows [raining down]. The sky was black.

HINDS What were they throwing?

CANTRELL Everything they fuckin’ could. There were coins and bottles. The thing that tripped me out the most was there was a gallon milk jug full of something and it crashed right into Sean [Kinney’s] drum kit. We started picking shit up and throwing it right back at them. They were spitting at us. We didn’t stop. We kept fuckin’ playing. We jumped the barricade, spitting back at ’em, kicking ’em. We did the whole fuckin’ set and walked off. And we were like, Jesus Christ, we gotta get the fuck out of here, they’re gonna kill us. We were waiting to get in the bus to leave, and there were a bunch of Slayer fans backstage that had passes, and they started walking toward us. And we were like, “We’re gonna get our fuckin’ asses kicked.” And they walked over and went, “Okay, man. You didn’t puss out. I guess you’re all right.”

I remember a gig in Scotland or Ireland in the early Nineties when we went over with Megadeth and the big rage was spitting.

MORENO Oh, that shit happened to us in South America.

CANTRELL Layne [Staley] got wind of this. He got himself a black hoodie, and he cinched that fucker down and sang the whole gig with the mic right up to his mouth. You couldn’t even see his face. Sure as shit, they started spitting as soon as we started playing, and by the time we were done playing his hoodie was covered with loogies. And the weird thing is they loved us.

CARPENTER The first time we went to Chile, we got coated in spit. We were like, Fuck it, bring it on.

MORENO I kept singing, and they didn’t stop the whole time. I was covered. But what sucked even worse than that was, I ran to the dressing room to turn on the shower, and creak…fuckin’ nothing. So I had to ride the whole way from the gig back the hotel covered in slime.

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