“Alice in Chains have had a long relationship with Ozzy, who gave us one of our first breaks – and gave us a bass player”: Jerry Cantrell on his lifelong love of Black Sabbath and touring with Ozzy Osbourne (before taking his bassist)

Judging by his cavernous riffs, it’s not hard to see that when it comes to guitar, for Jerry Cantrell, the apple doesn’t fall far from the Sabbath tree. It’s a fact, and Cantrell isn’t hiding it. “Those [Black Sabbath] albums and songs are timeless,” he says. “They spoke to me then; they speak to me today.”

Sabbath first entered Cantrell’s orbit when the burgeoning riff meister was a grammar-school student in Pennsylvania in the late ’70s. From the moment Cantrell took in the opening chords of Iron Man, he was hooked. So it must have been sweet when just over a decade later, in 1991, Cantrell’s band, Alice in Chains, supported Ozzy Osbourne on his first “farewell tour,” the No More Tours Tour.

“We’ve had a close relationship with Ozzy since then,” Cantrell says. So when Tom Morello called Cantrell to ask Alice in Chains to participate in Back to the Beginning, it was an easy “Yes.”

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“It’s an honor,” Cantrell says. “I just think it’s cool to be going back to their hometown and honoring the band, Ozzy and all of us who are fans and who have been influenced by them.”

How did you first get wind of the Back to the Beginning show?

“We got a call from Tom Morello, who is kind of handling this whole thing. He asked if we’d be into showing up to celebrate some Sabbath, and we were very happy to be included.”

What were your initial thoughts once you understood the scale of the show?

“First and foremost, I’m a huge Sabbath fan. Most of us rocker types would put Sabbath in the top tier of why we do what we do, and as our biggest influence. And we’ve [Alice in Chains] have had a long relationship with Ozzy, who took us out [on tour] in ’91, and gave us one of our first breaks – and gave us a bass player [Mike Inez]! [Laughs]”

What was it like touring with Ozzy?

“It was pretty cool to get that slot. We were just going to go out for a run, and then Ozzy asked us back for a few more. We hit it off with the band, obviously, Zakk [Wylde], Randy [Castillo] and Mike Inez. Ozzy was really cool to us and supportive. It was just a good vibe. We made a lot of lifelong friends, and having the opportunity to play on a big stage for one of your heroes is always a pretty big deal for a young artist.”

Can you remember the first time you heard Black Sabbath?

“I was probably in seventh or eighth grade. I was living in Pennsylvania, where my dad was stationed. I had a neighbor whose name I think was Dale, and he had a great stereo system. I used to always hear him rocking out next door, and I took to hanging out with him. He turned me on to Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd, which would have been 1978 or 1979.”

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Once you picked up guitar, how did Tony Iommi influence you?

“He’s one of the prime faces of the [guitar] Mount Rushmore, if you want to put it that way. And he’s one of the handful of guitar players that really impacted me with the riffs, intensity and the band that he was a part of.”

Sabbath’s music is simple, but it’s hard to replicate. What did Alice in Chains take away from it?

“The best music is pretty straightforward and simple. I mean, what are you trying to do? When you first have the crazy notion in your head to follow your dream and think, ‘I’d like to do that, too,’ [Sabbath] are the guys you look to. You emulate your heroes until, at some point, your own identity starts to shine through.

“The lesson is that you’re just trying to find yourself and hope that at some point you have some sort of impact, too. But those are really lofty ideas that I don’t really think are front of mind.”

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“First off, you just want to rock. [Laughs] You want to make your own rock that makes you feel like the rock of Black Sabbath, like, 'That’s badass, man,'you know? You want to create something that’s badass that has its own identity and flavor. We’ve been able to accomplish that, and that feels good.

“The lesson is to do what makes you feel happy and to create music you enjoy making. If you can satisfy yourself as an artist, and as a group, and throw something out there into the world, you’ve already won the game. Those are all the lessons and goals that we learned from listening to the bands that came before us, like Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi, one of my favorite guitar players.”

What’s a nuance of Tony’s playing that stands out, and do you have a favorite riff?

“The heaviness, the bends, the larger-than-life, doomy quality and the power of his guitar. I pretty much dig everything he’s ever done, so it’d be hard to pick out a riff. There are so many of them, but the first one I ever heard was Iron Man. That’s the one that struck me at the beginning.”

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Have you decided what Alice in Chains will play?

“We had a little meeting a few months back, but it’s still in motion and in flux. We’re going into it like all the other bands, and we’ll do whatever they want us to do. We threw out a bunch of songs that we liked, like Children of the Grave, Hand of Doom and Fairies Wear Boots. They asked us what we’d be interested in, and we picked four or five, but we still don’t have a final idea of what we’re going to play.”

What does it mean to you to not only be a part of this show, but to witness it?

“As a fan, it’s something you want to do. You want to be there, and it’s going to be very satisfying. As a musician who’s been doing this for decades and been in a band that’s gone through changes like Sabbath has, it’s a triumphant thing. They’re representative of what it takes to last for decades and to be sent out on your own terms. It’s worth celebrating.”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.