Kurt Cobain's Competition Stripe Mustang will be many people's idea of the quote/unquote most iconic electric guitar to emerge out of the early '90s Seattle scene – and the crazy money it sold for at auction would back that up.

But Jerry Cantrell's G&L Rampage with the Blue Dress graphic has to be in the conversation. It's been with him since the beginning. And in this installment of Cover Stars we revisit a Jan '96 Guitar World cover with the man himself to talk all things Rampage.

How’d you get this guitar?

I’d just graduated from high school, so I was 18. I was in a band, and we were about to go to college. I got the ultimatum from the family – get a job or go to school: “If you wanna live at the house, take your pick. Otherwise, get the fuck out.” [Laughs] I was like, “Maybe I’ll go to school.” I worked jobs, too, but I took school because I figured it would allow me more time to play guitar.

I made it through half a semester of college, and then my drummer was chirping in my ear about quitting school, taking a year off and going to Texas to try to take the band to the next level. [Laughs] He said his dad would give us jobs at an insulation company. So I quit college, and we were in a van a week later fucking driving to Dallas.

It was pretty short-lived. I worked for the insulation company for a whole summer before I fell in with some Texas boys and started jamming. I had this dark brown tobacco-colored Hamer V, but they had these G&Ls. The first time I picked one up, I fell in love.

What did you like about it?

It fell right into my hand. Their dad worked for a music store called Arnold & Morgan Music Company in Garland, Texas, and he gave me a job. That’s where they’d gotten these G&Ls. With my first paycheck, I bought the G&L with the “Blue Dress.” A couple of months later, I bought the “No War” one.

Did you modify your G&L?

Van Halen is one of my favorite bands, and Eddie was just a fucking alien. I was like, “How the fuck does this guy make his guitar sound like this?” It was inspiring on many levels, and he was also into tinkering. His guitar is called Frankenstein for a reason! [Laughs] Also, the artwork – the striped pattern – was a direct influence on me and the way my guitar looks with the circles and squares. I was trying to find my own pattern.

The strings always came off the Kahler because it was top-mounted. I felt like it needed a bit more tension, so I counter-sunk the Kahler down into the body a little, which added a bit more tension at the rolling bar.

It came with a shitty locking mechanism where the screws were made out of tin foil or something. [Laughs] Every time I changed the strings, I was replacing nuts because you’d strip them. So I put a Floyd Rose nut up top as that’s what Eddie had and counter-sunk the Kahler. I added a Seymour Duncan JB as my main pickup.

How did your G&L impact the way you played?

To some degree, you’re a mechanic. You use whatever tool you need for the job. Even if the G&L is my main guitar and is gonna be on most of the stuff and the one I feel most comfortable with, if I’m writing a song that sounds better on a Tele or a Strat or a V, I’m gonna use that. But then there’s the one you’re kinda known for. Angus [Young] plays a Gibson SG or Eddie’s got his guitar. The G&L is mine. It’s the one that felt right. It’s the one I’ve been playing the longest.

There’s something to miles traveled, time spent together and sweat, blood, tears and soul being transferred from the player into the guitar and from the guitar back to the player. Those two G&Ls – nothing sounds as good or feels as good or has the right weight that those two have. You put them side by side to others like them, and they should sound the same, but they don’t.

What makes them special?

There’s an individual personality to the wood, or maybe one guy was paying more attention at the shop that day. [Laughs] It could be any number of things that lined up to make that instrument what it is… It’s like cars on an assembly line. Every once in a while, there’s a special one – and I got two.

It goes without saying that your G&L is probably on nearly every notable album you’ve put out, right?

I’d have to say that probably 95 percent of anything you’ve ever heard from me has at least one of those G&Ls on it, if not both. [Laughs]

When it came time for your GW cover shoot in 1996, was there ever a question that you’d grab a G&L?

I’ve appeared on covers with other guitars that are important to me. But with the G&Ls, it’s the “Blue Dress” and the “No War.” Those, with my Les Paul, are my unholy trinity.

We know you still have your “Blue Dress” G&L, which appeared on the January 1996 cover, but you had a close call with it in April 2024.

I was freaking out for three or four days. We couldn’t track it down. It was a pre-album thing, and we were doing a video and a photo shoot and then going back for rehearsal, and shit was moving around, and I lost track of it. Thankfully, it was just misplaced.

The feeling of, you know, when I put the post out when I was in a panic, was like, “I’d rather be wrong and have a little egg on my face, so I’m gonna throw this out there to the world.”

I’ve had a guitar that meant a lot to me go missing, where I was lucky to get it back, and that was a goldtop Music Man that Ed [Van Halen] gave me. Alice In Chains were on tour with Van Halen, and I got two from him. One was a goldtop and was a trans blue where you could see the wood flame through the finish.

The goldtop went missing when I was making Degradation Trip [Jerry’s 2002 solo album]; I didn’t see it for 18 or 19 years. It disappeared, and it broke my heart because my fucking dude gave me that guitar. Luckily, it made its way back to me. When I thought that was what happened to the G&L, I was crushed for a couple of days.

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

It would be an understatement to say that Tyler Bates has kept himself busy. From pedalling ‘90s indie-rock with Pet to scoring some of the biggest films and TV shows of the last two decades, writing and performing with Jerry Cantrell, and reinventing Marilyn Manson twice, his career has been relentless.

But beneath the Hollywood glitz is a person deeply connected with the electric guitar; and with the launch of his new record label, Gravel and Echo, he’s closing another chapter of his life and starting anew.

“I did two albums back-to-back with Manson – I’m really proud of that work,” he says. “Our collaborations are always spirited, but I need to cleanse the pallet and get back to myself.”

So what does this next chapter entail, how important are guitars when scoring a Hollywood blockbuster, and why can’t he get away from one underdog amp?

Who were your first guitar heroes?

The first players I was able to play along with were Angus Young and Ace Frehely. Then I moved on to Alex Lifeson, Jeff Beck, and Eddie Van Halen. So I played fast, flashy shit when I was young.

In the ‘90s I changed my approach entirely. I gave all my guitars away that had tremolo systems on them because I’d abused the whammy so much. I needed to get back down to the essence of why I love guitar, and build out from there.

How prominent is the guitar in your scoring?

It’s always with me – even if I’m doing a score that has no guitar in it. The ideas are composed in my head, rather than looking for them, because of the volume of music I have to churn out. We’re talking thousands of minutes of produced music every year. There’s no time to sit around and exercise on your instrument.

Late at night is when I do my free association experimental work. It’s meditative for me; I get into looping and seeing what kind of interesting noise I can create. A lot of the ideas I’m ruminating on for film somehow course through the guitar subconsciously.

It expands my vocabulary because I’m trying to transcribe something from my work or mind, and it isn’t always natural to the guitar. I’m getting into strange spider-hand chord shapes.

When Tom Kapinos asked me to do Californication, he said, “If you do the show, all I ask is that you do it with a guitar in your hand.” I couldn’t say no to that!

You’re a Peavey Classic 50 loyalist. What’s the story?

In the early ‘90s, when I was playing clinics and NAMM shows, I met this guy who worked at Peavey. He offered me some stuff – and I was broke, so I really appreciated it. In Pet I found it was the only way to get a distorted sound with some chime on top.

Often I’d be playing two different guitar parts at once; one in the bass range with broken melodies on top. I’d split the signal with a modded Marshall stack, playing a Schecter Hellcat prototype.

But because the Peavey’s not super saturated, all the little artifacts and weird kinks that I want to pop out are there. It’s really well articulated when it’s not super-distorted. It’s on every Manson album I’ve done.

And it’s carried over into film work.

The Marshall didn’t serve the more ethereal guitar stuff, so I always had this amp by my side. There’s no time to experiment, but I found a way to explore the versatility of the amp.

I guess that’s where pedals come in?

I have drawers of pedals – I have around 30 fuzzes. It’s hard to resist. There are my go-tos that you hear in a lot of my stuff in the past decade, like the Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine. That’s almost becoming an appendage!

The Sunn O))) EQD Life pedal is a god box. If you really work it, it’s amazing for gothy guitar; but barely leaning into it gives edginess to cleaner guitar playing. I also have an original Soft Tech Big Muff II pedal. It’s unreal what you can get from that thing – the harmonics that you can create, especially on bass, are so sick. I probably buy at least one pedal a month, if not two or three!

How was it to play alongside Jerry Cantrell?

Our styles are very compatible; it’s uncanny. When he asked me to put his band together, I wasn’t thinking that I’d be soloing, but there were times I had to because Jerry was singing.

When I took the lead for Got Me Wrong – which is such a killer song – I was all about it. When we played for an audience, I played pretty damn close to the script. I didn’t divorce myself from his intentions, because his solos are very much composed, and they need to be expressed. I felt like, ‘I’m the guy that’s not Jerry, playing his shit right now.’

How was Reba Meyers as a guitar partner in Manson?

She’s got a pretty tough exterior, but she’s really cool and a very interesting, highly-intelligent human being. As a guitarist coming from hardcore, I love the chaos that she brings.

When the Manson thing started to materialize, I was thinking, ‘The two of us are going to fuck shit up!’ We bring something out in each other that’s in-your-face. We served the songs, but made them feel a bit more alive and immediate.

You’ve stuck with Marilyn Manson despite the allegations against him – did you ever have second thoughts?

There’s a complex answer to that question. For somebody like him to get sober, they need support. We need to support people getting better, getting healthier in our society. The last two records were completely recorded during the daylight hours, and he was sober. That’s insane.

But I had to do my homework. I’m not endorsing any behavior other than healthy behavior.

So your focus is on now, not then?

Manson is a formidable creative and he brings out the best in me. It’s complicated when you’re working with somebody and their history is challenging. If support groups are the only source of opportunity, friendship, and love for those recovering from addiction, our society will suffer.

It’s disingenuous to encourage people to seek help then abandon them when they’ve demonstrated a genuine commitment to changing themselves on both a personal and spiritual level.

You can’t unfuck what’s been fucked. But we can make a determination, like, “Hey, there’s value to this person, and if I can help bring out the positive aspect of who they are, then that’s healthy.”

At this point I’ve done over 100 movies and thousands of TV episodes. I don’t know how much I’d work if I vetted everybody based on the standards of the Pope – myself included.

What’s next for you?

The music I’m making right now, I’m creating a story in my mind, and the visuals are going to follow me. So it’s an interesting role reversal. It’s not a score and it’s not songs; it’s somewhere in between.

It’s very slow lead guitar playing, akin to David Gilmour. I love the feeling of the sound coursing through my fingers, my hands, and the guitar – you feel it resonating.

Back in April 2024, Jerry Cantrell thought that his beloved 1984 “Blue Dress” G&L Rampage – which has been used on almost everything he has ever recorded and defined the sound of grunge – had gone missing.

“I was freaking out for three or four days,” he shares in a new interview with Guitar World. “We couldn’t track it down. It was a pre-album thing, and we were doing a video and a photo shoot and then going back for rehearsal, and shit was moving around, and I lost track of it.”

Thankfully, the “Blue Dress” G&L was just misplaced, but Cantrell had previously experienced his fair share of missing guitar trauma after one of his prized possessions went missing for nearly 20 years.

“I’ve had a guitar that meant a lot to me go missing, where I was lucky to get it back, and that was a goldtop Music Man that Ed [Van Halen] gave me. Alice In Chains were on tour with Van Halen, and I got two from him,” he relates.

“One was a goldtop and was a trans blue where you could see the wood flame through the finish. The goldtop went missing when I was making Degradation Trip [Jerry’s 2002 solo album] I didn’t see it for 18 or 19 years. It disappeared, and it broke my heart because my fucking dude gave me that guitar.

As he had previously specified in another Guitar World interview, “Somebody lifted it out of the A&M studio,” but two decades later, a couple of dedicated Alice in Chains fans managed to track it down.

“[They] tried to do a sting on this kid who had it and was trying to sell it,” he continued. “He went dark on the first guy, who was from Florida. The second guy was a separate collector from San Diego. Between the two of them, it took about two weeks for me to get that guitar back… after 19 years!”

Therefore, losing the G&L, even for a mere few days, was, understandably, devastating. “When I thought that was what happened to the G&L, I was crushed for a couple of days,” he now admits.

Fortunately, the Rampage hadn't been stolen – it had just been misplaced.

For more from Jerry Cantrell, plus new interviews with Randy Bachman and Don Henley, pick up issue 604 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

In more recent news, the Alice in Chains guitarist recently looked back on the “walk-off home run” of Ozzy Osbourne’s final show.

Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell recently looked back on the first time he met Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell and his brother, Vinnie Paul – a day that will be forever marked in his memory due to what he describes as Dimebag’s “otherworldly” talents.

It was back in 1985 – right after Cantrell decided to quit college and move to Dallas to join a band with a couple of friends.

“We would work all day, and we just spent all night in the club – we would just watch bands,” he recalls of those heady days in an interview with Gibson.

“We worked about half the year in Dallas and half the year in Houston. In Houston, there was a smaller club called Cardi's. And I loved that place because they had great acts coming through there.

“I saw Yngwie Malmsteen with Talas opening up on Rising Force. I saw Pantera roll through there when they still had Terry [Glaze, former Pantera singer], before Phil [Anselmo, Pantera’s longtime lead vocalist] was in the band. That's how I met Dime and Vinnie – in ’85 at that club.”

Describing what he remembers from the formative experience, Cantrell says that he's a “fan of anybody who is a master of their instrument [but] I'm more a fan of people who are who just have an innate thing that is just unlike anybody else. And Dime is one of those guys.”

He describes how the two, who happened to be around the same age, hit it off “right away” – thanks to a spot of gear talk.

“After that show, going up to him and introducing myself and asking him about his amps and his tone, because he was just otherworldly,” he enthuses.

“And he's a huge Van Halen fan, and you could tell that by his playing. But he was also into heavier shit too, and that's why you got the kind of blend of what Dime was – but there's really nobody like him.”

He continues, “I started hearing about these guitar contests that he would enter every year in Texas, and he was the best guitarist for six years running. I think early on he just had talent, and he had an otherworldly thing, and he was just a great dude.”

In more Jerry Cantrell news, the Alice in Chains founder recently looked back on his involvement in Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning – or what he calls the “walk-off home run” of Ozzy Osbourne’s final show.

When Jerry Cantrell looks back on Black Sabbath icon Ozzy Osbourne’s final stand on stage, he’s all smiles. “It was nuts,” he tells Guitar World. “We paid tribute – we did our little part to honor the man and the band. I’m grateful to have been invited, but most importantly, to share in it and see it happen.”

Fans gathered in Birmingham on July 5 with the expectation of seeing Ozzy for the final time. His death 17 days later made it a certainty. And while Cantrell didn’t get to check in with the Prince of Darkness – who helped launch Alice in Chains by taking them on tour in the ’90s – the guitarist has no regrets.

“I was on the side of the stage, surrounded by all my friends who’d just played,” he says. “We watched the man and the band do their thing in their element one final time. It was fucking epic. That’s a fine final goodbye right there for me!”

Now Ozzy is gone, has Back to the Beginning taken on a greater meaning for you?

“It sure has. It’s important to keep in the moment in life, and that’s not always easy. Just to be around that energy of that show, the anticipation, and be like, ‘Fuck, this is really gonna happen,’ it was nuts.

“Standing on the side of the stage, we were all fans, and in the prime spot. It was like the biggest rock and roll high school reunion that never happened before; it’ll never happen again.”

It must have been a trip to watch Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E. Lee, Vernon Reid, Tom Morello and others share the stage.

“I had the same conversation with all those guys you’ve mentioned! We all talked to each other before we went on – Kirk [Hammett], Zakk [Wylde] and Slash.

“When Kirk rolled in he was like, ‘I’m fucking nervous, man!’ I was like, ‘I know, dude. I am, too. It’s not our shit I’m nervous about, it’s the fucking Sabbath song we’ve gotta play. I don’t wanna fuck it up!’

“There’s a certain element of rock ‘n’ roll being a young thing, you know? It helps keep you young; you have to keep yourself rooted there to have a proper, irreverent kind of magical mindset to make good rock ‘n’ roll.

“It takes you right back to being a kid in a garage with your buddies, taking a beer from your dad’s stash, maybe smoking a shitty dirt-weed joint, and trying to learn a Sabbath song. We all talked about that – it was just fucking cool.”

Did you get to spend any time with Ozzy?

“I could have if I’d stayed after the show, because he stayed and hung out with everybody. But I was at the tail end of six weeks of touring; I just wanted to go to bed and get on the plane. So I thought I’d already had the best experience.”

Alice in Chains took part in Ozzy’s No More Tours run in the ’90s, so you’ve got a long history. How will you remember him?

“I don’t think it can be overstated how intertwined he and Black Sabbath are with all of rock ’n’ roll. If there are dominant genes for heavy rock and metal, it’s fucking Sabbath. They’re on the Mount Rushmore – that’s fucking big.

“Of course, I was very sad when Ozzy died. But upon further reflection, if you think about it, for him to rally and work his ass off for a couple of years to to do that thing, it’s perfect.

“For Morello and Sharon Osbourne to organize all that, and to pull it off let alone have it be as cool as it was… not many artists get that sort of exit. Maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty fucking close. If you wanna talk about a walk-off home run, that’s what it was.”

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.”

“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.”

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.”

“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.”

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.

When Guitar World reaches the alternative metal icon – and founding guitarist of Alice in Chains – he’s been running the press gauntlet on a rare day off from his summer tour supporting U.K. rockers Bush.

This is Cantrell’s fourth call in as many hours, and while he’s more than willing to dig into the meat of I Want Blood – the guitarist’s sensationally snarling new solo album – he also notes that talking about himself for so long has worked up an appetite. In an admission befitting the record’s insatiable title, he says he’s ripping into a steak the second he wraps the interview.

Sure enough, there’s a ton of bite to I Want Blood, too. That much was clear once Cantrell unveiled first single Vilified, a brooding-but-teeth-bearing attack on social media pile-on culture and the rise of AI. Sonically, the bruiser is fueled by wah-and-talk-box-brawny riffage, a 7/4 metal-funk pre-chorus that conjures both Alice in Chains’ Dirt classic Them Bones, and the murky bang behind Cantrell’s earliest solo releases, 1998’s Boggy Depot and 2002’s Degradation Trip.

That patented gloom wasn’t entirely absent on his last record, 2021’s Brighten, but that eclectic outing also found Cantrell parting the clouds with moments of pedal-steel-blaring Southern pop-timism. In a sense, I Want Blood taps back into Cantrell’s primordially heavy essence, and it quickly turns into an all-out bloodletting.

“On this one I was pretty pure,” Cantrell says of an inherently viscous and vicious drive that pushed I Want Blood into “a much more aggressive lane,” following the relatively sunny days of Brighten.

“I love heavy music, and I love boiled down, minimal music… While I’m not intentionally trying to guide it that way, maybe psychically that’s an itch that needs to be scratched every once in a while.”

After concluding Brighten’s tour cycle in 2023, a scabrous writing period yielded Vilified, as well as the moody ’80s metal grandeur of Off the Rails, the grunge-groovy quarter-note bending Held Your Tongue and more. Though the songs were more sinister-sounding than anything on Brighten, Cantrell notes that his pre-production ritual at “Casa de Cantrell” remained unchanged.

“For any record I’ve been involved with – whether I’m with Alice or on my own – there’s three or four months of demoing shit in my house, with a friend of mine running all the gear so I can just play guitar,” he says.

“I’ve kept myself intentionally ignorant with recording gear, computers and Pro Tools so that I can have somebody fly that half of the plane while I’m doing all the other stuff. I like working in that way – in a tandem. I’m a team player. I’ve always been more comfortable working in that regard.”

Though Cantrell’s name is once again taking top billing, the guitarist graciously praises the crack team of musicians that helped him put together this latest release. This included the towering rhythm section of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin, who’d previously backed Cantrell on Degradation Trip.

Longtime friend Duff McKagan likewise added low-end. Brighten co-producer Tyler Bates returned to co-write Southern gothic stompout Echoes of Laughter. Joe Barresi, who’d previously worked on Alice in Chains’ Rainier Fog, manned the boards and lent out some crucial gear.

Better Lovers vocalist Greg Puciato, who has been singing with Cantrell off and on since 2019, and Lola Colette, who likewise handles keyboard and guitar duties in Cantrell’s live band, added backups on a handful of songs.

Flanked by his friends, Cantrell came into I Want Blood with a prizefighter’s confidence.

The title track, he says, is about “stepping into the middle of the ring” for an existential boxing match with the personification of Time. While he knows it’s a losing battle – for no one, Cantrell says, beats the “all-time champion” – the musician is still determined to fight tooth and nail, every step of the way.

Judging by Cantrell’s words on the just-as-uppercutting chorus to Vilified, no matter the outcome, he’s bound to put on “a hell of a show.”

Vilified has got some classic Jerry-sounding riffs to it – scary as hell; heavy, yet oddly funky. How did you go about building that one out?

“It’s a gasser, is what it is. [Laughs] And I mean that physically – trying to sing and play that at the same time is pretty rough. A lot of the material on this album is me trying to hit a mark above where I normally think I can operate, and Vilified is a prime example of that.

“It felt scary. I felt like my face was smashed against the ceiling of my ability. That’s a great place to operate from, though, because you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I can pull this off, but I’m going to try.’ And then when you come up with something like Vilified, it’s like, ‘Fuck yeah!’

“There’s a couple of songs off this record that are tough to pull off live. You talk about patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. [Laughs] It’s like thinking in a completely different rhythm to what’s going on musically. That’s always interesting. Thankfully – both in Alice and also in the band I reside in for this tour – there’s a lot of really talented people to lean on. It takes a team.”

Thematically, Vilified is taking stock of AI, simulacra, digital assimilation, data mining and this downward slide toward technocracy. Seems like you’ve got a skeptical view on things. What are your general thoughts on AI, as it seems to be getting more and more integrated into our lives?

“I put it in the song because there’s been a hysteria about AI lately. It’s interesting that everybody has jumped on that particular aspect of the song, though, because that’s not the meat of it. It’s the seasoning. AI is the pepper on the steak, but it’s not the steak. The song is very human, actually.

“Maybe it’s a call to be better to each other. I think at times there’s a rush for us to throw people under the bus, or to want to point the finger and say, ‘That’s a horrible person; you don’t get to play on the playground anymore.’ We all make mistakes. That’s how you evolve as a human being, by making mistakes and learning from them.

“I think at times there’s a bloodlust, where it feels like people are willing to round people up, put ’em up on a hill and start throwing rocks at them. That’s what that song speaks to. The AI element is that the time that we’re living in [exists around] the iPhone and social media; [it’s about] how connected we are because of that.”

Sticking with tech for a moment, there are AI engines that have studied the songwriting style of Jerry Cantrell, or the nuances of the vocal harmonies in Alice in Chains’ music. People can feed their own songs into an engine and then make it sound like you or Layne Staley are singing it back to them. There are Alice in Chains lyric generators. What do you think of all that?

“It’s a facsimile. I’ve had a couple of buddies show that to me, though. I think Greg [Puciato] did it to me once when we were at Rainbow Bar & Grill [in Los Angeles], having some pizza. My buddy [stylist/designer] Kelly Cole was also like, ‘Check this out – you can make an Alice in Chains song!’

“I was like, ‘I don’t think so.’ [Laughs] They would create a version of something through the engine, but then I’d listen to it, or I’d read the lyrics, and I would never fuckin’ write something like that. It kind of sounds like me… but not really.

“The thing about it is, AI’s a tool. You can use a hammer to bash somebody’s head in, or you can use it to build a house. It’s really up to the user. Although it requires a lot of machines to make music sometimes – like mixing boards, guitars, amplifiers, cables, effects, batteries, Pro Tools and AI – it takes a human to put the emotion and the feeling into a song. I just don’t think that can be replicated by a machine.”

What can you say, then, about the human drive behind something like this record’s Off the Rails, which has this minor key, classic ’80s metal feel to it. There’s a lot of gravitas to that pull-off intro.

“I hear my influences come out every time I make a record. On that song in particular, that opening riff takes me back to listening to Maiden and Priest when I was in junior high – I love both of those bands.

“And then when the power chords come in behind it, I hear AC/DC and Metallica. But throughout it all, I also hear me. It’s cool to be able to hear those [influences] poke their heads through there, while your [own musical] identity is still just as strong as those, if not stronger.”

There’s a line on Off the Rails where you’re singing about “heat distortion.” We’re taking this out of context, but this seems like a good spot to get into some of the gear on this record. What were you literally bringing the heat with in the studio, rig-wise?

“I’ll give you something that you didn’t ask for first. I was stuck with that particular section of lyrics for a while. You know, you’ll go through periods where you’re writing music and then you hit a wall. Like, you’ve got a good bunch of words [to start with], and then everything you come up with sounds stupid.

“Sometimes you need a palate cleanser, and a well-made film does that for me. On [Brighten’s] Siren Song, for instance, [2019 psychological horror film] The Lighthouse was that palate cleanser. The song is not about a lighthouse… but there is a mermaid character in it.

“And with Off the Rails, I was stuck – didn’t quite know where to finish it – so I went and saw Killers of the Flower Moon. There’s this scene where all of the workers are burning the fields, and they become distorted figures on the screen. That’s where I got ‘heat distortion’ from. Even though it has nothing to do with the film, specifically, Martin Scorsese broke me out of my writer’s block and I was able to get a second verse started.”

“But heat-wise on the record? I experiment with a lot of stuff. I’ve worked with a lot of great producers: Dave Jerden, Toby Wright, Nick Raskulinecz, Joe Barresi. They all have one thing in common: they’re fuckin’ weirdo, gearhead rock ’n’ roll fans.

“They know things like, ‘Keith Richards used this effect and that cab and this amp.’ I’m not as knowledgeable, so I hang out with guys like that so that when I mention a song they go, ‘I know what he used on that!’

“Actually, there’s a Stones song in another Scorsese movie, The Departed [Gimme Shelter], and Keith Richards uses an amazing tremolo effect on his guitar. I copped that. We found a 1958 DeArmond tremolo pedal, and I put it on Echoes of Laughter and maybe another song.”

“But in general, my gear remains the same. Guitar-wise you’re always going to hear 'Blue Dress' and 'No War,' my two O.G. G&L Rampages, and you’re going to hear 'D-Trip,' the Les Paul I’ve had forever. Those three guitars are pretty much on every record. And you know… whatever other paintbrush we wanted to use: Flying Vs, SGs, Les Paul Juniors, Teles, Strats.

“Amp-wise, I used the Friedman JJ [Junior], but we also really leaned on Bogners. The Bogner Fish is the main amp on this record. We also used some Snorklers. We also brought in some elements from my early recordings, from the [producer Dave] Jerden years.

“Joe was really taken by Jerden’s way of layering, and recording different guitar frequencies on different amps. Like, the high stuff would run through a Rockman module, and the mids would run through a Marshall modified by Bogner, and then [there would be] another layer with another Bogner.”

At the top of the spring there was a bit of a snafu with your 'Blue Dress' Rampage. It got lost somewhere around San Bernardino – presumed to have been stolen at one point. You put the call out to social media to help you find it, but quickly retracted that when you’d figured out it was just misplaced. What all happened there? Was that during the recording sessions?

“We weren’t in session, but I was doing some photo shoots for album artwork. As the guitar was being moved around, it got put in the wrong place for a few days.

“The reason I acted the way I did was because a guitar that Eddie Van Halen gave me [went missing] for 18 years. I had a very personal guitar [a 1992 goldtop Ernie Ball EVH] stolen from me during the making of Degradation Trip that somehow walked out the front door of Henson Studios. I was lucky enough to get that back.

“So, I guess that’s why I was so quick to throw the call out there, just in case ‘Blue Dress’ was missing. Very happy to say I cried wolf, and that I was mistaken. More importantly, I was appreciative that so many people rallied around me.

“So many of my brethren and sisters have had really important guitars stolen or disappear. We rarely get them back. Luckily this one was just misplaced for a couple of days. I get to make another record on it. It’s on tour with me right now, and I’m rockin’ it as we speak.”

There’s obviously a panic that sets in when you think a guitar is gone for good. Did you play anything in particular once you had it back in your arms, to settle your nerves?

“I was done recording at that point, so I was probably running rehearsals for this tour. But yeah… I bought that guitar in Dallas in 1985, when I was 19 and working at a music store called Arnold & Morgan Music Company; I bought ‘No War’ a few months after that. I had both of those guitars while I was living out there and jammin’ with bands, right after high school. I’ve had those guitars for 39 years. They’re like a part of me, you know?”

You’re also playing bass guitar on a few songs from this record. What are the nuances of your rhythm style, compared to Robert Trujillo or Duff McKagan?

“I am a guitar player playing bass, and those guys are bass players. [Laughs] I can come up with cool bass riffs, and for certain songs I have a unique feel that maybe they wouldn’t come up with.

“Like on Brighten, for instance, there were a couple of times where Duff and I would Frankenstein a bass part together, because he liked a couple of things I did, but was like, ‘I can’t replicate that.’ It was kind of cool being produced by him, to become a better bass player through Duff McKagan – and Robert, too! Duff and I Frankenstein-ed a couple songs on this one, too, like Afterglow.

“I enjoy playing bass. I come from the kind of Mark Evans and Cliff Williams, AC/DC-fuckin’ straight simple bass. That’s my style – nice, solid and basic. I might throw a riff at you once in a while, but it’s all in service to the song.”

Thinking of some unique feels within I Want Blood, one of the wilder swings on the record is Throw Me a Line, which has this heavy, almost rocksteady hypnotism to it. It’s a different groove, compared to the rest of the album.

“The best part of that song is when that main riff comes back. The chorus is good, the B part is good, and the solo section is cool, but the highlight is when it comes back to that intro riff. It’s just relentless.

“I hear some Billy Gibbons in there. I hear some Tony Iommi in there. And I hear me, too. It’s a really fun song to play, but even though that groove sounds very simple, it’s tricky to sing that vocal line across that rhythm. I’m still working on that one.”

Texturally, there’s a lot of talk box going on in this song – and, actually, maybe through most of Vilified, too?

“There is a lot of Cry Baby and talk box on this record. We went heavy with those. We used two different kinds of talk boxes on Vilified and Throw Me a Line. One is the Dunlop that I’ve been using forever, which is just the box on the floor and the tube coming up to the mic. But while we were messing around with talk boxes one day, Joe showed me a clip of Jeff Beck with a Kustom ‘The Bag’ on.

“It’s much smaller – like a bag that hangs over your shoulder, with a much smaller straw and a wood bead for you to hold onto with your teeth. It was a different feel, but it was so fucking expressive! I had never seen that clip of Jeff Beck before, and then Joe was like, ‘I’ve got one of these, man. We should try this!’ So he whipped that thing out. I believe the Bag is what you’re hearing on Vilified and Throw Me a Line.”

When it comes to solos on this record, you’re really leaning into that dark, bluesy vibrato on Echoes of Laughter. What do you recall about putting that song together?

“That’s a song that Tyler [Bates] and I wrote together; it’s actually the one co-write on the album. Tyler’s always a strong sounding board for me. I trust his opinion. Even if we’re not actively writing a song together, I like to run things by him.

“He’ll give me ideas on where to go with arrangements. We operate in a similar space – we like dark, atmospheric, cinematic rock ’n’ roll. But we had also done Brighten together, and we of course toured together, too.

“I’d heard him play that main guitar figure a number of times. You sit down and jam, and sometimes you drift back to a favorite riff that you haven’t developed into anything yet. He was playing guitar with me one day and I was like, 'That thing wants to be a song! Why don’t we make something out of this, because you’ve been playing it for two years now.' [Laughs]

“So, it was me, him, and Maxwell Urasky, the engineer on the demo sessions for this record. I just kind of blurted out one of the lines off the top of my head, just as a placeholder, but it ended up being a great chorus, word-for-word. [Bates] kept trying to pass the guitar off, like, 'Here, you put something in there,” but I was like, 'Fuck it, dude, you’re doing great. Keep going!’

“I added a few elements, musically, but basically Tyler wrote the music for that song, and I wrote the vocal. It was a great collaboration with my friend. He also helped me through the process of bringing Brighten into the world. Even though he wasn’t as available, because he had other projects and commitments, he was definitely a guiding force on this record, too.”

Is there any push and pull in your mind between what could make a good Jerry Cantrell solo riff and what might end up as an Alice in Chains song?

“I think the only difference that really exists is the obvious one: if I’m with Alice and we’re recording it, then it’s an Alice tune. If I’m not with them, then it’s not. Alice in Chains is a really versatile band. It was important to us to have as much diversity as we could early on [to see] what people would accept from us.

“We took a few gambles between Facelift and Sap, and then between Dirt and Jar of Flies. You couldn’t get more different – going from heavy, to acoustic, to even heavier, and then another fuckin’ weird, ethereal kind of acoustic EP.

“We opened the playing field for ourselves so that we could go anywhere… we earned that for ourselves. But you know… it’s really just that: if we’re together recording songs, it becomes an Alice song. Doing songs with some other folks that maybe has elements of what I do with Alice? I carry that with me, but it’s not an Alice thing.”

It’s been a few years since Alice in Chains put out Rainier Fog. We’re here to talk about I Want Blood, but, respectfully, have you been working on any music with the band behind the scenes?

“I’m just at the very beginning of the campaign for this record, so right now I’m committed to doing this. I began writing for this record last year, and I recorded the album this year. I’m already on tour for it. I’ll probably wrap this thing up sometime next fall. That’ll be the end of the campaign, but that’s a long way to go. So, right now this is where I’m at – I want blood, man!”

• I Want Blood is out now via Double J.

Alice in Chain's founder, lead guitarist, main songwriter, and co-lead vocalist Jerry Cantrell has etched his name in the rock history books as an integral part of the hugely influential '90s grunge guitar sound. However, as an aspiring artist cutting his teeth in Seattle, Cantrell sought every way possible to make a mark – including attempting to hand over an Alice in Chains demo tape to a certain classic rock band, back in 1988.

“Like all young artists, sometimes you run into somebody that's one of your heroes and, you know, pass them on your demo tape or whatever,” he explains on the Broken Record podcast.

“I lived right behind the Seattle Center, and that's where they [Guns N' Roses] were playing. So, I handed it to his [Axl Rose's] security guard, and his security guard threw it away as they were walking, so it wasn't Axl's fault.”

Fast forward to Cantrell actually making it with Alice in Chains, and he eventually got to know the Guns N' Roses members personally. Naturally, he relayed this anecdote from these early days…

“Now, I told Axl that story too, and we laughed about that as well!” he concludes.

Years later, in a true full circle moment, Alice in Chains would go on to tour with the classic rock greats as the openers of their 2016 reunion tour.

In other Jerry Cantrell news, the guitarist recently opened up about temporarily losing his trusty G&L 'Blue Dress' Rampage – the guitar behind practically every key Alice in Chains record – last year.

Last year, Jerry Cantrell flexed his riff-writing chops once again with his latest solo album, I Want Blood – and, for two of those tracks, it turns out he was inspired by Jeff Beck to use an oddball piece of rare gear.

To no surprise, the record’s tones are exquisite, with the Alice In Chains icon's trusty G&L Rampage electric guitar playing a key role. However, beneath the riffs are some weird and wonderful textures at play. For those, Cantrell dug out some old faithfuls, as well as some new favorites.

“There is a lot of Cry Baby and talk box on this record,” he tells Guitar World. “We went heavy with those. We used two different kinds of talk boxes on Vilified and Throw Me a Line. One is the Dunlop that I’ve been using forever, which is just the box on the floor and the tube coming up to the mic.”

The album was recorded at JHOC Studio in Pasadena, California, and a search for more textural goodness saw Cantrell and co-producer Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins) turn to some old clips for inspiration.

“While we were messing around with talk boxes one day, Joe showed me a clip of Jeff Beck with a Kustom The Bag on,” Cantrell continues.

Released in the late 1960s and brought to the stage by Peter Frampton and Steppenwolf's John Kay, The Bag looks like a weird cross between a bagpipe and a talk box. It’s slung over a player’s shoulder with a tube running from a bag to he player’s mouth for wah/talk box tones. Not many were made.

Jeff Beck most notably used it on the Blow by Blow record on the track She's A Woman. The below clip was possibly the one that captured Cantrell’s imagination so vividly.

“It was a different feel, but it was so fucking expressive,” Cantrell says of the clip he say. “I had never seen that clip of Jeff Beck before, and then Joe was like, ‘I’ve got one of these, man. We should try this!’ So he whipped that thing out. I believe The Bag is what you’re hearing on Vilified and Throw Me a Line.”

The record has, understandably, been warmly received by fans, with Cantrell declaring it to be “some of my best songwriting and playing.”

Bass duties are spearheaded by a heavyweight one-two of Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses) and Robert Trujillo (Metallica), while Faith No More’s Mike Bordin also features on drums. That essentially saw the Cantrell/Trujillo/Bordin line-up behind 2002’s powerhouse double album Degradation Trip re-unite.

Cantrell had caused a minor stir last year when he declared that his iconic G&L Rampage Blue Dress guitar had been stolen, only to find out it had just been misplaced. It may have seemed an overreaction, but he’s now offered more context to his panic, revealing he once lost an electric guitar that Eddie Van Halen had gifted him nearly two decades over.

He’s also spoken out against amp modelers and has admitted that tracking solos are usually expletive-filled affairs for him.

Jerry Cantrell has opened up about the relief he felt after he lost his beloved ‘Blue Dress’ G&L Rampage in April 2024, only to find it turned up safe and sound, having been misplaced.

At the time, the blue lights were officially flashing in search of the ‘Blue Dress’ and G&L said it was on standby ready to build Cantrell a replica – having previously released a signature guitar based on the Rampage.

The Alice In Chains guitarist even offered the promise of a reward for anyone who could secure its safe return. Fast-forward 24 hours, though, and the Rampage was recovered, as a sheepish but mightily relieved Cantrell thanked everyone for their interest, acknowledging it had been misplaced, not stolen.

Now, speaking to Guitar World, Cantrell explained he has no regrets that he “cried wolf” because he had seen this movie before.

In 2002, while recording Degradation Trip, his 1992 goldtop Ernie Ball Music Man EVH that was a personal gift from Eddie Van Halen was stolen, and it took the best part of 20 years to get it back.

“The reason I acted the way I did was because a guitar that Eddie Van Halen gave me [went missing] for 18 years,” said Cantrell.

“I had a very personal guitar [a 1992 goldtop Ernie Ball EVH] stolen from me during the making of Degradation Trip that somehow walked out the front door of Henson Studios. I was lucky enough to get that back.

“So, I guess that’s why I was so quick to throw the call out there, just in case ‘Blue Dress’ was missing. Very happy to say I cried wolf, and that I was mistaken.”

Cantrell’s ‘Blue Dress’ G&L Rampage – serial #: G016467 – is one of the most important guitars in grunge history. It has been on every Alice in Chains record and, indeed, almost everything Cantrell has ever recorded. Prior to its disappearance last year, the Kahler-equipped Strat-style guitar had been on display at Seattle’s MoPOP Museum.

“I bought that guitar in Dallas in 1985, when I was 19 and working at a music store called Arnold & Morgan Music Company; I bought ‘No War’ a few months after that,” he says. “I had both of those guitars while I was living out there and jammin’ with bands, right after high school. I’ve had those guitars for 39 years. They’re like a part of me, you know?”

Cantrell says he was taken aback by the response to his missing Rampage and he knows many of his friends have not been so lucky.

“So many of my brethren and sisters have had really important guitars stolen or disappear,” he says. “We rarely get them back. Luckily this one was just misplaced for a couple of days. I get to make another record on it. It’s on tour with me right now, and I’m rockin’ it as we speak.”

Getting a stolen guitar back is easier said than done. The first job is finding it. Even if you’ve got a fanbase on the hunt for it these things take time. That Eddie Van Halen guitar was lost in the wind before some Alice In Chains fans did some Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew-style sleuthing and intervened.

“A couple of AIC fans and collectors tracked it down and tried to do a sting on this kid who had it and was trying to sell it,” said Cantrell, speaking to Guitar World in 2021.

“He went dark on the first guy, who was from Florida. The second guy was a separate collector from San Diego. Between the two of them, it took about two weeks for me to get that guitar back… after 19 years!”

What is it?

How far does £99 get you when it comes to adding a tailored distortion to your pedalboard? You might be surprised to find out that the answer can be ‘further than you think’.

In the last few years, pedal prices and options have shot up, and now to get something outside of the mainstream Big Brand catalogues can be a costly exercise. But, that’s where Funny Little Boxes comes in.

The company started in 2020 as a retailer, but a year later, founder Andy Ilgunas picked up the gauntlet laid down by Let’s Play All Guitar’s Matt Webster to create an overdrive pedal based on the guitar tones from Pearl Jam’s Ten album, resulting in the Funny Little Boxes 1991.

It worked, and worked very well. Since then, we’ve been impressed by FLB’s pursuit of QOTSA’s guitar tones with the Skeleton Key, and now with the release of the Dirt pedal, it’s got its eyes fixed on another alternative guitar hero from the ’90s: Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell.

Now, it’s arguable that listening to Alice in Chains might leave you with a question: what exactly is the Jerry Cantrell guitar tone? To me, it’s a mix of modulated clean sounds, bluesy crunch and, at times, borderline metal tones. Just as with the 1991 and Skeleton Key, the Dirt doesn’t aim to create a carbon copy of any one sound in particular, instead delivering the essence of AiC’s guitar sounds as a cross section.

That said, Cantrell and the band worked with producer Dave Jerden on Dirt, and depending on who you listen to –– and when they said it –– recollections of what gear was used to forge the overall guitar sound from both Cantrell and Jerden vary to include a mix of amps from Randall, Bogner, Marshall, Mesa/Boogie and even the infamous Rockman amp.

What is clear, though, is that Jerry’s sound on Dirt was built on the concept of blending multiple amps together for each part, using the tonal qualities of each to highlight bass, mid and treble frequencies by balancing the faders for each, with a lot of double-tracking too.

So, what we’re looking for from the Dirt is a gain provider that can cover the more vintage/semi-clean side of AiC’s output, along with the more metal-leaning high gain sounds.

Similarly, Funny Little Boxes also acknowledges that the Dirt pedal lends itself to plenty of other tones from that era including Tool, Smashing Pumpkins and RATM, are we dealing with a jack-of-all-trades?

Specs

Launch price: $99/£99
Type: Distortion
Controls: Dirt (gain), Output, Bass, Middle, Treble
Features: Alice in Chains-inspired distortion in a box
Connectivity: Input, output, power
Bypass: True bypass
Power: 9-volt, 11 mA
Dimensions: 6.5x4x12.5 mm
Weight: 10.68oz/303g
Options: N/A
Contact Funny Little Boxes

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

The Dirt comes built into a regular die-cast aluminium enclosure/project box and is powder-coated in an orange/red hue which looks a bit like a DS-1 with the heat turned up.

The surface is textured, with the finish applied evenly, and on the underside of the pedal are four screws to gain access to the inside. It’s unlikely you’ll need to do this, though, as the Dirt runs on a PSU only, so if you’re a fan of outfitting your pedals with 9-volt PP3s (and given the abundance of pedalboard power supplies available, it’s worth investing), you’re going to need to find another way to power it.

All of the sockets and nuts are metal, which feel sturdy and inspire confidence over some affordable pedals which use plastic-barrelled jacks and fixings, and the control knobs are attached using brass screws in order to avoid them popping off easily.

A quick peek inside reveals a neatly-made PCB, complete with the Easter egg “Into the flood again” from Alice in Chains’ Would? screened onto the board.

As well as this, there’s the FLB and Let’s Play All and Dirt logos along with credits for ‘Tone Consultant’ (LPA’s Matt Webster), PCB design (Soundlad Liverpool’s Marc Dunberry) and a nod to John Stewart who designed the tasteful Dirt graphic printed on the control face of the pedal. One of the screws took a little more care to connect to the thread, but it did reconnect smoothly.

Overall, it spans the more bespoke feel you get from a more boutique pedal and the quality we’d hope for from a mass-produced stomper.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★½

As you can see, the layout of the Dirt is quite simple: there’s a Dirt (gain) control, master volume, three-band EQ and a switch for engaging/bypassing the pedal. With top-mounted sockets, powering and routing within a pedalboard is convenient, and a simple LED lets you know whether the pedal is on or off.

The Volume pot is a logarithmic (audio) taper, so there’s a smooth, more subtle run-up to unity gain at around the 2 o’clock position, beyond which the curve becomes steeper for the rest of the control’s travel.

It’s all quite self-explanatory, but if you’re looking for setting suggestions, Matt Webster from Let’s Play All has created a video with heaps of AiC-inspired tone settings for the Dirt, as well as some non-AiC sounds which is definitely worth checking out above.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★★½

Between his single-pickup G&L Rampage and Gibson Les Paul Custom, the lion’s share of Cantrell’s sounds are built on humbuckers. Armed with an HSS-loaded Strat and Les Paul Standard, I set about getting my bearings with the Dirt.

Plugged into the clean channel of a valve amp, the Dirt’s starting point with the gain at minimum begins with a crunchy overdrive. At the other extreme, you might be expecting super-saturation, but the Dirt’s gain range maxes out at a heavy rock distortion. Further proof that heavy guitar sounds aren’t solely based on an excessive blanket of gain.

With the clipping restored to its minimum and the output at unity, experimenting with the tone controls yields some interesting results. First is that the bass control is relatively subtle. Don’t expect huge low end from this pedal, if anything, cutting the control has the biggest effect, working more like a studio-style high-pass filter to remove mud rather than imparting heaps of bass into the mix.

The treble control adds a layer of bite into the sound that remains nice and smooth for all but the most extreme settings, but the biggest surprise comes from the mid control. There’s a lot of mileage here, with a parametric-style ‘swoosh’ as we turn the control; when cut you can achieve a pretty heavy scoop that works nicely for the ’90s-style tones. But equally impressive is the breadth of frequencies present when boosting too.

Often, midrange controls on gain pedals can turn boxy and almost ‘radio’ effect-like at their higher settings. While the Dirt will do this, the boosted mid sounds lend some nice attack and harmonics into the sound that does a great job of –– sorry ’90s fanatics! –– going after some hot-rodded ’70s and ’80s sounds.

The EQ section all feels very interactive, particularly between the mid and treble controls, where there seems to be some overlap, so it’s definitely worth getting stuck-in.

With the gain pumped up, the Dirt does a great job of maintaining its dynamics. Pick attack remains strong and note separation is still present, making it work for beefy drop-D chord chugs alongside arpeggiated riffs alike.

I rattled my way through some of LPA’s suggested settings and the Dirt delivered. Swapping to the Strat’s single coils and pairing some chorus at lighter gain settings is a lot of fun too. It’s here that the Dirt displays its versatility, and it’s hard to argue with Funny Little Boxes’ claims. Grunge fans won’t be disappointed.

Verdict

Funny Little Boxes and Let’s Play All’s collaborations trigger the ‘collector’ part of the brain. If you grew-up in an era of physical music, and more specifically, the golden age of the ’90s, there’s every chance you’re going to want to buy the Dirt along with the two previous pedals for completism.

But, where the Skeleton Key goes after a very pointed tonal flavour, it’s arguable that the Dirt is the least tailored of the trio. It does everything it sets out to do, but does beg the question: is the allure of Cantrell’s playing in the sounds or his style? I’d argue it’s a combination of both.

Slow, lawnmower bends, discordant arpeggios, drop-D tuning and fantastic lead hooks peppered with odd timings are all part of the recipe. But throw them at the Dirt, and you’re rewarded with authenticity.

It’s pitched just right (arguably too low) price-wise, too, making it a versatile all-rounder within its fairly wide target wheelhouse. Get the tones without shelling out them bones and you’ll be onto a winner.

Guitar World verdict: While the Dirt perfectly apes Jerry Cantrell's guitar sounds, it also does a great job at plenty of other bands from the era. For the price, it's excellent value, nailing the brief and delivering a wider scope than the name suggests. You'll need a PSU to power it, but hey, it's 2025.

Also try

Hands-on videos

Funny Little Boxes

• Funny little Boxes 1991 Overdrive review

Jerry Cantrell took part in a fan Q&A in the newest issue of Metal Hammer, during which he teased the possibility of a high-profile collaboration with another big-name player in heavy music: James Hetfield.

The Alice in Chains electric guitar star is no stranger to impromptu partnerships, and over the years has sporadically joined forces with Metallica specifically for a suite of collaborations.

In 1998, he featured on Metallica’s take on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Tuesday’s Gone, which dropped as part of the band’s Garage Inc cover album, and on stage he’s linked up with Hetfield and co at a number of benefit concerts.

And, when quizzed over whether he and Hetfield would revive their partnership any time soon – be that for a one-off single or a fully fledged album – Cantrell refused to rule it out, revealing the pair have already been jamming together and discussed it... sort of.

“James and I have talked about it, kind of,” Cantrell responds. “We never had a formal conversation but I’ve jammed with him at Kirk [Hammett, Metallica guitarist]’s place.

“I’ve even spent a night or two at his house, and we’ve ended up with guitars in the kitchen and on the porch. It’s something I’d be really curious about, even to just write a song with him.

“As for whether it’d turn into something more than that, he’s got a pretty demanding day job. Ha ha! So I’d understand if it never comes to be.”

That doesn’t sound like a definitive ‘no’ to our ears, but unfortunately it’s still a far cry from an official confirmation of a future team-up.

Nevertheless, Cantrell’s enthusiasm is quite clearly there, and such enthusiasm is further bolstered by the fact the grunge hero has previously gone on record to voice his admiration for the Metallica frontman.

In fact, in a separate interview with Metal Hammer from 2020, Cantrell named Hetfield the greatest frontman in metal.

“As a guitarist, I come from the Malcolm Young school of rock, which is about rhythm and songwriting,” he said. “If you talk to anybody, I’m not really known as a virtuoso soloist. Where it’s at for me is rhythm, tone, feel and arrangement. I think James comes from that school too.

“What makes James such a great frontman is his physical presence. Nobody else commands the same kind of respect and attention without it being self-seeking or egocentric.

“Will he go down in history as a rock icon? He already has – he’s the godfather, man.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the new issue of Metal Hammer.

Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr. is a master storyteller. If you’ve listened to any of his recordings with Alice In Chains or as a solo artist, you’ll know he has a panache for getting to the heart of the emotion behind the music, embedding the listener deep within the sonic world he’s created.

The pictures he paints using his guitar and voice feel inexplicably vivid, attacking the human senses from all mediums, with melodies and harmonies you can almost touch, see and taste.

In the early ’90s, Cantrell’s powerful chemistry with singer Layne Staley made Alice In Chains one of the most influential bands in an era when Seattle was the crucible of alternative rock.

There was an intense emotional darkness in their music – not only in heavy, riff-driven songs such as Man In The Box, We Die Young, Would? and Rooster from the albums Facelift and Dirt – but also in the beautiful acoustic tracks laid down on the EPs Sap and Jar Of Flies.

But even without Staley, who died in 2002, Cantrell has steered Alice In Chains through a second phase with frontman William DuVall alongside the classic-era rhythm section of bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney on three acclaimed studio albums.

And while the band has kept Cantrell busy since 2005, recent years have seen him working again as a solo artist. His 2021 album Brighten was his first solo release in almost two decades since 2002’s Degradation Trip.

And now comes I Want Blood, a more up-tempo and hard-hitting record than the acoustic-focused Brighten. It proves that Jerry Cantrell’s creative remit is one that’s unusually broad for an artist working within the confines of rock. The sky really is the limit for this guitar hero…

This album has more distorted electric guitars and less acoustics that your last one. What made you want to take off the cowboy hat and get heavy?

“The last one probably had some country tinges, but if you were expecting another one of those, well, I just did that! If you look at my discography and listen to what came before what followed, the next one usually doesn’t match the last. That’s what I find fun. I don’t know where it’s going when I start.

“The cool thing for me is we covered a lot of ground early on in Alice In Chains. People got used to us doing face-melting f*ckin’ metal stuff to acoustic things like Sap or Jar Of Flies. We cut a pretty wide field for us to play on early on and that’s something I always do, whether it’s with Alice or not. I like to explore all the space.”

It’s interesting what happens when you submit and go with the flow.

“Yeah! I don’t sit down and think I’m going to write a heavy or acoustic record. I just get the urge to take the journey and create something. That’s part of the fun. You’re operating in the dark. I don’t have a light... alright, maybe a little flame in front of my face, but that’s it. I look to create things that don’t exist, making something out of nothing.

“It’s always interesting to see where I end up. I like the heavy stuff as well as spacious, acoustic ideas and everything in between. I’m very proud of this record, it’s got some ferocity and teeth to it. I’m glad it’s nothing like the last one!”

The lead track, Vilified, has some atmospheric harmonised leads rather than full-blown shredding. Your solos always make a point, serving the song first and foremost.

“I make do with what I can do. As you correctly stated, I am not a shredder. I wish I could shred, but I kind of gave up that conquest years ago! I always treat my solos like a scene change. I try to make them singable. Those seem to be the solos that have the longest lasting impact with me as a fan.

“I like the melodic, cool things that have more vibe than technical prowess. Sure, I can play, but there are plenty of guys out there who could smoke me technically. I do what I do, and would like to think I do it well. And yeah, with every record, it’s interesting to see what I can achieve through harmonies.

“I’m such a huge fan of guitar duos. I hear Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing. I hear the Schenker brothers. I hear Kirk and James from Metallica. I hear Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. I love Thin Lizzy, what can I say? Those elements are always in me.”

The lyrics to Vilified discuss the topic of A.I. – which begs the question, have you ever plugged your guitar into your laptop or amp modeler?

“I look at them as tools, but I prefer old analogue tube amps. When I record, that’s pretty much what I use. I have used a Fractal, Kemper or plug-in in the past, just for little parts to create an effecty-type thing.

“But in the demo process, I’m almost exclusively playing through my Kemper. I’ve got every amp I’ve ever played through, plus everyone else’s loaded into that thing, including bass amps. It’s a great tool for not having to carry a bunch of gear around.

“My studio is very spartan and lo-fi. It’s just a little Pro Tools rig and a Kemper with some guitars and basses on the walls. I will usually do the basses through a Sans Amp direct. That’s the demo process. When I get to the real recording, I start whipping out the tube amps, analogue effects and all that stuff.”

A lot of players use digital gear to make touring easier, too. Have you ever tried that?

“I’m reluctant to use digital gear live, but a lot of compatriots think that the technology is getting better. I understand that moving heads and cabs around internationally comes at an astronomical price. A lot of my peers have turned to Fractals as a smaller and inexpensive way to get close to their sound. I have looked at that but I’m not there yet.

“I’ve done a few gigs outside of the US with those things and it still feels like a fuckin’ electronic toy to me. But I think Metallica guys were the first ones I heard about using those live. I was like ‘Fuck, man, what are you playing through?’ and they’d tell me it was a Fractal. So it definitely can sound good.

“But, like anything else, you’ve got to know that tool and spend the time or have somebody around who knows how to run those things. I’m about as dumb as it gets when it comes to being a gearhead.

“I’m the guy who owns a 1963 and 1967 Corvette, but couldn’t do anything mechanically on them. But I know people who can keep them running! I’m not an audiophile when it comes to every guitar, effect and amp. I try to keep my focus on a narrower zone for creation.”

You once said you got into vibe pedals like your Rotovibe because of Robin Trower’s tone on Bridge Of Sighs. Now, there’s a sound…

“Oh, for sure! I think there’s a solo section in the song It Comes that references that. My producer on this album, Joe Barresi, is a big gear nut and guitar head. It’s really fun working with him because he has just about every colour, paintbrush and canvas you can think of.

“We were tripping on Robin Trower and Jeff Beck while making this record, watching old clips of Robin with the vibe or Jeff using his old school talk box in between takes. When it came to that solo, I think we used a Rotovibe and something else to get the Trower sound.”

The intro for Off The Rails almost has a cheeky nod to Iron Maiden’s Wasted Years. Can you hear it?

“Fuck yeah, dude! I’m a huge fan of Iron Maiden. I wanted Alice to be a guitar duo band precisely because of bands like that. And we kind of are, now, since William DuVall joined. Earlier on, Layne would pick up a guitar and play a little bit, but we were mostly just a three-piece with a singer. Now we actually have two guys playing a lot of guitar, so I got my wish!

“But when we initially talked about starting a band, I wanted another guitar player and that was purely because of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. Or the guys from Priest or Aerosmith. I love the Young brothers [Angus and Malcolm, of AC/DC fame]. There’s something special about bands with two guitar players working as a unit.

“And you’re right, I hear Iron Maiden in that intro for Off The Rails. I’m immediately drawn to those flavours, just because I love that band. It’s cool to hear your influences coming out organically, because you don’t sit down and intend to do anything. It just happens and you can tell that it’s in there.”

Duff McKagan says you swear a lot and are fighting for your leads when recording a solo. Is that true?

“Making music is a really joyous thing in the end, and the process is enjoyable too, but it’s a battle, man! You don’t have to travel very far to bump into the edge of your limitations! But that’s also part of the process and also part of the challenge. Can you put together something together that’s pretty cool?

“You end up surprising yourself a lot of the time. It’s like, ‘I didn’t think I could pull that off!’ That’s exciting, it keeps you interested. Duff’s right, by the way. If you’ve ever been in the studio with me, you’d think I had Tourette’s! I’ve got the worst gutter mouth in the world.

“When I get frustrated or blow something, it erupts. It’s not at anybody, it’s just the situation, man. So I’m talking to me but it’s like, ‘Fuck, man, goddamit!’ There’s a lot of that. If you’re faint of heart and can’t stand some blue exclamations from time to time, it’s probably not very fuckin’ peaceful to be with me in a studio. But it’s actually pretty funny…”

You tend to stick with your main Les Paul and G&L guitars going into your signature Friedman amps. Was there anything else on this album?

“We did make a little bit of a change, going a little more retro and looking back to the earlier years of Alice. We dug out the old Bogner Fish preamp. I think I used a VHT power amp with it back in the old days but now it’s a Fryette, which works really well. When I started talking to Joe, he said we should switch that Fish back in.

“I didn’t even know if it worked but he was like, ‘Well, let’s get it over to Reinhold [Bogner] and get it tuned up.’ Then Reinhold got hold of it, tuned it up and put it side by side with his Fish. Then he said mine sounded better, because of the weird tubes somebody put in over the years. And he didn’t want to f*ck with it because three of my channels sounded better, while only one of his to mine.

“So we only used my Friedman JJ on a couple of songs, and the rest was the Bogner Fish. And there was also a sprinkle of the old Rockman stuff I had used on Facelift and Dirt. That was the main core rig, but we had Wizards, Oranges and a Bogner Snorkler for layering.”

Which guitars won the shoot-out, then?

“There were three we kept coming back to. I used a ton of guitars on this record. Billie Joe Armstrong gave me one of his Juniors a couple of years ago. I used that on quite a few tracks for rhythms and stuff like that. We really leaned heavily on my original Blue Dress and No War G&Ls, plus my D-Trip Les Paul, also with SGs, Teles and Vs going on top.

“We even used a Steve Miller Ibanez Iceman on something with all sorts of cool pedals. And that Jeff Beck talkbox I mentioned earlier is on there, too – one of those old-school bag things [The Bag]. It has a thin tube and a bit you put in front of your teeth.

“Joe Barresi pulled it out, you wear it kinda like a strap and hold it under your arm. It was very cool, I’d never seen one of those before. We did a few tracks with that, including the breakdown of Vilified.”

G&L recently announced they were bringing the Rampage back, which will make a lot of Alice In Chains fans happy…

“Yeah! It is cool. And they’ve said they’ll add a couple of frets to it, and that’s two more frets I’ll have to swear at as I try to play! I love G&L. I’ll be forever tied to those guys, I love their guitars. They’re a great company. It’s the guitar that’s always felt right to me. That and the Gibson Les Paul.

“The way I see it, there are only two guitar brands I play – my G&Ls and my Gibsons. Those have been the main axes on every record. And I’ve actually been talking to Gibson about doing another guitar or two for this cycle, so who knows, there might be more to come there…”

• I Want Blood is out now via Double J.

Funny Little Boxes and Matt Webster of the Let's Play All YouTube channel have announced their third collaborative pedal, the Dirt distortion pedal – which promises to deliver the guitar tones of Alice In Chains' Dirt record and more for just shy of $110.

The pedal's brief was to nail Jerry Cantrell's sought-after guitar tones from the 1991 Alice In Chain's classic, with a particular emphasis on Them Bones – a gilt-edged metal anthem hinging on an angular riff that is known for its hairy yet defined tone.

But the no-nonsense device isn’t limited to encapsulating the sound of one specific song or album. Beyond that, Dirt offers “the crushing intensity, squalling lead tones, and chugging riffs” that epitomized 1990s metal, with its makers namedropping the likes of Slipknot, Silverchair, and Tom Morello with regards to other tones this budget stompbox can muster.

The pedal's distortion comes to life via simple and interactive controls; Dirt for distortion dialing, Volume for pushing the amp, and a three-band EQ. As such, while the pedal can be violent and aggressive, the collaborative minds behind its creation have endeavored to ensure it also packs a lot of clarity.

The “target tone” of Them Bones can be found with the Dirt dial around noon, and the volume at two o'clock. The Bass, Treble and Mids should be pulled a little past the halfway mark.

The song's solo tone is a different beast, and those sounds can also supposedly be coaxed from the pedal. It can be achieved by maxing the Dirt control, dialing the Mids further back, and giving a slight boost to the Treble dial.

Webster says the Dirt's development saw everything from “technical gremlins to hospitalizations”, and required help from Marc Dunberry of Soundlad Liverpool and Simon Andrews of JSA Effects in order to get over the line.

He also muses: “Perhaps it is fitting that a pedal that pays tribute to one of the darkest mainstream albums ever made had such a torturous development process.”

The pedal requires the standard 9V of power and does not come with a battery compartment, meaning daisy chaining and power bricks are needed to get these bad boys growling on your pedalboard.

Webster and Funny Little Boxes' previous collabs have bottled the sound of Pearl Jam's momentous LP, Ten, and Josh Homme's Queens of the Stone Age tones into similarly tiny and budget-friendly boxes.

The Funny Little Boxes Dirt pedal is available to pre-order now for $109.29. No specific shipping date has been listed at the time of writing.

Check out Funny Little Boxes for the full lowdown.

Jerry Cantrell says he has “the worst gutter mouth in the world” when it comes to tracking guitar solos, and the making of his dark and brilliant new solo album, I Want Blood, was no exception.

The Alice in Chains man has previously stressed that he’s still committed to the grunge icons but is currently happily riding the wave of his solo career right now, having recently followed up 2021’s Brighten with a far grittier, electric guitar-littered affair.

He’s tapped Metallica’s bass player Robert Trujillo and Guns N’ Roses’ low-end bringer Duff McKagan for the record, which shares some closer sonic similarities to his Alice in Chains albums. It’s also one that he says features “some of my best songwriting and playing”.

McKagan has previously spoken about how “Jerry fights for his leads” and how he swears like a sailor while committing them to tape. Now, the guitarist has admitted to his explosively expletive approach to tracking solos.

“Making music is a really joyous thing in the end, and the process is enjoyable too, but it’s a battle, man,” Cantrell says in a new interview with Total Guitar. “You don’t have to travel very far to bump into the edge of your limitations. But that’s also part of the process and also part of the challenge.

“If you’ve ever been in the studio with me, you’d think I had Tourette’s,” he continues. “I’ve got the worst gutter mouth in the world. When I get frustrated or blow something, it erupts. It’s not at anybody, it’s just the situation.

“If you’re faint of heart and can’t stand some blue exclamations from time to time, it’s probably not very f*ckin’ peaceful to be with me in a studio. But it’s actually pretty funny.”

Earlier this year Cantrell made headlines when he announced his beloved ‘Blue Dress’ G&L had been stolen, only for him to later – and somewhat sheepishly – admit it had just been misplaced.

Cantrell's TG chat also find him, naturally, talking tone. While he isn't wholly convinced by amp modelers yet, he's now opened up about how he was suitably flabbergasted when he discovered the tonal benefits of digital amps via Metallica.

Jerry Cantrell may not be completely averse to using digital guitar gear, but as he explains in a new interview with Total Guitar, he’s still not wholly convinced by the wealth of amp modelers that are currently on offer – and doesn’t expect himself to make a permanent switch any time soon.

Behind the scenes, Cantrell has warmly embraced the benefits of digital gear. To track demos, his go-to guitar processor is a Kemper, which he views as “a great tool for not having to carry a bunch of gear around”.

However, when it comes to cranking his rig on stage – or when he sets about properly recording his guitar parts – the Alice in Chains icon favors good old fashioned tube amps. For him, digital replacements still can’t quite capture the intangible sonic magic that comes with physical amps.

“I’m reluctant to use digital gear live, but a lot of compatriots think that the technology is getting better,” he tells Total Guitar. “I understand that moving heads and cabs around internationally comes at an astronomical price.

“A lot of my peers have turned to Fractals as a smaller and inexpensive way to get close to their sound. I have looked at that but I’m not there yet. I’ve done a few gigs outside of the US with those things and it still feels like a fuckin’ electronic toy to me.”

As Cantrell mentions, many of his fellow hard rock guitarists have swapped real amps for amp modelers. Dave Mustaine plays through a Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray recently switched to Fractal’s Axe-Fx, and Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett switched to amp modelers for his solo tour. These success stories haven’t fully tempted Cantrell, though.

“I think Metallica guys were the first ones I heard about using those live,” he continues. “I was like ‘Fuck, man, what are you playing through?’ and they’d tell me it was a Fractal. So it definitely can sound good.

“But, like anything else, you’ve got to know that tool and spend the time or have somebody around who knows how to run those things. I’m about as dumb as it gets when it comes to being a gearhead.

“I’m not an audiophile when it comes to every guitar, effect and amp. I try to keep my focus on a narrower zone for creation.”

Carmen Vandenberg recently joined Jerry Cantrell on guitar duties at his show in Raleigh, North Carolina, on August 27. The former Jeff Beck guitarist played on a rendition of Man in the Box, the Grammy-nominated Alice In Chains classic.

“Raleigh, great show tonight thx for hosting us,” wrote Cantrell on Instagram. “Carmen Vandenberg jumped up on MITB and killed it. My good man Herb made yet another successful catch of the flying Blue Dress. Fun night all around.”

Vandenberg accompanied the Alice in Chains guitarist on rhythm guitar before delivering her own rendition of the iconic Man in the Box solo that Cantrell played on the original record, all while brandishing a Duesenberg Julia guitar.

Cantrell opted for the G&L ‘Blue Dress’ Rampage he's consistently used throughout his career.

In a recent Total Guitar interview, Vandenberg talked about cutting her teeth with Jeff Beck and discussed an off-kilter test she had to undergo to become part of Beck's band.

“The first time I went to his house, he sat me in front of a ton of amps, no pedals or anything, and gave me a guitar. The test was, he would put me through each one of the amps, and he wanted to see if I could get my tone no matter what he put me through or how he set it.

“Because technically, your tone is all on your fingers and the way you play, and you’ve got some control with the guitar itself. But, you know, Jeff would always sound like Jeff no matter what you put him through. That was his test.”

In April, Cantrell's 'Blue Dress' G&L was reported stolen by the Alice In Chains guitarist and his team, but it turned out to just be misplaced.

Alice in Chains guitar icon Jerry Cantrell has announced I Want Blood, his fourth solo record, will be released on October 18 – and it features a host of high-profile guests.

Bass duties are handled by Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses) and Robert Trujillo (Metallica), while Faith No More’s Mike Bordin also features on drums, in effect reuniting the Cantrell/Trujillo/Bordin power trio behind 2002’s epic double album Degradation Trip.

Other guests include drummer Gil Sharone (Team Sleep, Stolen Babies), with backing vocals provided by Lola Colette and Greg Puciato (Better Lovers, ex-Dillinger Escape Plan).

Opening track Vilified is the first taste of the record, which finds Cantrell breaking out both the talk box and the wah over a 6/8 groove that wouldn’t sound out of place in early ’90s Alice in Chains.

Accordingly, the 45-minute collection is an altogether heavier effort when compared with Cantrell’s previous album, the folk-infused Brighten (2021).

“This record is a serious piece of work. It’s a motherfucker,” Cantrell says of his upcoming release. “It’s hard, no doubt, and completely unlike Brighten. And that’s what you want, to end up in a different place. There’s a confidence to this album. I think it’s some of my best songwriting and playing, and certainly some of my best singing.”

The record was co-produced by Cantrell and Joe Barresi, whose resume includes Tool, Queens of the Stone Age and Melvins – and explains why the guitar tone is quite so ferocious on this opening cut.

I Want Blood is out on October 18 via Double J Music, and available to preorder now. The full tracklisting is below.

Jerry Cantrell kicks off his North American tour with Bush this evening – see JerryCantrell.com for full dates.

Earlier this year, Cantrell put out a call for fans to be on the lookout for his original G&L Rampage – one of grunge’s most important guitars – which he believed to have been stolen. It was found the very next day, with the AIC leader admitting it had just been misplaced.

Jerry Cantrell – I Want Blood tracklisting

1. Vilified
2. Off The Rails
3. Afterglow
4. I Want Blood
5. Echoes Of Laughter
6. Throw Me A Line
7. Let It Lie
8. Held Your Tongue
9. It Comes

G&L has confirmed its cult classic Rampage electric guitar will be making a long-awaited return.

The no-nonsense, ultra-minimalist workhorse model is set to make a comeback in the form of a newly refreshed design, the Rampage 24, which, as the name implies, is going to land at some point this year.

G&L’s reissued Rampage was announced by the brand in a series of clips across its social media channels, with the firm – which was originally launched by Leo Fender – paying tribute to the design’s genre-defining influence.

Such news will no doubt be warmly received by guitar fans, but grunge enthusiasts will be especially pleased. 

Why? Well, as G&L explains, the Rampage became synonymous with the Seattle grunge scene, and was famously wielded by Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains.

Despite its lofty status, the Rampage has seldom been seen in the G&L roster, and its scarcity has meant players haven’t always been given the opportunity to play the cult classic Stratocaster-style instrument. 

Indeed, shortly after it was announced in 1985, the Rampage was discontinued as G&L pursued other models, and though a handful of limited-edition models have been created (including some Cantrell signature guitars), a standard production run has never fully materialized. Fortunately, that is all about to change.

“This year we’re bringing something special back to the stage, the G&L Rampage,” the brand said. “Back in 1985 in an era of big hair and even bigger riffs, G&L introduced a guitar that would eventually define a genre.

“After design experimentation, Leo Fender’s vision crystallized into beautifully proportioned rock machines including the Rampage, a minimalist powerhouse with a single humbucker and a design as bold as the sound it produced.

“It was more than a guitar, it was a statement. The Rampage became an icon of Seattle’s grunge rock sound, famously wielded by Jerry Cantrell or Alice in Chains.

“It soon became obvious that grunge was more than a passing trend. It was a musical revolution, and the absence of the Rampage left a void in the guitar world. You’ve kept asking for more, and the time has finally come.

“It was raw, it was real, and it was ready to rock. And now it’s ready for a big comeback with the refreshed and redesigned Rampage 24.”

No further details have been shared at this time, so keep your eyes peeled for future announcements.

In related news, Cantrell caused quite the stir earlier this year after declaring his iconic original Rampage had been stolen – only to later realize he had just misplaced it.

Yesterday, it was reported that Jerry Cantrell’s original ‘Blue Dress’ G&L Rampage had been stolen – but it turns out it, erm, was actually just misplaced...

Cantrell issued the update in a video posted to his Instagram, which saw the Alice in Chains icon stand next to the newly recovered legendary electric guitar. 

In his message, Cantrell said he had been “worried to death” the guitar had been stolen. Fortunately, it was swiftly recovered having innocently been misplaced during transit.

“We found the damn thing! God, what a relief,” Cantrell says. “It was misplaced over the weekend during transit between photoshoots and the studio. I’m working on a record right now and I really thought this thing had gone missing. 

“Thankfully it was just misplaced,” he continues. “So many of my brothers like Zakk [Wylde], [Tom] Morello, [Billy] Corgan etcetera have similar stories and I was worried to death that this thing was gone.”

In his message, Cantrell also praised the speed with which the guitar community rallied behind him to initiate a search party for the guitar, which serves as one of the most important instruments in grunge history.

Indeed, Cantrell used the ‘Blue Dress’ G&L on countless grunge classics. Cantrell bought the ‘84 model in 1985 and, as he told Seattle’s MPOP Museum in 2020, subsequently used it “on everything I’ve ever recorded, pretty much – 98.9% of every song, that guitar’s on there somewhere”.

“The headline here is how important this guitar is not only to me but to everybody else and that makes me feel very special,” Cantrell concludes in his new message. 

“It's so amazing to me everybody's outreach and support and willingness to get the word out. I’ve been through a stolen guitar thing before with an EVH and it took me 18 years to get it back.”

As Cantrell mentions, his G&L Rampage has been recovered far quicker than his prized EVH model, which had been gifted to him by Eddie Van Halen. That guitar went missing around 2002, and wasn’t returned to its owner until 19 years later.

“A couple of AIC fans and collectors tracked it down and tried to do a sting on this kid who had it and was trying to sell it,” Cantrell once told Guitar World. 

“He went dark on the first guy, who was from Florida. The second guy was a separate collector from San Diego. Between the two of them, it took about two weeks for me to get that guitar back… after 19 years!”

Fortunately, Cantrell didn’t have to wait that long to be reunited with his G&L Rampage.

Either way, he’s had better luck than blues rocker Tyler Bryant who recently discussed the unlikely return of his Jeff Beck-played Pinky One Strat – an instrument that was missing for five years before it was found, sanded-down, in the trunk of a car.

UPDATE: Jerry Cantrell's G&L 'Blue Dress' Rampage has been found. It had not been stolen as originally reported – it was misplaced during transit.

Jerry Cantrell’s original G&L – the electric guitar behind practically every iconic Alice in Chains recording – has been stolen.

According to a post published to Cantrell’s official Instagram, the classic Rampage ‘Blue Dress’ instrument is believed to have been stolen from the guitarist’s car in either Los Angeles or San Bernardino/Highland.

The guitar was kept in a black G&L gig bag, and has the serial number G016467. The post is appealing to anyone who may have information regarding the whereabouts of the guitar to contact info@velvethammer.net.

“We’re offering a reward to anyone who can help us locate the guitar,” the post concludes. “We sincerely appreciate your help.”

The Rampage itself is of the highest cultural and musical significance, and is one of the most important guitars in grunge. Having been purchased by Cantrell way back in 1985, the G&L was subsequently used on almost every single song the guitarist has ever recorded.

A single-humbucker 1984 G&L Rampage at its core, the instrument features a distinct circle-and-square pattern that was inspired by both Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstein stripes and Randy Rhoads’ Polka Dots, and the sticker of a blue-dressed pinup girl below the Kahler tremolo.

There are also three “Rock” stickers (one of which has heavily worn off) on the body from a local radio station that championed Alice in Chains in their early days, and another one that reads “This Is Your Life” on the headstock.

Other identifiable features include some band stickers on the rear, including those of Soundgarden and Son of Man.

Recently, the guitar was on display at Seattle’s MoPOP Museum. During a visit to the display, Cantrell discussed the importance of his Blue Dress Rampage, explaining how it made its way onto almost everything he’s recorded – making it one of the most important guitars in grunge history.

“I bought that in 1985,” he recalled. “That guitar has been on everything I’ve ever recorded, pretty much – 98.9% of every song, that guitar’s on there somewhere. I tried for decades to wreck it and it still exists.

“I’ve surfed it across the stage, jumped in the audience with it, fans running up and getting their hair caught in the keys, and then trying to jump back in the audience pulling me with them…”

Cantrell’s original G&L had largely been forced into touring retirement owing to some structural problems that threatened to seriously damage the guitar. In its place, Cantrell took to playing some Rampage reissue models that had been produced over the years.

In 2009, G&L reissued the Rampage as a Jerry Cantrell signature model, which arrived without Cantrell’s additional aesthetics. A more faithful replica of the Blue Dress G&L had also been released as part of an ultra-limited run.

“It’s nothing fancy. There’s plenty of fancier, cooler guitars, but it’s just a meat and potatoes guitar,” Cantrell told Total Guitar in 2014, “and that’s always felt comfortable for me to play from the get-go.”

In the wake of the news, G&L has offered to build Cantrell a new guitar that will “help ease the pain” of losing the “irreplaceable” instrument.

Visit Jerry Cantrell’s Instagram page for updates, and email info@velvethammer.net if you have any information concerning the guitar.

Last weekend (October 29), the Seattle Seahawks recruited Alice in Chains electric guitar hero Jerry Cantrell to perform The Star-Spangled Banner prior to their home game against the Cleveland Browns.

Though also (and more recently) a Gibson endorser, Cantrell picked up an older signature guitar of his – the G&L Jerry Cantrell Rampage – for the occasion.

Cantrell's take on the US national anthem – and indeed his choice of the Strat-style Rampage, rather than one of his signature Les Pauls – seems to indicate that another Seattle guitar hero, one James Marshall Hendrix, was on Cantrell's mind.

Though not quite as avant-garde as Hendrix's immortal Banner rendition at Woodstock, the Alice in Chains man's take on the song has more Marshall power – and certainly a lot more wah pedal – than your average sporting event national anthem performance. 

“What a great weekend, got to play the national anthem before the Seahawks game,“ Cantrell wrote of the performance on Instagram. “Hawks brought home the W at the end of a slugfest with the Browns. Very proud to have been a part of the festivities. Thank you Seattle!“ 

The up-close, HD video of Cantrell's Banner performance offers a killer look at his vibrato, and the physicality of his playing. 

In a recent interview with MusicRadar, that very physicality was discussed by Guns N' Roses bass guitar player Duff McKagan, who recruited Cantrell for a guest solo spot on I Just Don’t Know, a tune from his recent solo LP, Lighthouse.

“Jerry fights for his leads,” McKagan said. “I’ve seen so many different guitar players. Some guys can just come in and [do it]. And, ‘Wow, that’s fuckin’ amazing.’

“Jerry comes in and he fights. He fights his guitar and, by the end – by the time he gets the lead on – it’s like, ‘Wow man, that was a piece of work. I saw your brain working.’

“He fuckin’ swears,” McKagan continued. “He gets through this thing. I’ve seen him do it plenty of times, and I knew he’d do it on [I Just Don’t Know].”

Duff McKagan has described the intense process behind Jerry Cantrell’s approach to guitar solos, with the Guns N’ Roses basis likening the experience to that of a “fight” between the guitarist and his guitar.

Cantrell guests on McKagan’s new solo album Lighthouse on a track called I Just Don’t Know. The record pulls several threads, weaving in older unreleased tracks among new material written during the Covid years at McKagan’s Seattle studio. 

Now, in a new interview with MusicRadar, the bassist discusses several of the guest solos on the record, including contributions from the aforementioned Cantrell (a fellow Seattle resident) and his GN’R bandmate, Slash.

“Jerry fights for his leads,” comments McKagan of Cantrell’s soloing approach. 

“I’ve seen so many different guitar players. Some guys can just come in and [do it]. And, ‘Wow, that’s fuckin’ amazing.’

“Jerry comes in and he fights. He fights his guitar and, by the end – by the time he gets the lead on – it’s like, ‘Wow man, that was a piece of work. I saw your brain working.’”

If anything, the insight makes us like Cantrell’s lead work even more. There’s a popular misconception that killer solos just come easily to big-name players, so it’s always reassuring to hear of a guitar great that has to wring it out of the neck.

“He fuckin’ swears,” says McKagan. “He gets through this thing. I’ve seen him do it plenty of times, and I knew he’d do it on [I Just Don’t Know].”

Elsewhere, in the same piece, McKagan discusses Slash’s lead spot on the track, Hope – one of the songs initially made for a solo release that McKagan’s then-label, Geffen, left on the shelf. 

“That’s a song I did in 1996 at my house in LA, in the Hollywood Hills,” says McKagan. “Slash had come over to my house one day and heard that song… He was like, ‘Hey man, do you want me to put a guitar on this?’ Yeah, for sure! I had an amp set up and I recorded it. This was back in the days of tape, of course, and I was good enough to record him. 

“So, I got those masters back during [Covid]... and it’s a very pretty song. Slash plays thematic things in there. He’s so good at that.” 

Amusingly, McKagan notes that more recent discussions with Slash have revealed the guitarist has no recollection of the session. 

“He doesn’t remember playing the song,” concludes McKagan. “It was during an interesting time in his life!”

To read the full Duff McKagan interview, head to MusicRadar, and for more from Duff, check out our interview where he names the seven bassists who shaped his sound and explains how Prince shaped the sound of Appetite for Destruction.

Meanwhile, Slash has been working on his own “blues-orientated” solo album, due in 2024, which he has described as a spiritual sequel to his star-studded 2010 solo debut – revealing he’s already got a recording with Demi Lovato in the bag.

Post Malone has considerable form when it comes to rock covers. Often accompanied by (or in direct competition with) his friend and collaborator Andrew Watt, the hip-hop icon has previously performed War Pigs with Slash, a full Nirvana set with Travis Barker, and even dropped a section of Eric Johnson’s Cliffs of Dover during a guitar battle. 

Now, in his latest appearance on Howard Stern’s Sirius XM Show, the hip-hop star wowed the veteran DJ with a version of the Alice In Chains classic, Them Bones. 

In the performance clip [above] Post makes effective use of both a well-worn Martin dreadnought acoustic guitar [we can’t tell the model from the footage, but that looks like a faded vertical Martin logo on the headstock – Ed.] and a full choir. 

Sadly, though he no doubt could if he wanted to, Post doesn't wrangle the Them Bones solo from that Martin neck, but that is probably for the best in this particular version.

Nonetheless, the performance leaves Stern taken aback, with the host labelling it “beautiful.” Indeed, it’s about as pretty as Post Malone – or Alice In Chains for that matter – have ever sounded.

Them Bones originally featured on Alice In Chains’ 1992 album, Dirt and was written by Jerry Cantrell. It features a classic Cantrell device of a shifting time signature, with a 7/8 verse that morphs into 4/4 for the chorus. 

“Off-time stuff is just more exciting,” Cantrell told Guitar World in 1998. “It takes people by surprise when you shift gears like that before they even know what the hell hit 'em. 

“It's also effective when you slow something down and then slam 'em into the dash. A lot of Alice stuff is written that way – Them Bones is a great off-time song.”

The above is not by any means Post Malone’s only acoustic performance – though this one went better than his Tiny Desk show. In that clip, he joked he’d messed up his chords to Circles, because “I was playing a Van Halen solo in my mind.” 

Which is an excuse that – let us be clear – is always going to fly with Guitar World. 

Fortunately, as the other clips we’ve seen attest, that’s not representative of his wider playing ability. 

Previously, the aforementioned Watt has heaped praise on Post’s six-string talent and, having produced everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones, he should know a decent guitarist when he sees one.

“Post is a great guitar player,” Watt told Guitar World in 2020. “And he's just an amazing musician. He's one of those guys that can do anything, you know?”

If there was one name we weren’t expecting to feature quite so heavily in our headlines this year, it’s Barbie. Just last week, we pondered whether the upcoming Barbie Movie soundtrack, which features Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen, was set to be this year’s must-hear guitar collaboration. And now we have another surprise entry-point into Greta Gerwig’s hot-pink fever dream: the unlikely acoustic guitar that features in the movie.

Given the film is out tomorrow (July 21), the reason we know a guitar features at all is down to a new video clip posted to the official Barbie Movie social media accounts. In it, Ken (aka Ryan Gosling) apologizes to BTS star Jimin for stealing his black-and-white tassel outfit, before declaring that, under the Ken code, he will be giving away his most prized possession to the K-pop musician: Ken’s guitar.

Now, given the film’s sunny disposition, we didn’t expect Ken to be an Alice in Chains fan, but there is no mistaking the guitar Gosling holds up: with that bound black body, ‘Firefly’ pickguard and telltale ‘Jerry Cantrell’ truss rod cover, it’s Cantrell’s signature Gibson Fire Devil Songwriter acoustic, which launched early last year.

But Ken’s guitar has clearly undergone a few aesthetic alterations, with the addition of a galloping white stallion to the body, not to mention his own name, which proudly uses the none-more-metal Metallica font.

What are we supposed to read into this? Can we expect Cantrell and James Hetfield to cameo in the movie? And just how shred-heavy is this soundtrack going to be?

One thing’s for sure: we won’t hear Ken tearing up the fretboard, as Gosling reveals his character can’t really play the guitar – although you can spot the living doll strumming a few chords in the sneak preview of the film’s epic power ballad Just Ken, which also features a guitar solo from Slash.

It’s likely Gosling will have actually played guitar in the movie, too – he’s previously taken up the six-string in his own rock duo, Dead Man’s Bones, while he’s also a pretty tasty bass player.

We’ve reached out to Gibson for more information on how this unlikely collaboration came to be.

It wouldn’t be the first high-profile Gibson moment in recent movie history; back in 2020, the company armed Bill & Ted Face the Music with a wealth of instruments from across its brand portfolio.

All will become clear when the Barbie Movie lands in theaters on July 21.

Jerry Cantrell and Jim Dunlop have teamed up for a new take on his signature JC95 wah pedal, dubbed the Firefly Cry Baby wah.

The Firefly features firefly artwork and a ‘JC Cantrell’ logo on the tread, both of which glow in the dark, as do the front badge and bottom plate text. 

This obviously makes it easier to plug up and find on a dark stage, which is useful in its own right, but also offers a nod to the pedal’s inspiration: Cantrell’s 2021 solo album, Brighten.

Much like the two previous Cantrell Cry Baby signatures, this latest iteration continues the tradition of printing lyrics on the bottom plate, in this case the album’s title track.

Previous editions of the pedal featured lyrics to Alice in Chains’ Black Gives Way To Blue and the band’s 2018 album title track Rainier Fog printed on the bottom plates. 

As with all the JC95 wahs, the Firefly is voiced to nail Cantrell’s trademark wah tones and features a side-mounted knob for dialling in the toe-down frequency.

The Firefly is the latest in a raft of signature guitar gear that has been masterfully timed to hit the market throughout the Brighten campaign. 

Indeed, the first video from the record, Atone, teased the arrival of what would turn out to be the Gibson Jerry Cantrell Atone Songwriter acoustic. The guitarist’s stunning and much-anticipated “Wino” Les Paul Custom arrived shortly after and was soon followed by two Epiphone signatures (The Wino and Prophecy models) this spring.

Tyler Bates is a wearer of many hats. The LA-based composer and guitarist is arguably best known for his film, television and video game soundtracks, having worked heavily on the music heard in big-budget productions like Guardians of the Galaxy, Conan the Barbarian and John Wick. 

He also teamed up with Rob Zombie for The Devil’s Rejects, which quickly became a cult classic for modern-age horror fans following its 2005 release, and partnered up with Hollywood hotshot Zack Snyder on films like Dawn of the Dead and 300. As a musician and producer, he’s collaborated with the likes of Marilyn Manson and, in times more recent, Jerry Cantrell – working on last year’s stunning Brighten solo album as well as touring in the Alice In Chains singer/guitarist’s solo band. 

When he begins our conversation by saying he’s “in the process of reorganizing everything – 11 amps and a million pedals” in front of him, we know we’re in for quite the discussion. Naturally, the subject quickly turns to his involvement on Brighten and the gear used by him and Cantrell for the live shows…

“The whole idea began when Jerry and I were performing together at a Grammy party, just the two of us with acoustics,” explains Bates, talking to GW from his home studio, where he’s surrounded by a seemingly endless maze of amps, instruments and pedals. 

“I suggested that perhaps it might be time to make another Jerry Cantrell record, as it had been a considerably long while since the previous one. I know Jerry pretty well – he lives across the street from me. We get together, jam and watch football together anyway. 

“So that conversation turned into me offering to set the whole thing up, bringing in different players to fill the music out with. The idea was we’d take our time so that Jerry could say everything he wanted to as an artist and guitar player, with music that had taken enough time to ferment and develop in the process…”

Perhaps that’s why the record came out sounding just as deliberated and composed as it did loose and free?

“We approached it more like spiritual expression. It wasn’t like, ‘Okay, we’re going in to cut all the tracks in however many days, here are all the songs!’ It was more a matter of curating the music with different friends playing on the songs. I believe it ended up being Jerry’s favorite solo record. Nobody had to make that record – it wasn’t anyone’s gig. So that’s why I thought, ‘Let’s take this off the clock, away from a studio with the red light on and the meter running.’ It needed to develop as a conversation or story.

“I refused to play on the record, but he asked me to, so I think I ended up playing a few bars of bass somewhere and threw some heavy chains into a bucket for Atone, but other than that, I really wanted Jerry to handle all the guitar stuff. I’m more of a devil’s advocate or coach. I’d give him a little nudge here and there but it didn’t take much – he’s a phenomenal artist and human being. Our rapport was really natural. 

“By the time we did get to the final tracking sessions, the songs had already existed and there was already a relationship between the music and the players from a performance standpoint. It ended up being a very well balanced and very well-realized record that also translates very well live.”

Speaking of Atone, the open C# tuning created a haunting drone that resulted in one of the moodiest tracks on the record…

“It’s an intense track. We knew we wanted it to have a gunslinger vibe, a throwback to Westerns. It’s a song about a lonely or singular individual trying to become a better person. Maybe it’s about experiencing adversity and not becoming jaded. It also served as a great mission statement for the whole record. 

“There was no point in Jerry doing a solo record after 19 years and trying to write ‘singles’. We decided to introduce Atone because it encapsulated the record. It was quite a collaborative effort in terms of capturing the guitar sounds. We weren’t sure how to end the song, so that’s when I suggested kicking it up into double time, for a bigger beat. That ended up being a really cool payoff and there’s a cool nod to David Gilmour with the slide guitars at the end. We love that stuff – he’s on both of our lists of very favorite guitarists.”

For the live shows, we noticed you played a lot of the lead parts on tracks like Siren Song and Brighten while Jerry was singing, switching back and forth throughout the set…

“Before we ever seriously focused our energies together musically, we’d just play for fun. I think we’ve become very close friends and gel naturally. It’s not about the parts; it’s more about tapping into the vibe and intent of the parts Jerry wanted to lay down. 

“We weren’t trying to be Alice in Chains or anything else. We all had an emotional investment because most of us had been involved in the making of this record and even been playing shows together before the record had been conceptualized. There’s a spiritual connection and a friendship connection. My parts ended up being this hodgepodge of different rhythms and leads. It felt like a lot to internalize at the beginning, but through all my work in film and in different bands, I have this ability to pick things up fast. 

“I initially offered to play bass, because for a minute Duff [McKagan] was interested in doing it but then Guns N’ Roses got busy again. So when he pulled out, I told Jerry I’d play bass and he was like, ‘Nah man, you gotta be on guitar!’ So I have to be the other guy on guitar, next to the guitar legend. I’m the guy people don’t want to see playing guitar [laughs]!”

It looked like you were mainly using a Goldtop and 335 through Friedman amps…

“In North America, both Jerry and I played his signature JJ Friedmans. I’ve had one for years. Obviously it was the appropriate sound. I would have brought out a second amp with me but we were a bit limited on what we could take. The majority of the gigs were theaters and clubs, so there wasn’t really space or capacity to be doing that.

“Normally I like to daisy chain a couple of amps together in multiple mono, not stereo. But Jerry’s signature amps sound great – we used them for certain things in the studio, but I have a ton of amps in my studio. 

“It throws people, but a lot of the time – like on those Manson records – I like to use a Peavey Classic 410. People would be like, ‘What?!’ But it felt appropriate. I also use that amp for my GuitarViol, for whatever reason it really works with that instrument.”

The GuitarViol is quite a rare instrument to see on stage with a rock band. What was that like?

“I was actually opening the shows with it. Sometimes it would be really good, sometimes it would be whatever! Every night would be improvised, which made it really fun. Jerry gave me a lot of room for that moment in the show. Obviously we understood the reality: the fans were there for Jerry and wanted to see him playing the music.”

So what were your favorite Alice In Chains songs on the setlist?

“I think we ended up playing a total of 41 songs through the tour. It was changing daily. We’d arrive at a venue and sometimes half an hour before soundcheck Jerry might say, ‘Hey, let’s try and knock this one out, see if we can do it today or tomorrow!’ Obviously any of the AIC songs are great. No Excuses always had a great vibe – it was nice to cruise for a minute in the middle of the show like that. 

“It was exciting to see how Greg Puciato stepped into those big songs like Would? and Man in the Box. Rooster was always fun to play and because Jerry does a lot of singing on that one, he deferred to me on a lot of the lead color work. Whale & Wasp was cool when we didn’t clam it up too badly. We were flying live – no click tracks or backing tracks.”

What did you end up bringing out with you on the pedalboard?

“I have the MXR Super Badass for whenever I needed a lot of distortion. I used an Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork for some of the color lines on tracks like My Song, Between and even Brighten, just to give this added dimension and top octave feel. I was using an EarthQuaker Sea Machine at one point. I also had one of their flanger pedals for Your Decision and other songs.

“There was a Boss Digital Delay and the EarthQuaker Afterneath… I love that pedal. I used it a lot with the GuitarViol stuff or anything that felt ethereal and didn’t require a ton of definition. I had a Dunlop Cry Baby because Jerry and I wanted our wah sounds to be in-sync for tracks like Rain When I Die. The tones would lock in together.

“I used the EarthQuaker Rainbow Machine and TC Electronic chorus a bit too. I tend not to go too boutique with pedals on the road, unless I can bring three of each pedal because they’re easy to break, but MXR and Boss stuff never breaks! Some of my other favorites are the Cooper FX Generation Loss. That one is pretty warped and it’s an excellent creative tool. I did a track with Health and Chino Moreno [Anti-Life], using it for this haunting, apocalyptic sound… it was a lot of fun.”

Moving into your film work, you’ve done everything from cult underground movies to massive blockbusters with mega budgets. What do you remember about The Devil’s Rejects?

“I really loved working on The Devil’s Rejects. It’s one of my favorite scores that I’ve ever done. I’d known Rob Zombie casually through mutual friends. When he started working on the film, I reached out to see if he needed any help with music. 

“Then we met up and he was a bit frustrated regarding the music. He needed quite a lot and there was nothing that he’d heard that seemed to work with the picture. Him and his editor Glenn Garland were doing a ton of experiments but none of it seemed right. So he tasked me with creating this sound that he hadn’t heard yet, that was as primal and fucked-up as he hoped.”

How do you go about impressing someone like Rob Zombie?

“I went away for two or three weeks into my music lab and started some experiments with a longtime collaborator of mine, Wolfgang Matthes, who is a good friend and almost like a mentor to me when it comes to modular synthesis and the potential of sound. That score had a lot of synths and a lot of practical sounds. 

“We’d take recordings of someone walking and breathing, and then process that through a Kontakt instrument or EXS24 sampler. They would have natural loops to them and sometimes those loops would become a rhythmical figure in the score as well as maybe something played on the lowest register, to give you that disturbing creep factor. It could even be the same sound functioning in two entirely different ways. 

“It was fun to experiment like that, with tonal frequencies that were unsettling. I wasn’t approaching it like, ‘We’re going to scare people!’ but I did feel that I could probably make people feel uncomfortable to heighten what they’re seeing. The whole thing is very uncomfortable. It’s a fantastic film Rob made.”

300 is another famous movie you were heavily involved in – that must have been a blast…

“I must admit, I was ignorant to 300 when Zack Snyder asked me to come over and talk about this new film. We’d already done Dawn of the Dead together. I was like, ‘What’s 300?!’ He was working on a pitch to get the movie made by some studio. He showed me the graphic novel and asked me to write the music for an animatic they were working on…

“So we developed that material for a year before there was even a green light for the film. Then we made the movie. Zack wanted huge vocals, big clanging drums and guitars. I didn’t know how to mock up the music with samples so I sang all the men’s and women’s parts in the choir to create a faux Latin language for the film. What I demoed made the final cut. So even though you might hear 60 choral singers, there’s a tonality to how I sing that makes it sound the way it does.

“I was trying to give the movie a very unique signature sound. That’s when the GuitarViol came into my life…” 

How exactly did you end up finding out about them?

“A friend of mine, Azam Ali, is an amazing singer and she knew of the instrument because she’s friends with [custom luthier] Jonathan Wilson. He’d only made a couple. I think a guitar magazine editor was going to buy my one and for some reason that didn’t happen, so I ended up having a look. I found out several big-time guitar players had tried it but none of them could make a sound they liked. 

“I stuck with it and it became a primary color instrument in 300. Since then, I’ve used it on at least 50 scores, TV shows or records. I’ve continued to develop sounds for the GuitarViol that expands the scope of what I’m working on. I am a musician and I love to play, so I can’t be satisfied just sitting behind a keyboard. 

“I like committing to performances as I go. That’s part of the culture for me: it’s always consisting of live performances as the music develops, which gives it a greater impact on the finite expression of what the music is, as opposed to me adding those color elements at the end. They’re integrated into the concept I’m imagining from the get-go.”

• The Tyler Bates-scored horror movie Pearl and new Starcrawler record, She Said – which he produced – are both out on September 16.

As the founding guitarist and singer in Alice In Chains, Jerry Cantrell knows a thing or two about dialing in massive rock tones. 

His riffs were arguably the heaviest from the 90s Seattle scene, the group sharing nearly as much kinship with the likes of Metallica and Pantera as they did with the alternative peers from their hometown. 

But there was always a more delicate side to the music, as evidenced on tracks like Down In A Hole, Nutshell and Brother – which, thanks to a profound sense of emotional sincerity, turned Jerry into one of the most deeply admired songwriters of his generation. 

In January 2020, he made headlines by announcing he was teaming up with Gibson to release a whole line of acoustic and electric signature guitars. Here’s a closer look at the two latest Epiphone models for this year...

When Jerry Cantrell last spoke to us, he acknowledged that Gibson guitars had “been right there in the development of my sound from the beginning” and teased the acoustic signatures that were to follow on from the 100 signed and Murphy-Lab aged Wine Red Customs released in 2021. 

The debut models were based on one of the four Les Pauls he acquired in the early 90s and stuck with him through his career. The collaborative partnership continues this year with two new entries under the Chinese-made Epiphone banner, sitting at a much more affordable price point than anything we’ve seen thus far. 

The new ‘Wino’ comes in a slightly darker variant of Wine Red, with Epiphone parts offering a more cost-effective take on those found on its American Custom Shop sibling. The most notable difference is the lack of a Fishman piezo pickup-equipped bridge – a fair compromise given that this instrument retails for over ten times less, and ultimately a concession few would be surprised by. 

Less predictable, however, is the arrival of its companion 24-fret Custom Prophecy fitted with Fishman Fluence pickups, given that the Alice In Chains guitarist isn’t known for using Fishmans and has generally stuck with 22-fret instruments through his career, including the G&L Rampages he’s used extensively alongside his Les Pauls. 

However, with two voicings for each humbucker as well as split coil modes, it’s clearly going to be able to cover a lot of tonal ground, as well as two whole octaves across the neck.

Straight out of the (man in the) box, the new Wino model looks and feels like the closest the budget brand have come to a ‘real’ Les Paul Custom in quite some time. The neck profile is slightly thicker than your typical Epiphone Les Paul, though it’s still very user-friendly and every bit a ‘fretless wonder’, as these guitars were lovingly nicknamed early on. 

Going head-to-head with our own 2004 Gibson Custom, there’s very little difference tonally (as much as it pains us to admit, barely any, in fact!). The Dark Wine Red finish and gold hardware marry gracefully with Cantrell’s name along the truss rod cover and his JJ logo, which some may recognize from his signature Friedman heads, on the back of the headstock.

When plugged into our British tube amp’s clean channel, the neck Alnico Classic PRO humbucker sounds rich and full-bodied, with bell-like chimes that can be accentuated further by flicking onto the middle position of the pickup selector. 

On the distorted channel, the 98T PRO bridge humbucker sounds cutting and articulate, packing a little extra snarl thanks to its exposed coils. Arriving already tuned half a step down, it’s a guitar that comfortably nails the tones all the way from Alice In Chains’ 1990 Facelift debut right through to latest release Rainier Fog, as well as any of Cantrell’s solo endeavors.

Drop-D (or in this case Drop-C#) riffs like We Die Young, Dam That River and Stone feel particularly responsive here too, striking a perfect balance between low-end punch and searing high-end attack, with notes that well and truly pop out when switching over to leads. 

Turn down the volume controls and you’ll easily find some tasty blues tones too, and there’s plenty of fun to be had using the neck pickup with the tone completely off, as you’d expect from traditional singlecuts of this ilk. In that regard, it’s every bit as classic as it looks.

The Custom Prophecy is a considerably lighter instrument, with an ultra modern weight relief in place of the Wino’s nine-hole drilling. 

Other interesting features include the all-new Circle In Diamond custom inlays, which add to its aesthetic allure, as well as two extra frets and the inclusion of Fishman Fluence pickups. Which, by the way, react faster with more compression and snap than the medium-output humbuckers found on its companion, as to be expected from an active set.

There are three voicings per pickup – hot, vintage and single-coil – making this one of the most sonically diverse Les Pauls ever to go into production, and while the single-coil tones can’t quite compare to, say, plugging in an old Strat, they certainly carry enough bite to get you close enough for live performances. 

With the right kind of compression and EQ treatment, these tones could also work as a faux piezo through a clean channel, which is handy if you’re combining electric and acoustic guitar layers like Cantrell and his cohorts have done over the years.

It would be fair to say the bridge pickup on the hot voicing might be a little scooped and overkill for some of the tones Cantrell is known for and it’s the vintage mode that gets us closer to the sounds on the records, but that’s precisely what makes this signature such a good all-rounder. 

It covers a lot of bases well, especially for those in need of a singlecut that’s deceptively lightweight and comfortable.

These bells and whistles do come at a price, however, this signature retailing for £300 more than its companion. It’s not exactly the same kind of guitar you see Cantrell playing himself, but then again it doesn’t necessarily need to be. If anything, that’s what makes it such an intriguing proposition...

Final verdict

As we suspected, these are two very different instruments that cater for different needs. Purists and retro-lovers will undoubtedly feel more at home with the Wino, which convincingly harks back to Les Pauls of old. Modern-style and heavy metal players, however, may very well appreciate the Custom Prophecy for its extra power, versatility and range. 

It doesn’t cover vintage tones quite as well as its claret-hued counterpart – active pickups are typically less smooth and less dynamic than passives – and players who dabble in blues or jazz may find that a bit of a turn-off. Those dialing in higher gain sounds all the way from Rammstein and Slipknot through to Code Orange and Periphery, however, will arguably feel more at home on the Prophecy. 

Specs – Jerry Cantrell ‘Wino’ Les Paul Custom 

• PRICE: $849 / £749
• BODY: Mahogany with plain maple cap
• NECK: Mahogany SCALE: 24.75”
• FINGERBOARD: Ebony
• FRETS: 22 
• ELECTRONICS: Alnico Classic Pro (neck), 98T PRO (bridge)
• CONTROLS: 2x volume, 2x tone, three-way toggle 
• HARDWARE: Gold 
• LEFT-HANDED: No 
• FINISH: Dark wine red

Specs – Jerry Cantrell Les Paul Custom Prophecy 

• PRICE: $1,149 / $899
• BODY: Mahogany with maple cap
• NECK: Mahogany
• SCALE: 24.75”
• FINGERBOARD: Ebony
• FRETS: 24
• ELECTRONICS: 2x Fishman Fluence
• CONTROLS: 2x volume with push/pull coil splitting, 2x tone with push/pull voice switching, three-way toggle
• HARDWARE: Brushed nickel
• LEFT-HANDED: No 
• FINISH: Bone White 
• CONTACT: Epiphone

Epiphone has teamed up with Jerry Cantrell for two fresh additions to his lineup of signature guitars: a considerably-more-affordable iteration of his hallowed “Wino” Les Paul Custom and a Fishman Fluence-equipped Prophecy Les Paul Custom.

At first glance, the “Wino” Les Paul takes inspiration from Cantrell’s original Gibson counterpart with a number of budget-friendly tweaks, while the Prophecy LP looks to be a high-end, hot-rodded take on Epiphone’s existing Les Paul model of the same name.

They both mark the latest installments to the Alice in Chains icon's signature six-string arsenal, following the arrival of Cantrell’s signature Gibson acoustic electric guitars earlier this year.

Read on for a closer look at Jerry Cantrell’s all-new Epiphone signatures. 

Epiphone Jerry Cantrell "Wino" Les Paul Custom

First up is Epiphone’s surprisingly affordable take on Cantrell’s original Gibson “Wino” Les Paul. While a Murphy Lab-finished version arrived on the scene last year with a premium $8,999 price tag, Epiphone’s own edition comes in at only $849 – that’s over 10 times cheaper.

There's good reason for this, though, and while it definitely looks the part, the Epiphone “Wino” Les Paul favors affordability over a number of the Gibson's standout specs.

Obviously, the lack of a Murphy Lab treatment helps with the price tag, but at its core the Epi “Wino” looks to be a pretty robust take on Cantrell’s Les Paul.

It features a mahogany body with a plain maple cap and nine-hole weight relief system, and pairs a mahogany neck with a 22-fret ebony fingerboard. Elsewhere, the 24.75”-scale six-string sports a Graph Tech nut, Pearloid block inlays and a 12” fretboard radius.

The guitar has also been treated to an abundance of elegant binding, including seven-ply top, five-ply back and single-ply fretboard binding.

Despite the aesthetic similarities, there are a handful of notable deviations in the electronics department that help explain the affordable price tag. The piezo pickup found in the original, which offered off-the-cuff acoustic tones, has been completely taken out.

Likewise, the 490R and 498T humbuckers have been swapped for Alnico Classic Pro and 98T Pro alternatives, which are controlled by a three-way switch, as well as pickup-specific volume and tone controls.

Other appointments include a “Jerry Cantrell”-printed truss rod cover, two-way adjustable truss rod, LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and Stop Bar tailpiece and, of course, a Dark Wine Red colorway. 

The Epiphone “Wino” Les Paul is available for $849.

Epiphone Jerry Cantrell Prophecy Les Paul Custom

Joining the “Wino” is a comparably minimalist-yet-modern Prophecy Les Paul, headed up by a pair of Fishman Fluence humbuckers and custom Circle in Diamond fretboard inlays.

Said to be made to Cantrell’s specifications, the Prophecy features a double-bound, Ultra Modern weight-relieved mahogany body with a maple cap, as well as a mahogany neck and ebony fretboard. It’s been treated to two extra frets – 24 Jumbo ones in total – and boasts a Graph Tech nut and 12” radius.

Other notable appointments include the custom inlays, Gloss Bone White colorway, “Jerry Cantrell”-adorned truss rod cover, knurled metal control knob covers, brushed stainless steel hardware and an assortment of seven-ply, five-ply and single-ply body and fretboard binding.

Described as the “perfect blend of modern and traditional features”, Cantrell’s second Epi Les Paul comes equipped with coil-splitting Fishman Fluence humbuckers, which offer a trio of different sounds.

By way of push/pull volume and tone controls, the Prophecy promises a range of vintage, Patent Applied For, hot modern and shimmering single-coil tones. The control circuit is completed by a three-way pickup selector switch.

Owing to its slightly souped-up spec sheet, the Prophecy Les Paul is the pricier of the pair, weighing in at $1,149.

To find out more, visit Epiphone.

Last September, it was announced that Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell was linking up with Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil to spearhead a grunge-focused Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp, the aptly titled Sounds of Seattle.

The event itself took place a fortnight ago (February 17-20), and now footage has made its way online, showcasing the electric guitar stars performing a number of their respective bands’ biggest hits alongside a host of camp attendees.

When the event was first announced, Thayil said he was “super excited about the opportunity to connect and re-engage with fans at the Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp”. 

“The past few years have been unusually difficult and at times truly bizarre for the nation and world in general,” he added, “and for the music industry and rock bands in particular."

Well, Thayil made good on his word to reconnect with fans, and can be seen in one video onstage with a vocalist, two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer performing Soundgarden’s 1991 Badmotorfinger number Slaves & Bulldozers.

His camp co-leader Cantrell also got in on the action, with a second video showcasing the Alice in Chains icon joining up with an impromptu house band of fans for a performance of Ain’t Like That. Both videos can be seen above.

As part of Sounds of Seattle, fans were also given the opportunity to perform publicly at a handful of notable Hollywood venues, including The Viper Room and The Whisky-A-Go-Go.

Jane’s Addiction/Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen Perkins, Nickelback bass guitar player Mike Kroeger, Whitesnake’s Joel Hoekstra and Vixen’s Britt Lightning also featured at the event as guest instructors.

Last month, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine made an appearance at Florida's own Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp, and joined fans in the rehearsal room to jam Symphony of Destruction and A Tout Le Monde.

Last July, Alice In Chains electric guitar player Jerry Cantrell released the music video for Atone, a twisty, psychedelic teaser from his third solo album, Brighten.

The song was killer, but what really caught our eyes was the acoustic guitar Cantrell wielded in its video. Boasting Cantrell's signature on the truss rod cover and a square white scratchplate around the soundhole, it sure seemed like a signature twist on Gibson's Songwriter model.

Now, more than six months later, the mystery guitar has finally showed its face. Fittingly named the Jerry Cantrell Atone Songwriter, it's been released in tandem with another Cantrell signature guitar, the Jerry Cantrell Fire Devil Songwriter.

Both guitars are built with a rosewood body – with a Sitka Spruce top and rosewood back and sides – in the Songwriter cutaway shape. They also both feature a mahogany neck and 16" Indian rosewood fretboard sporting 20 standard small crown frets with mother of pearl parallelogram inlays (with a special “12” inlay at the 12th fret to boot.)

The Atone and Fire Devil are armed with an L.R. Baggs VTC under saddle pickup and preamp, with volume and tone controls mounted to the soundhole and a 1/4" endpin jack for connecting to your acoustic guitar amp.

Hardware on both acoustics is gold all around, with Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners and a reverse belly Indian rosewood bridge – with a TUSQ saddle, nut and bridge pins – also coming aboard.

As for signature touches, the Atone and Fire Devil both sport Cantrell's signature on the truss rod cover, and a “JJ” decal on the rear of the headstock.

Where the two acoustics differ is in the prominent illustrations on their body – the Atone features a cream circle around the soundhole, with a black square inside, while the Fire Devil features a "Firefly" pickguard.

Gibson's Jerry Cantrell Atone and Fire Devil Songwriter models both come with a hardshell case, and are available now for $3,749 and $3,999, respectively. The latter is limited to just 100 examples worldwide, so be sure to snap yours up quickly if you're interested.

For more on the guitars, point your browser over to Gibson.

The acoustics come around six months after the unveiling of Cantrell's first signature Gibson, the Murphy Lab-aged “Wino” Les Paul Custom.

During a conversation with Tom Morello on his Maximum Firepower podcast, Jerry Cantrell has recalled Layne Staley’s early fascination with the Rage Against the Machine firebrand’s guitar playing.

Alice in Chains and RATM were both part of the bill at Lollapalooza 1993, an experience Morello cites as formative given it was the politically charged outfit’s first major tour, but it also marked an influential time for Staley’s development as a guitar player.

“I remember, during that tour, Layne really had a shine for you,” Cantrell recalls. “He wanted to play guitar more, and he was kind of intimidated because he didn’t play that much guitar, but he really was turned on by how you played guitar – I was a little hurt by that. [Laughs]”

“But I remember that, and you gave him the spark to learn how to play guitar and write more songs.”

Staley, who favored Gibson SG and Les Paul models, wrote and played guitar on Alice in Chains’ Angry Chair, Hate to Feel and Head Creeps, and also performed on Mad Season’s I Don’t Know Anything during their performance at the Moore Theater in Seattle.

Elsewhere in the interview, Morello shared some of his own memories of Staley during the run.

“He and I had a lot of laughs on that tour, man,” he enthused. “We would have a daily argument of who was more metal: him or me. It would be part metal trivia and part posturing, but I remember that very very fondly.”

Staley and Morello would eventually join forces in supergroup Class of ’99 to record a cover of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) for 1998 sci-fi horror flick The Faculty. It became one of Staley’s final studio appearances prior to his death in April 2002.

To hear Cantrell and Morello’s conversation in full, check out Tom Morello’s Maximum Firepower podcast.

Jerry Cantrell likes to keep nostalgia at arm’s length. “I never look back too much,” he says. “I think if you spend too much time on the past, you’re not moving forward. I was never the kind of guy to just kick back and cruise. I’m always thinking about getting over the mountain. I try to keep my eye on what’s in front of me.”

Even so, the guitarist is happy to spend part of our interview strolling down memory lane, reflecting on those years – now three decades ago – when his band Alice in Chains, along with fellow Seattleites Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and others, fused punk, hard rock and metal for a sound that revolutionized music. 

“It was a cool time,” he says. “It was very personal, and that’s what made it cool. It was exclusive to you and your buddies and your extended friends who would show up to gigs. The musical community in Seattle was going on for a couple of years, and you could feel something percolating. It was just a good energy. Everybody was in a fucking band.”

As for how he now feels looking back at that era in the rear-view mirror, Cantrell lets out a thoughtful sigh. “Sometimes that whole period feels like yesterday; other times it feels like it’s an eternity ago,” he says. “I think we all know that the clock moves a little bit faster than you’d like. Most of the time, it’s a good distance away, but I have those other moments, too.”

For most people, time stood still throughout much of 2020 during the initial wave of the COVID pandemic, and Cantrell was no exception – in virtual lockdown, he was forced to stay close to his home base in Seattle. 

Before COVID hit, he had just recorded most of the basics for his new solo album (a three-way production he shares with Tyler Bates and Paul Figueroa) in Los Angeles, and once he returned to Seattle he resumed work on the record at home studios in one-on-one sessions, or by sending files back and forth between musicians. 

In a strange way, Cantrell almost welcomed the isolation. “I was glad to have something to work on through the whole thing,” he says. “To be honest, it didn’t feel very different from other recordings – being in a studio feels like you’re in a submarine or a cave for months anyway. The only difference was the stress of worrying that nobody got sick, or more important, getting anybody sick. We were all trying to figure it out together, as was the entire globe, with the little information we had, learning a little more as time went on.”

Depending on how you keep score, Brighten is either Cantrell’s third or fourth solo album (in 1998 he issued Boggy Depot, and 2002 saw the release of Degradation Trips, Volumes 1 and 2), and as the record’s optimistic and walloping title track suggests, the guitarist is in a pretty good place these days. 

Perhaps owing to the prevailing notion that he’s a grim and gloomy dude, he lets out a warm laugh and says, “I feel like I’ve been in a pretty good place most of my life. I’ve been a lucky fellow to be able to make something that I care about and use my creativity as an artist, and also as a way to support myself. It’s my job.”

Cantrell kicks Brighten off with Atone, a dusty and bluesy roar that seems to encapsulate everything about his signature sound – the gnashing stacked guitars, sweet-and-sour vocal harmonies and a king-sized riff that sticks to your ribs – in one neat package. 

There are few shades of darkness and solemnity; Siren Song is a heavy-duty mood piece, and the album closes with a chilling cover of Elton John’s Goodbye that pairs doom-drenched guitars with swelling orchestral strings. 

But for the most part, Cantrell imbues his songs with a feeling that’s startlingly sunny. Thanks to the pedal steel licks of Michael Rozon, a breezy Americana charm blows through country rockers Prism of Doubt and Black Hearts and Evil Done. And the gutbucket swagger of Dismembered echoes the freewheeling, down-home vibe of early '70s Stones.

Among the tight-knit group of players Cantrell enlisted for Brighten (Gil Sharone and Abe Laboriel Jr. share drumming duties) is his longtime friend and fellow Seattleite Duff McKagan.

“Like me, Duff’s also got another band that’s pretty good,” Cantrell quips. On some tracks, McKagan came up with his own bass ideas, while on other cuts he deferred to Cantrell, preferring the guitarist’s bass performances on demos. And on a couple of other songs, the two would “Frankenstein” parts, passing a bass back and forth between them. 

“Duff was very cool and would say, ‘You should keep that part you played. I don’t know if I can do it justice,’” Cantrell recalls. “I have such respect for him. He’s a dear friend and a fellow Washingtonian. It really meant a lot to me to have him on the record.”

If his own listening tastes are any kind of gauge, the guitarist thinks Brighten will have some legs once it’s released. “Whenever somebody else hears a record, the artist is well fucking tired of it,” Cantrell says. “I’ve been living with this one a lot longer than I normally would, and it still sounds good to me. It’s got some light and some space and some things that are unique. 

“You want to be familiar enough that you don’t lose people, but at the same time, you want to get into some territory that maybe you haven’t covered yet. And I think that this record is full of that. It’s just a real rock ‘n’ roll record.”

Staying with Seattle for a bit, I’m curious: In the late '80s, before Alice in Chains got signed, and before the town became the epicenter for grunge, did you guys think that maybe you should relocate to New York or L.A.?

“Actually, I think the reason we were able to develop into what we were was because we weren’t in L.A. or New York, where the record companies were. We were outside the view a little bit until somebody started to notice. Soundgarden kind of started it off when they signed with A&M. Sub Pop was definitely a thing, but what took it worldwide was Soundgarden going to a major and [Mother] Love Bone getting a deal. Then we got signed by Columbia, and it just kept rolling.”

In the early days of the band, was it hard for Alice to get gigs? Was the band embraced on the scene pretty quickly?

“There weren’t a whole lot of places to play at first. There were a couple of bars – the Central Tavern, the Vogue. We would play anywhere. We played VFW halls and roller rinks. There was an old converted garage; I remember going to see Mudhoney there. 

“We would just make do. It was really cool to be a part of it, especially at that age because you have dreams and feelings about what you’d like to do, and you’re all the same age. At that age it’s magical; you’re kind of discovering stuff for the first time and going through it together.”

So even while you’re searching for places to play, did real success feel attainable? What did success mean to you at the time? 

“Things were happening enough. We were cool and it was really pure. Our first big goal was to sell out the Central Tavern – that’s the local legendary bar down in Pioneer Square. What mattered to us was being recognized as being a good band that could stand alongside a whole bunch of really good fucking bands from Seattle.”

Present company excluded, who was the best guitar player in Seattle back then? Who was just killing it?

“It’s tough to say; everybody’s so unique. Kim Thayil is crazy. He’s got a crazy style that is unique unto itself. It’s a blend of different styles – super-big and out of control, but right on the fucking edge of coming off the tracks and going right back on. I always admired his playing. 

“I always liked Stone Gossard’s style, too. Super-punk, but also really melodic and based in some kind of regular rock, hard rock, blues-based riffs and stuff. Kurt Cobain was like a cross between punk and pop. His style had a lot of ferocity, and he wrote super-memorable, simple stuff. I don’t know… If I had to pick one, it would be Kim.”

Even though grunge owed a lot to metal, at a certain point in the '90s it seemed as if alternative bands wanted to distance themselves from various aspects of the genre – it wasn’t cool. Did you feel that?

“I’m not sure about that. There might have been some changes about that attitude, maybe outwardly, verbally, but if you listen to the music, it’s in there. It’s in all of the bands. And if you listen to the rock radio up here, that’s the thing. 

“Rock radio was a super-strong staple. KZOK and KSW – and there was a cool college station that played all sorts of shit. This is a very rock-friendly environment; the Northwest has always been that way. Listening to the radio every night, I was awash in that stuff.”

What about anti-major-label sentiments in the Seattle community? Were you hearing things from your friends in town like, “Major labels are the enemy”?

“With Sub Pop, it kind of went hand in hand with how we all started and operated and viewed ourselves. It was all do-it-yourself and not having some A&R guy telling you what to do. You did what you wanted. By the time the majors started coming around, we were all well-versed and well on our way. Collectively as a community, all of the bands had a real foundation and established what their identities were. 

So we were kind of let loose on the world, and that kicked off pretty early. I guess that helped cement the idea that we didn’t fucking need anybody telling us what to do. It was like, 'We can write songs. We know how to rock. We know what our band sounds like.' It was cool. I always loved that we – and most of us – had that experience. I think that’s why the records that were created had such impact.”

So much of the Seattle sound was built on raging guitars, but early on you started introducing acoustics into the mix. What was the initial reaction? Was everybody in the band on board?

“The acoustic guitar has a thing all its own, and pretty early on we started messing around with some acoustic ideas. I think where it all came from was we were doing a demo for Cameron Crowe and his [1992] movie Singles. He asked me to write a song for it, so I wrote Would? I kind of had Andy Wood in mind – he had passed away. 

“We were always demoing stuff and trying things out. I was messing around on some songs with an acoustic, so we took the money from Cameron to demo Would? and then demoed six or seven other tunes. Five of them were what turned out to be Sap.”

“So we just had it around. We were aware at that point that our first record had some impact, and it was a rock record, but see, all the music I grew up listening to and the artists I was influenced by… there are times to get quiet and use different feels and different sounds. It’s not just about full force all the time. We messed around with every element we could. Our attitude was to do what we felt and never try to repeat what we already did, because that’s done. So it was just about moving forward.

“I’ve got to give credit to [Alice in Chains drummer] Sean [Kinney]. We were having a meeting one day and we had these tunes, and he was like, 'Man, we should make an EP of those. I had a dream last night that we put those out on an EP and it was called Sap.' So we did it. 

“We were already writing some of the stuff that would become Dirt, and we knew it would be a while, so we said, 'Why don’t we put that out between the records? It’s like a cool little thing for the fans. We won’t advertise it or have the record company take out any ads or anything. We’ll just make it, and then we’ll put it in the stores.' 

“Columbia was down with that idea from a promotional angle. I’m glad we did that, because it opened us up. We didn’t get pegged or be expected to follow a narrower kind of approach.”

In hindsight, it was good that you released Sap so early in your career. As you say, it prevented you from being pigeonholed.

“As long as you keep writing good songs. Fans are discerning. You throw them a turd and they’re not going to dig that. I’ve always been a firm believer in this. I don’t care if it’s rap, country, disco, rock ‘n’ roll, metal, punk, whatever you want to call it – a good song is a good song, you know what I mean? As long as it’s good, people will follow you.”

Before Alice released Dirt, the band went on tour as openers for Van Halen. What do you remember about that tour and Eddie?

“In our band, Van Halen was always well-loved and embedded in our psyches; and, of course, as a guitar player, Eddie is the top of the mountain in terms of uniqueness and a commitment to excellence. There was nobody like him, and there never will be. That’s just the way it’s supposed to be. That tour was really impactful from a career standpoint and also just an achievement level of, like, 'Wow. OK, I guess we can play with these guys.'

“I remember showing up for the first gig and walking up on the deck and getting ready to play the show. Eddie was sitting there with his guitar on, running scales and he’s smiling and shit. He came over and introduced himself; he was hanging right on the side of the stage in my little pit with my guitars and my guitar tech.

“Valerie was with him; Wolfie was newly born and in her arms. So that’s how the tour started for me, like, 'Holy shit. OK, I’m standing here and fucking Eddie Van Halen is smiling and playing guitar and fucking meeting me. And I’m going to go on stage in about five minutes.' [Laughs]

“I go on to play, and he stayed there and watched me. I think it was the worst fucking gig in my life – at least in my mind because I was so nervous that the dude was sitting watching me. Finally, he went back to his dressing room to get ready for his show, and I think I started to relax a little bit more.

“We stayed with Van Halen for a couple of legs and made really good friends with Eddie. There were a lot of late-night hangs, a lot of pool halls and bars. We’d always end up in each other’s rooms with a couple of guitars. When he came to town, he’d give me a call and vice versa. We also became friends with Sammy. He and I have been buds for a long time.”

Let’s get into your new album. Beyond the sound of your voice, which is always so pleasing to hear, your stacked guitars have a sound all their own. Lots of guitarists layer guitars, but you manage to create a signature sound. What’s your secret? 

“I’ll go back to Eddie Van Halen. I remember reading one time about how Ted Nugent was perplexed by Ed’s sound. The story goes that he went over and plugged into Eddie’s shit to see what kind of secret stuff he had in his rig, and when he started playing he just sounded like Ted Nugent. I had the exact same experience. 

“Once in a while at a soundcheck, I would plug into his amp and I sounded like Jerry Cantrell. In turn, Eddie would play through my shit and sound like Eddie Van Halen. It’s in the fucking hands. It’s in your flesh. You can mess with gear and it will give you a little bit of color, but it’s really in the flesh.”

Atone has such a dirty blues vibe. What are your blues influences?

“Yeah, I call that one a 'psycho hillbilly stomp'. Blues – it’s hard to say. All rock ’n’ roll is based on the blues, a mix of blues and country. That’s an interesting tune. I was chewing on it for a while. The main guitar riff and the chorus progression were in my head since probably the late '90s.

“I demoed it with Sean on some shitty little tape, and then I lost it, so I had to go by memory. I had the chorus, but that beautiful middle section was something else – it takes you years to get to the point where you go, 'OK, now it’s a fucking song.' The weird thing about it is, it’s in an open major tuning, but it sounds minor because of how I play it. Tyler Bates was mystified by that.” 

Black Hearts and Evil Done and Prism of Doubt have a country-rock feel that’s reminiscent of Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection, which was basically his love letter to country music. 

“You’re in the right zone. You can really hear a lot of the roots of what I grew up listening to, the music of the '60s, '70s and '80s and '90s, too. Listening to this record takes me back to being a kid and discovering rock ’n’ roll for the first time. Prism of Doubt reminds me of Steve Miller mixed with a little Frank Black Pixies. Black Hearts is cool; it’s got a country-folk thing going on.”

You’ve got the pedal steel there.

“Great pedal steel player – Michael Rozon. He did four or five tracks.”

Your harmonized guitar solo on Black Hearts works as a nice contrast.

“Yeah, I get to do that every once in a while. Like on [Alice in Chains’] Whale & Wasp and a couple of solos, there’s almost an Allman Brothers Band feel. 

Dismembered sounds like it’s coming from the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. period. Fair enough? 

“Yeah, there’s a little Stones, a little Creedence. It’s got all that. The record has some light and some space. It’s like a summer record, almost. It’s a very good driving record.”

You do end on a somber note, though, with your version of Goodbye.

“Yeah, that’s the last song on [Elton John’s] Madman Across the Water. I didn’t intend for it to end this record; it was just one of those serendipitous things. One of the most amazing things for me has been developing a friendship with Elton. We got to record with him on the Black Gives Way to Blue record, which was incredible, and we’ve been to each other’s shows – it’s wonderful. 

“I sent him a demo of my version of the song and I sent it to David, his partner; I just wanted Elton’s permission and to make sure he was OK with me doing it. Four o’clock in the morning I get a call from David: 'Elton is sitting at the breakfast table right now sobbing at how beautifully you did his song.' Right after that, Elton called and said, 'It’s beautiful. It’s fucking amazing. Of course, you have my permission.'”

What were your main guitars on the record?

“It’s always a healthy mix of Les Paul and G&L Rampages. That’s my main mix, but I’ll use anything to get the tone. We used a bunch of Gibson and Martin acoustics, some Guild. Mostly it was G&L Rampages, Pauls and and SGs. I also used a couple of Explorers and a Firebird. There’s a ton of Gibson on the record.”

You have some of your own Gibson signature models coming out.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff planned for the next year or two. Everybody at the company has been really cool, and we’ve been trying to design kind of Cantrell versions of some Gibson classics. We’re coming out with the Les Paul first. It’s based off a translucent wine-colored Les Paul that I’ve had for years.

“I got four Les Pauls in the early '90s – white, which turned into the cigarette-burned one. That’s kind of got an iconic look to it. There’s also a translucent blue one, the translucent wine and a black one. I use them consistently, but the first one out is the wine. We’ve done a few versions of the Cantrell signature model G&L, but these will be my first signature models for Gibson. We’ve got some acoustics coming, some electrics coming. It’s going to be cool.”

What’s the status of Alice in Chains right now?

“When we do a campaign, it’s a good long commitment from writing, recording, getting a record out and then going out and touring it. Generally, we take a little time off after that. Unfortunately and fortunately, our time off was during the pandemic. I was planning on having this record out last year, touring on it last September, and then I’d see what’s up with Alice. 

“Everything got pushed back. Right now, I’m just concentrating on gearing up for a cool campaign and looking forward to doing some shows to support my record. With Alice, and also for myself, we wanted to be cautious and just wait. 

“It looks like we’re going in the right direction, but we’re still seeing some countries fall back, and that’s pretty tough for touring. I think I’m just going to wait. We’re going to book some sort of announcement, some dates for next year. And then Alice will probably do some shows – probably next year – as well.” 

• Brighten is out now via Double J.

Back in 2016, Nancy Wilson and Jerry Cantrell dusted off their acoustic guitars and rendezvoused with Sammy Hagar for an episode of The Red Rocker's Rock & Roll Road Trip series, which included an intimate jam session.

The stripped-back event was hosted by AXS TV, which has now released a 10-minute, pro-shot snippet that sees the newly formed three-piece reel off renditions of Alice In Chains’ Brother, as well as an at-the-time unheard track written by Wilson.

On the meaning of Brother – which was originally released as part of Alice In Chains’ 1992 acoustic EP Sap – Cantrell tells Hagar, who asked what the song’s about, “Well, it’s in the title. I wrote it about my brother.

“My parents split [when] we were pretty young, and there was a time when me and my brother weren’t getting along too well,” he explained. “And my mom was having a hard time raising us, too. My brother moved in with my dad in Oklahoma, so I didn’t see him for quite a long time. We were separated for a while.”

Wielding his Guild D-55E, Cantrell assumes lead vocal and solo duties, while the guitar pick-less, Takamine-toting Wilson and Guild F-55E-playing Hagar are on hand to lend some serene supporting strums.

Following the performance, Nancy Wilson is now the second Heart member and Wilson sibling to have featured on Brother, after her older sister Ann Wilson sung backing vocals on the original ‘92 recording.

Brother was promptly followed by a previously unreleased track composed by Nancy Wilson – which, by her own admission, was “never finished” at the time of the jam – who had written it about the late Alice In Chains vocalist, Layne Staley.

The cut – now titled The Dragon – has since been reworked and can be found on Wilson’s most recent album, You And Me, though at the time of AXS TV’s jam it was still very much a work in progress.

Wilson once again relies on her pick-less strumming style – which sees her right hand hover unusually high around the 12th fret area – with the quasi-improvised track receiving some subtle, percussive-esque backing from Cantrell.

The lack of a lyrical structure proves to be no problem for Hagar, however, who throws caution to the wind and subjects the emotive track to an abundance of off-the-cuff, classic-rock vocal hooks.

Fancy watching the entire 20-minute episode? You can find the jam session in its entirety at AXSTV.

Jerry Cantrell has a way with chords. The Alice In Chains guitarist can take even the simplest of ideas and supercharge them with an emotional pull that sucks the listener right into the deep end of whatever mood he’s trying to convey. 

From the Seattle group’s original run in the '90s, through his own solo endeavours and since the band’s rebirth in 2005, Cantrell’s mastery has made him one of rock’s true visionaries – a writer and player who makes you hear, feel and believe every word and note.

On his new solo album, Brighten, he’s embracing country music, yet still using the same electric guitar he’s used since Alice In Chains’ debut Facelift – an album that did so much to shape the sound of alternative rock in 1990. His motto: “Do what’s right for you.”

Which artists have influenced you most in terms of songwriting?

“It’s hard to narrow down because I’m just a fan of songwriting in general. I probably got turned onto the idea of it by listening to Elton John. That stuff felt really cool and I knew deep down I’d like to do something like that. I was also raised on country music, which is simplistic songwriting 101. They know how to get something across in a succinct manner. 

“Pink Floyd were a big influence on me, the same goes for Led Zeppelin, Sabbath, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and many more. I think greatest acoustic writer of all-time has got to be Bob Dylan. Or Willie Nelson. Those two guys have been pretty epic and prolific. 

“There are different components to it all, but I’m a guitar player who loves kickass riffs. I grew up on them, so I knew to write something you’d need the riff, the melody, and then something to say. Those are the main things. Then you need a great band to execute it, which is something I’ve been really fortunate with over the years...”

So which of your guitars have you ended up writing most of your songs on?

“For electrics, it’s definitely my 1985 G&L ‘Blue Dress’ Rampage. Funnily enough, I’ve semi-retired that guitar. It’s up at a museum in Seattle right now. When we started making this record, and maybe even the last AIC album, I had to request them to send it back to me for the studio sessions. 

“That guitar has been on every record I’ve ever made, in one form or another. I don’t know if there’s one single acoustic that I’ve written extensively on, that’s a bit more varied and changes depending on the era. 

“For the few years preceding the Unplugged record [Alice In Chains’ MTV Unplugged, released in 1996], it was that Guild. There were other periods where I was really connected to a Martin. And over the last six or seven years, it’s mainly been Gibson Songwriters.”

Speaking of Songwriters, the acoustic you’re playing in the video for the new song Atone has certainly sparked a lot of speculation...

“Yeah, there might be something coming! I have to say, working with JC [James Curleigh, CEO] and Cesar [Gueikian, Brand President] from Gibson has been really good so far. Of course I have a long partnership with G&L, and I’m always going to play them.

“They’re a part of me, a part of my sound. On this album maybe I used more Gibsons and changed the equation a little bit, but I was excited about what they’re doing. It’s Gibson, for God’s sake! They’re so rock ’n’ roll.”

Atone feels more deeply rooted in country rock than anything you’ve recorded before – there’s that minor to major 3rd bend in the riff, for example.

“Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of that country feel in Atone. It’s a very rock and roll record, and you have to remember rock and roll spawned out of country and blues. It’s a mixture of the two. Even if you go back to the AIC EPs and early stuff, country was somewhere in there. It’s always been an ingredient in the mixing bowl.”

And it sounds like you’re using an open C# tuning (C#, G#, C#, F, G#, C#), which we’ve heard before on tracks like Over Now.

“That is absolutely correct. It’s the fourth track I’ve recorded with that particular tuning – there’s Over Now, Nothin’ Song, Hurt A Long Time and now Atone. There’s a hypnotic drone to it – I’ve always been a big fan of that. The tuning almost puts you in a trance, which is what I was going for with Atone, which ended up having an almost Western flavour to it.”

Was it the Alice In Chains rig with you for the sessions, or did you end up trying something different?

“Some of it was the same. Friedman amps are the main rock sound. As always, there was a healthy dose of both Gibsons and G&Ls, and I was peppering in different guitars. Gibson sent over some really cool stuff, four guitars for the record to get some flavours I didn’t have. 

“There was a Firebird, a cool old SG, a Goldtop Les Paul and this Trini Lopez guitar. The way I record is very experimental. It’s like, ‘Okay, let’s try a Laney Klipp and a Flying V with a chorus pedal and a 25-watt Celestion cab!’ And we’ll just see what happens. 

“We’d bring every guitar, amp and pedal I own to the studio and also borrow what we didn’t have. Amp-wise, I know we used some AC30s, Soldanos, Marshalls, there was an Orange in there somewhere, and this really old Fender cab. And it was the same with acoustics – Gibsons, Martins, Guilds, a whole mix of stuff. We go by feel, and I really like that part of it.”

Do you carve out time for writing or does it usually happen on the fly?

“Yeah, it does just come sometimes, though it’s important to put in the necessary work, too. When I lock into a writing phase, I’m in! I know it will be a process of months, maybe a year, but once I’m locked in, I stay there until I’m done. 

“Before that, though, I’m collecting. So whenever you are strumming through ideas and something catches your ear, you need to pick up the phone or use a tape recorder or whatever, record the riff and move on. 

“By the time you get to the point where you are motivated to climb the mountain – because it is a big effort that won’t end until you are truly done – you want plenty of ideas to go into the process with.”

Going back to 1992 and the classic Alice In Chains song Down In A Hole – what do you remember about writing it?

“I couldn’t tell you exactly where or how I came up with it. But that particular tune felt pretty magical early on. Some songs just seem to rise above for some reason and that’s one of them. 

“Songwriting is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. The execution came out really well – Layne [Staley]’s vocals were sick, Sean [Kinney]’s drums were plodding and thunderous and Mike Starr’s bass playing is epic on that, too. You have to give a ton of credit to the group of fellas who elevated it and put themselves into it. 

“I may have written it but it needed all of us to push into the place where it lives. In terms of songwriting, it’s certainly among my best and one of the ones I’m most proud of.”

On that song there’s no guitar solo as such, just some big harmonised bends at the beginning and a laid-back outro lead. You were clearly playing for the song, first and foremost.

“Sometimes you don’t need a ‘solo’ solo. There were a few songs on this new album that didn’t need one, either. Sometimes it’s better to make your guitar part of the fabric and sometimes you need to unzip the fly and whip it out. It just depends on what the song needs.”

On those first two Alice In Chains albums – Facelift and Dirt – you played a big part in popularising drop D-style riffing with songs such as We Die Young and Dam That River. When did you first start tuning down?

“I have to give Eddie Van Halen all the credit. I learned drop D because of Unchained. I just loved the sound of him on that, it was so heavy. As we were forming the band, I was already messing with tuning a half step down anyway. So when you drop that lower string further, it’s a note and a half from standard. 

“And that adds a ton of thickness and sludge – it can make you way more brutal sounding for the heavier shit, like Dam That River, but even on the lighter stuff, too. It just adds this weight to everything. I don’t think we’ve ever recorded in regular pitch, to be honest.”

How much do scales and chord theory play a part in your songwriting process? 

“I’ve got a little knowledge. I had a few lessons when I was starting out. I was able to read music well even before I started playing guitar, because I was in the choir. I couldn’t do it now. 

“I left that behind and kinda wish I hadn’t, because it would make things a lot easier! I don’t know why – I guess sometimes it’s fun to turn the lights out. No guides, no grids, no vision. See what the fuck happens and dig your way out of that. 

“I think about diving back into that stuff, but the other half of me says, ‘You’ve been doing pretty good so far, why fuck with it?!’ That’s all that matters... Do what’s right for you.”

And what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned along the way?

“My biggest advice would be don’t listen to what anyone else says... Ever. If it’s a producer or another songwriter or someone you respect, you can learn some shit from them, so don’t completely disregard stuff – information is a good thing – but personal experience is where music should come from.

“It’s gotta come from you. If it makes you feel, it will make somebody else feel. Believe in yourself and you can write your own Dirt or Brighten or whatever it is!”

• Brighten is out now.

Jerry Cantrell has announced An Evening with Jerry Cantrell, an intimate stream recorded from Los Angeles that will feature a six-song set, as well as a storytelling and Q&A session.

The sold-out performance will be recorded at LA’s Grammy Museum this evening (November 18), and will subsequently be repurposed as a ticketed stream event by Moment House that will be available to US fans on December 1 at 6pm PST.

An Evening with Jerry Cantrell will also be available to UK and EU fans on December 2 at 6pm GMT, and to Asia, Australia and New Zealand on the same date at 6pm JST.

After purchasing tickets – which are currently available for $12 – holders will be able to stream the event for 24 hours.

Highlights will include a streamlined set comprising tracks from the Alice In Chains’ guitarist’s recently released solo album, Brighten, that will be performed alongside musicians who feature on the record, including Tyler Bates, Greg Puciato, Gil Sharone, George Adrian, Vincent Jones, Michael Rozon.

The event will also include a storytelling session – which will no doubt include some tasty anecdotes from Cantrell's Alice In Chains and solo career – as well as a Q&A hosted by comedian Jeff Garlin.

And, judging by both the size of the session and the promo picture provided, those in attendance may get a closer look at Cantrell’s unique Gibson Songwriter acoustic guitar, which has been touted as a forthcoming signature six-string.

Tickets are available now for $12 as preorders, but will also be available on the day of the show for $15.

To find out more, head over to Moment House.

This evening’s performance and the following streams will cap off a busy year for Cantrell, who released his first project without Alice In Chains for 19 years. The guitarist also teamed up with Gibson for a high-end “Wino” Les Paul Custom electric guitar.

It’s been a fairly busy year so far for Jerry Cantrell. As well as teaming up with Gibson for a high-end “Wino” Les Paul Custom electric guitar and teasing an upcoming signature Gibson Songwriter acoustic guitar, the Alice In Chains guitarist has also been promoting his new solo album, Brighten.

If his recent conversation with Life In The Stocks podcast is anything to go by, however, Cantrell has no plans to take his foot off the gas, and has instead voiced his enthusiasm for a potential collaboration with Faith No More.

While speaking to the podcast, Cantrell spoke of Faith No More’s Mike Patton’s evergreen creativity and profound influence.

When quizzed by radio presenter-turned-podcast host Matt Stocks if he’s ever jammed with Patton, Cantrell replied, “[I] never have, but I would love to. That guy is sick," before reflecting on the time he saw the Patton-fronted Mr. Bungle in LA in February 2020.

Cantrell continued, “Patton is sick. I love how versatile he is, the energy that he has. He’s got so many different voices, I don’t think that he’s ever satisfied, and that’s why he keeps swimming so fast.

“It’s just amazing to see all the notes and the different art he puts out,” he added, before revealing he originally decided to start making indie records as a result of Patton’s influence – a decision that lead to Brighten; his first-ever independently-released solo album.

“I also took a little bit of a lesson out of his book by going it alone and making indie records," he continued. “[Former Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist and Cantrell collaborator] Greg Puciato is good buddies with Patton as well, and he’s also had experience doing independent records and running everything out of a little mom-and-pop store instead of a major record label.

“So that’s another really interesting feature about this record. It’s my first completely independent record. And I definitely took some notes and guidance from Greg, and Mike Patton through Greg, in that department.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Cantrell reflected on his second solo album, 2002’s Degradation Trip, saying that he and the album’s personnel – Metallica’s Robert Trujillo and Faith No More’s Mike Bordin, who both played together with Osbourne – have discussed the possibility of a reunion tour in the future.

“Everybody who’s involved in making a record, especially the players, they’re going to influence how the thing is going to turn out,” Cantrell mused. “I deeply appreciate and respect those guys, and I love them to death.

“Every once in a while we’ll be in the same place, the three of us, and we talk about doing a D-Trip reunion. Just a handful of shows. I would love to do that.”

The Seattle scene of the late-’80s and early-’90s gave birth to a cultural and musical revolution, driven by some truly great guitar players who reimagined punk, metal and hard rock in their own image. Now, Jerry Cantrell, leader of quintessential Seattle rockers Alice in Chains, has named who he considers the greatest guitarist to emerge from the boom.

During a new Guitar World interview promoting recently released solo effort Brighten, Cantrell was asked who he’d dub the best guitar player in Seattle during grunge’s glory days.

“It’s tough to say; everybody’s so unique,” he responds. “Kim Thayil is crazy. He’s got a crazy style that is unique unto itself. It’s a blend of different styles – super-big and out of control, but right on the fucking edge of coming off the tracks and going right back on. I always admired his playing.

“I always liked Stone Gossard’s style, too. Super-punk, but also really melodic and based in some kind of regular rock, hard rock, blues-based riffs and stuff. Kurt Cobain was like a cross between punk and pop. His style had a lot of ferocity, and he wrote super-memorable, simple stuff.

“I don’t know... If I had to pick one, it would be Kim.”

It makes sense that Thayil would be the frontrunner – the Soundgarden guitarist was integral to the development of Alice in Chains’ sound, having introduced Cantrell to drop D tuning at the tail end of the ’80s.

“I remember that the Alice in Chains guys at the time were more like a glam-metal boogie band,” Thayil told Guitar World back in 2012. “One day I ran into Jerry [Cantrell] at a D.O.A. concert, and he says to me, ‘Man, I love that song Nothing to Say. What are you doing there?’ And I told him, ‘Well, it’s in drop D tuning.’ And Alice in Chains became a different band almost overnight!”

Alice in Chains would cover Soundgarden classic Hunted Down during their early years, and reprised their rendition, along with a cover of Down on the Upside’s Boot Camp, for 2018’s Rock on the Range performance, in tribute to late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell.

Thayil later returned the favor, tackling It Ain’t Like That, Drone and Angry Chair for Alice in Chains’ Museum of Pop Culture Founders Award ceremony last year.

Cantrell and Thayil are set to join forces for a Sounds of Seattle rock camp in February 2022, which also features original Pearl Jam drummer Dave Krusen – and, we’d wager, a masterclass in drop D tuning.

To read the full interview with Cantrell, pick up a copy of the latest issue of Guitar World, which also features an exclusive look back at U2’s Achtung Baby with the Edge, as well as conversations with Tom Morello, Iron Maiden and Carlos Santana.

Jerry Cantrell remembers exactly where he was when he first heard Metallica’s fifth record – sat in a car with drummer Lars Ulrich. The Danish-born drummer was naturally excited about the music his band were about to unleash onto the world and keen to share the anticipation with friends. 

The Alice In Chains guitarist, whose band had released their Facelift debut the year prior, even remembers which of The Black Album’s 12 genre-defining tracks got queued up first. As it would for countless others following its release, the music that blasted out of the car stereo that day left a long-lasting impression…

“I was sitting in a car with Lars when he first played that shit to me – because you’d always show your friends and rock out to new riffs in the car,” Cantrell tells Guitar World, in between promoting his new solo record Brighten and his new signature guitar with Gibson. “The first thing I heard was Sad But True and I was like, ‘Fuck, man… this is unbelievable!’ 

“They are a band that have the fury and the control and they are able to release the power at key moments. That’s what made them one of the bands I’ve always admired. I’m lucky to be able to call all of those guys my dear friends.”

But it was more than just a record that turned Metallica into one of the biggest-selling bands of all-time, reasons Cantrell. It was the sheer ferocity they brought to the stage and the brutal conviction they were playing with, taking heavy metal to its limits in just about every conceivable way. Seeing the four horsemen live in the flesh during this golden age was the stuff of legend, like witnessing history in the making…

“On top of the music part of it, their live shows were insane,” continues Cantrell. “Just being that band is enough but when you see them thrown on stage, plugged into a PA and letting it rip, they definitely left everyone satisfied. And then there was the whole theatrical aspect of the shows they were putting on… fuck, man!

“Every tour had its own special thing, like when they did …And Justice For All with the stage falling apart. And then they started doing the whole in-the-round thing. Even if you forget about the genre and the band for a second, they’ve been at the very forefront of putting on epic shows. That’s what you shoot for, I guess. That’s what makes them the highest flag on the mountain of rock.”

If you were forced to pick, what would be your one defining guitar moment on The Black Album?

“That’s really tough. I’m never good at picking the best of anything, I never really know what to say… but I guess it would be the riff to Sad But True, which is pretty fuckin’ sick. That whole record is like a perfect record, though. You’re lucky enough if you make one of those in your career and they made about five, you know?”

The Black Album’s success did a lot for heavy metal – to the point where it’s hard to imagine what the genre would be like without it…

“I think that’s because the record was bigger than heavy metal. It put them into the stratosphere of the most successful bands in the world, out of any genre, and broke the ceiling for how far a metal group could go. It’s admirable. I feel like the artistic risk and sense of growth is what makes it a perfect record…

“Which is why I can’t say Sad But True is any more meaningful to me than Enter Sandman or Holier Than Thou or Nothing Else Matters or Wherever I May Roam. I could go on… every one of those songs is just perfect. 

“The Unforgiven is an amazing piece, too. It’s like what would happen if Ennio Morricone wrote a metal tune. That’s what it is, fuckin’ badass! But if you’re asking for pure dick-in-your-face Metallica riffs, it’s gotta be Sad But True.”

Looking at the run they had going into this album, they were simply unstoppable. When did you first become aware of them? 

“Before I really started out as a musician, I was listening to Kill ‘Em All and Ride The Lightning a lot, which were the albums that indoctrinated me into them. I have to say Hetfield’s right hand is really something else. There’s nobody else that has that… he has the best picking hand in rock. The precision and power of his playing is otherworldly!

“Those first five records were made a couple of years apart from each other. What a run! And it culminated on The Black Album. You can hear the upward trajectory. All of those records are transcendent, in the same way as [Guns N' Roses'] Appetite For Destruction or [Nirvana's] Nevermind. 

“They are the kind of records that were bigger than the band or genre they came from, taking on another form of life. Being a band is a long journey. The odds of success are stacked mightily against you…”

And in Metallica’s case they rose to the challenges and overcame the odds, even after losing Cliff. Similar things can be said about Alice In Chains…

“I look to those guys as a musical inspiration just for being on their own journey. And yeah, we’ve done a similar thing in our own way. Through challenges and losses, it’s been amazing to see them move forward. They’re always seeking a new level, seeing where they could do or looking for ways to top what they’ve done before or try things they’ve never done. 

“They’re unafraid to adapt and grow, that’s what it comes down to. The Black Album is the summary of that – moving into the future without caring for anyone else’s opinion. That’s what makes it fuckin’ amazing. To me, they’re the best of the best, the top of the heap… and also top-shelf geezers!”

• The remastered 30th Anniversary Black Album is out now via Blackened Recordings.

Jerry Cantrell has shared Siren Song, the third single from his upcoming solo album Brighten. 

Following the moody, acoustic-driven Atone and the album's sludgy title track, Siren Song sees the Alice in Chains guitarist kick off proceedings with crystalline finger-picked acoustic guitar, before his band enter for a fuller-sounding classic rock arrangement.

That band is made up of drummer Gil Sharone, pianist Jordan Lewis, pedal steel player Michael Rozon, and backing vocalist Greg Puciato, while Joe Barresi – who handled mixing duties on the album – plays the triangle, though he's probably a little overqualified.

Brighten was co-produced by film composer Tyler Bates – who is known for his work on 300 and John Wick, for example – as well as engineer Paul Fig, and includes bass contributions from Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan.

Though there was no accompanying video attached to Cantrell's ethereal new single, we strongly suspect the track was assembled using what could be his much-teased upcoming signature Gibson Songwriter acoustic.

After all, Cantrell was shown flexing an unusual, white scratchplate-equipped six-string in his video for Atone.

If such speculation turns out to be true, it will be Cantrell's second Gibson signature guitar of the year, after the rock icon was treated to a luxurious, ultra-high-end Gibson "Wino" Les Paul Custom, which carries an eye-watering price tag of $8,999.

No doubt we'll hear all the above plus more in action when Brighten, which is only days away from its release date, finally arrives.

Brighten is available to preorder now ahead of its release next week (October 29).

Having spoken to Metallica's Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield about their memories of their totemic 1991 eponymous unit-shifter, aka The Black Album, it's time to check in with the pros, the peers who saw the Bay Area metal titans' evolution in real time, and those who were inspired by this new hi-definition, radio-friendly brand of stadium metal.

Here, have 16 guitar greats, from Jerry Cantrell to John Petrucci to Mark Tremonti to Diamond Rowe, each explaining the riffs, the tracks and the tones that made the album something special.

Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains)

“I guess it would be the riff to Sad But True, which is pretty fuckin’ sick. That whole record is like a perfect record, though. You’re lucky enough if you make one of those in your career, and they made about five, you know? This record was bigger than heavy metal. It put them into the stratosphere of the most successful bands in the world and broke the ceiling of how far a metal group could go. It’s admirable. 

“The artistic risk and sense of growth is what makes it a perfect record. Which is why I can’t say Sad But True is any more meaningful to me than Sandman or The Unforgiven or Nothing Else Matters or Wherever I May Roam. I could go on; every one of those songs is perfect. The Unforgiven is an amazing piece too; it’s like what would happen if Ennio Morricone wrote a metal tune. That’s what it is, fuckin’ badass! 

“But [back to] Sad But True. Hetfield’s right hand is something else. There’s nobody else that has that, he has the best picking hand in rock. The precision and power of his playing is otherworldly.”

Jen Majura (Evanescence)

“I was just teaching it to one of my seven-year-old guitar students. The 12/8 West Side Story intro melody is totally approachable for young guitar players, and after the first riff gets the vibe started, that second layer riff – that, at first, seems to go against it – completes it. 

“This combination leads into the dynamic snare fill, which turns into this amazing Metallica groove. You can hear Hetfield sing, 'Don’t tread on me' twice, before the stomping verse with a chromatic riff movement is upping the energy of the song. The major/minor harmony-game in the beginning of the chorus together with guitars and drums is one of the classic features on this album.” 

Richie Faulkner (Judas Priest)

“Very few will say it’s their favorite track, but this solo sticks out for me. A lot of it has to do with seeing their process of recording on [the 1992 documentary] A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica. I watched it religiously, seeing how the songs were constructed. 

“One part was them recording the solo for The Struggle Within. Kirk was in there, coming up with the leads. It was interesting to see that process and understand how he was thinking – 'This is the song, this is the idea, I’m going to start with this, go through these changes and end up with something else!' You could see the sounds being created, the songs being created, the solos being created. 

“I remember watching Kirk, and he was struggling, like 'Shit, this isn’t working for me, what do I do' … Watching the studio process broken down like that was so inspiring. You could see their pursuit of making it thicker, heavier and more muscular.” 

Bill Kelliher (Mastodon)

“When I first heard The Black Album, I was... not disappointed, but because of the cleaner singing, I was like, “Whatever!' But later I went back to listen to it and was like, “Holy fuck!” That record is so good. I could name any song or any riff as a defining moment. 

“The Sad But True riff is perfect, for example. I learned it on guitar recently because it sounds so simple yet so big with the palm-muting. It’s a real chugga-chugga record; every song has lots of that going on. 

“Once I learned it, I couldn’t stop playing it. It’s such a satisfying riff. That’s why we’re guitar players, right? It’s fun playing other people’s music. It makes you feel good. I totally understand why cover bands have a lot of fun doing what they do.”

• Bill Kelliher reveals what he learned from touring with the biggest metal band in the world, and shares his thoughts on The Black Album, 30 years on

Justin Hawkins (The Darkness)

“My abiding memory of The Black Album is always Sad But True, and it’s the opening gambit of that song. We were filming the One Way Ticket video in Iceland and driving through a glacier at night with the Northern Lights in the sky. 

“That track was playing in a van full of the band and supporting crew. It was just so moving and so powerful, experiencing that record in that environment. I can’t imagine anything else would have had the same effect, really. It felt so immense. I think it still inspires us to this day, doesn’t it? When I say us, I mean humankind.”

John Petrucci (Dream Theater) 

“The riff that starts at about 22 seconds into Sad But True is a perfect example of one of the ultimate guitar sounds ever recorded. The percussive 'chunk' sound that occurs when palm-muting a power chord with all down-strokes is such a signature quality of the Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ amp used on this album, the same amp responsible for the guitar sounds on Master of Puppets. 

“Once described by a dear friend of mine as the sound made when 'smashing a steel pipe against a brick wall,' that specific tonal quality can only come from that amp and was captured flawlessly on the recording and in the performance of this song. 

“The Black Album epitomizes the perfect balance between memorable, heavy riffs, incredible songwriting and stellar production. It showed that a metal band can write an album filled with crushing guitar tones and still achieve overwhelming commercial success. 

“It showed the world how Metallica would pioneer the next phase of guitar-driven metal and bring their signature sound to more people than ever before without compromising what we all loved about them.”

Vogg (Decapitated/Machine Head) 

“The intro to Enter Sandman is pure genius. That clean channel sounds like liquid glass, and then Kirk’s riff is like the Holy Grail. To start the album with that was mind-blowing for everyone listening for the first time. 

“Sad But True had this heaviness and groove, thanks to the tempo and lower tuning… I’m sure a lot of guitar players will tell you it’s their favorite riff on the album. It also has one of my favorite solos on the album – and the tones across the board were amazing. 

“Holier Than Thou feels like you’re driving at 300 mph on Formula One! There’s a moment after the solo where the bass goes together with the drums and then the guitars come in one by one with an amazing thrashy feel that only Metallica can deliver.” 

Diamond Rowe (Tetrarch) – The Unforgiven

“Kirk's solo on The Unforgiven is probably my favorite guitar moment on the album, followed by the main riff to Enter Sandman. I also have to mention the riffs in Sad But True. The rhythms and solos on the album taught guitar players like me how to write theoretically heavy riffs while still keeping them catchy. 

“You can sing back most of the solos and riffs – and that isn’t as easy as one may think it is to create. It’s a very important album because I believe it was the first time a band as heavy as Metallica brought hard music to the pop forefront. They crushed every stereotype that a metal band could be given and became a global music sensation while playing a genre that was typically only seen as underground. It really paved a way for bands to come – and it still does to this day.” 

Mark Holcomb (Periphery) – Sad But True

“All these years later, the main riffs and rhythm tones from Sad But True are still oppressively heavy. In the '90s, I was an old-school Metallica purist, so The Black Album was a departure for me in that a lot of the technicality and proggy elements from previous records were gone… so I didn’t come around right away. 

“In fact, I found myself a little disappointed at first as I loved the long arrangements, impossibly fast riffs and angular sections from …And Justice for All. The Black Album was not any of those things. But Sad But True, and that main riff in particular, illustrated something I still hold onto: [the fact that] mix, tone and production can make a riff hit a million times harder. 

“If your tone and mix are dialed in, using fewer notes actually adds more weight and impact to a riff. In contrast, you could play one of the crazy riffs from Master of Puppets or Blackened on a $30 distortion pedal plugged into a lo-fi baby monitor and it’d sound a little impressive. 

“But what The Black Album did for me was prove that when the drums sound enormous, the guitars are clear and the bass sits in the mix just right, restraint sounds even more menacing than complexity.” 

Nick Johnston

“It isn't one single moment; it’s the overall sound design and cumulative power. Everything from the thunderous tom sound Lars brought forth on Enter Sandman, the unexpected sensitivity and raw emotion of Nothing Else Matters, the mysterious and exotic lines of Wherever I May Roam and the prototypical riffs of Sad But True. 

“I remember being 14 and experiencing those early days of guitar magic, where the instrument seemed to pull me in closer with promises of identity and confidence. Kirk’s solos on The Unforgiven and Enter Sandman provided an escape from everyday life. I wouldn’t be the guitar player I am today without The Black Album.”

Satchel (Steel Panther)

“After the seond refrain in The Unforgiven, there’s a solo where Kirk switches from Mixolydian to harmonic minor and hits the raised seventh over the minor five chord. 

“Anyone who has studied music knows that even though this should create enough dissonance to make [Steel Panther singer] Michael Starr shit his diaper, the scooped mid frequency of the guitars makes it possible mathematically to raise the volume to well over 150 dBs in your car (assuming your stereo is like mine) and achieve the ability to wake most neighbors within a three-mile radius. 

“Listen… I don’t know what the best moment is on this album, and that’s the point. That’s what makes this record awesome. Do you think James’ grandma ever told him he had a beautiful voice? He didn’t give a fuck. He sang anyway. Do you think Kirk gave a fuck that he wasn’t as technically advanced as Steve Vai? No. This is what being in a band is – four guys who are more together than apart. 

“When I listen to The Black Album I hear songs that are simple, heavy and awesome. It’s still inspiring, just like Van Halen’s debut, just like Nevermind. And just like those records, it makes us mere mortals feel like we can achieve awesomeness with enough determination and practice. And maybe… Bob Rock.”

Jake Pitts (Black Veil Brides) 

“The opening riff of Sad But True is what does it for me. It’s more than just the riff – it’s the tone. Listen to how beefy and chunky the guitars sound. Being 13, I noticed right away that I loved this guitar tone, and the production of The Black Album as a whole, and I knew I had to figure out how to get these sounds. 

“That’s what started down my path into the production world from such a young age. Of course, I had to learn the long and hard way. I thought saving up my money and changing my bridge pickup to a better one would be the answer, and – like I said – I found out the hard way that there was way more to it! 

“But I have to give credit to this album, and the production of Bob Rock for sending me down this path into the world of recording and producing. Little did I know many years later in 2014, I’d be making a Black Veil Brides album with the man himself [Black Veil Brides].”

Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) 

“The intro to Sad But True. It’s deceptively simple. It is wide enough to not overwhelm the brain upon listening, but anyone who has dared to cover that song quickly realizes how difficult it is to play correctly – and with the right feel. 

“Many people don’t realize how hard that is for a rock band to pull off that universal 'big dumb' while simultaneously keeping it stimulating. And the whole album is like that! It’s one complete thought and an incredible journey for the listener. If it weren’t for The Black Album, so many would have never been introduced to the power that is Metallica.”

Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge)

“When I learned The Call of Ktulu as a kid, it really helped me develop my fingerstyle abilities. It definitely molded me into the fingerstyle player I am today. Since then, every time I would look at new Metallica releases, I’m always keeping an eye out for those kinds of patterns. 

“For me, Nothing Else Matters is the standout track on that album because of the great classical-style vibe it has. I also was surprised and enjoyed hearing James Hetfield take a lead on that track. It was an emotional solo that stood out to me. I learned how to play that song as soon as the record came out.” 

Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge/Slash)

“It would have to be the solo James plays on Nothing Else Matters. The way the song crescendos into his blues-based lead connected with me from the moment I heard it.

“For a guy who was known for his rhythm chops, it was cool to hear him express himself as a lead player with a wonderful sense of phrasing, intense emotion and a stellar tone. I remember so many of my guitar students bringing that record in for me to transcribe. 

“I couldn’t begin to count how many times I wrote out the riff to Enter Sandman! The best part was seeing how happy and empowered the students were after they were able to play it on their own.” 

Phil Demmel (Vio-Lence)

“The intro riff to Through the Never is killer and always has me headbanging when I hear it, because it’s reminiscent of the Master of Puppets riff where Papa Het just owns the right-hand jackhammer and sets the bar in that department. It’s pure down-picking brutality. 

“After not loving ...And Justice for All so much, I was hoping for a more cohesive record. I didn’t really like the tones, and the tunes were a bit redundant. I lost interest early and maybe moved on a bit from the band. Vio-Lence was writing and started to record when I heard The Black Album for the first time, and I, like everyone else, was floored. It sounded perfect. 

“The tones were clear and crunchy and up in the mix, while the riffs and performances were on point. It showed James’ clean guitar brilliance, and his solos were so surprisingly good, and then it also had Kirk’s most hummable and memorable leads.”

Jerry Cantrell once gave Axl Rose a demo tape when Alice in Chains were in their nascent years – and the Guns N' Roses frontman threw it away.

As he explained in a speech honoring Slash at the Sunset Strip Music Festival in 2010, he went to see GNR in concert, and “brought a demo tape down to give the band”.

"I met Axl after the show actually," Cantrell continues. "I gave it to him, and as he was walking away I saw him throw it away."

Now, in a new conversation on the Appetite for Distortion podcast, Cantrell remembers the experience, adding that although his demo tape was binned, Guns N' Roses remained a major influence on the early sound of Alice in Chains.

“I did speak to him about it at a club in New York,” the AIC guitarist says. “We had never really met before, other than just kind of meeting backstage at the show in Seattle at the arena where I gave him the demo tape.

“I can't remember what was on it. They were an important band to us, and Appetite [for Destruction] is one of a handful of records that's one of those epic things that transcends space and time and the band. It's a worldwide massive record and it's perfect.”

He also remembers being in a club with The Cult's Billy Duffy, when Axl Rose entered the room.

“He comes over and is like, ‘I heard you telling that story about you giving me that demo tape – are you still with that girl that you met there?’

“It's kind of just one of those fun things, when you're proud of your band when you're kind of unknown, and they were pretty damn huge. People still give me their demo tapes all the time.”

Jerry Cantrell's been a busy man in 2021, releasing two tracks from his newly announced fourth solo album, Brighten, and unveiling his brand-new Murphy Lab-aged “Wino” Les Paul Custom signature model with Gibson.

Jerry Cantrell has unveiled the title track of his new solo album, Brighten, which is due to land October 29.

The Alice In Chains guitarist’s new song is a swinging, distortion-heavy slab of stoner-y grunge. It opens with a sleazy hard-rock riff and tops it with thick layers of fuzz, feedback and guitar harmonies.

The album was co-produced with film composer Tyler Bates and (300, John Wick) and Paul Fig, including contributions from pedal steel Michael Rozon, alongside Duff McKagan, who appears on bass on a few tracks, and Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato, who handles backing vocals.

Brighten follows the debut single, Atone, released at the end of July. The video for that track gave us a teasing glimpse of what we strongly suspect is a new Gibson Jerry Cantrell Signature Songwriter acoustic.

It’s not the only new gear we’ve seen from the guitarist, lately. He recently unveiled a new ultra-high-end Murpy Lab-aged Gibson Jerry Cantrell “Wino” Les Paul Custom, which is limited to 100 instruments and set to retail for $8,999.00.

Meanwhile, Guitar World caught up with the guitarist and songwriter recently and related a sweet story about Eddie Van Halen gifting Jerry Cantrell some EVH guitar and hijacking his soundchecks, which might have to hold us over until he releases the new album and finally confirms that Gibbo acoustic is happening...

Pre-order Jerry Cantrell’s new album Brighten.

Alice in Chains electric guitar hero Jerry Cantrell and Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil are set to co-lead a rock camp titled, appropriately enough, the Sounds of Seattle.

Set to take place over Presidents' Day weekend, February 17-20, 2022, in Los Angeles, the camp will also feature original Pearl Jam drummer Dave Krusen. The event is presented by Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp.

“The past few years have been unusually difficult and at times truly bizarre for the nation and world in general, and for the music industry and rock bands in particular," Thayil said of the camp in a press release. "I am super excited about the opportunity to connect and re-engage with fellow musicians and fans at the Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp.”

In addition to learning from and jamming with the grunge legends, the camp will provide attendees with the opportunity to perform publicly at legendary Hollywood venues The Viper Room and The Whisky-A-Go-Go.

Other instructors at the camp include Jane's Addiction/Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen Perkins, Nickelback bass guitar man Mike Kroeger, Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra, Vixen guitarist Britt Lightning and other hard rock luminaries.

For more info and to book your own spot, stop by Rock Camp.

Just last week, Gibson announced the first of the Jerry Cantrell models that have been rumored over the last year or so. What they’ve confirmed so far is that only 100 of the ‘Wino’ Les Paul Customs will be made, each hand-signed by Cantrell on the back of the headstock. 

The Murphy Lab-aged Wine Red finish pays tribute to the Alice In Chains guitarist’s original, and the guitars will feature Gibson 490R and 498T humbuckers, as well as a Fishman Powerbridge piezo to cover the acoustic tones the Seattle legends are famous for.

“We have some really exciting things planned over the next four or five years,” the Alice In Chains singer/guitarist tells GW. “The Wino is coming out first and then there will be a few other models after. Expect some really cool guitars either designed by the both of us or replicas of what I’ve played over the years with my own modifications.”

That’s not all the alternative rock legend has been up to over lockdown. There’s the 30th anniversary reissues of AIC’s Facelift debut which came out at the end of last year and, of course, his upcoming third solo album, Brighten – which arrives this October, some 19 years after its predecessor. 

We also couldn’t help but notice the video for its lead single, Atone, could very well have been teasing his next signature model – a custom acoustic with a square white scratchplate around the soundhole and the guitarist’s name on the truss rod cover. 

As the man himself tells us, there are some very exciting things on the way. In this catch-up with Guitar World, the Seattle hero talks through his signature Friedman amps and pedalboard, and explains how it felt to be reunited with a guitar gifted to him by Eddie Van Halen two decades after it was stolen…

Last year, your music was celebrated at the MoPOP benefit show in Seattle with some incredible cover versions. Ann Wilson doing Rooster was one of many highlights.

“Yeah, she’s amazing and she’s been a real deal friend to us for many years. Around the time William [DuVall] joined, we did a show with Ann singing and she passed the mic over to Will and they finished it together. It’s really cool she picked that to do. She actually recorded it and sent me a vinyl single for her new record, it was the B-side. I was pretty honored by that, too. Fishbone was amazing. And Dallas Green. 

“And fuckin’ Tad… man, I love Tad, with the Soundgarden guys. Lily Cornell Silver doing Black Gives Way To Blue with Chris DeGarmo. Everybody killed it. The song choices were great, there were some real deep cuts that people picked and Liz was amazing. It was really cool. 

“I had moments where I was quite overwhelmed, actually. The part that got me the most was the kids. I started tearing up when they started playing our tunes. There was a real sense of community. 

“Everybody in that show decided to pull together and do a cool thing for charity, and also honor the life and music of this band, but they’re also people that we admired and friends. 

“It showed a sense of community that’s tough to put into words but it was an amazing experience, especially considering what we’re all living through and all the difficulties of pulling that together with Covid. Everyone banded together. It really meant a lot.”

We have to say, Nona Weisbaum [as seen on 1995 AIC mockumentary The Nona Tapes] also did an excellent job...

“It was hard getting hold of her, you know?! Her agent was asking for a little too much but we finally settled on a price and got her to come in and give us a little shoutout [laughs].”

Amp-wise, are you still running two of your signature Friedman JJ-100s, one clean into Greenbacks and the other driven into Vintage 30s?

“Yep, I love my Double J! Dave Friedman is a great dude, man. I’ve known him a long time and he makes great gear. I’m really happy with the collaboration we came up with. It’s such a versatile amp, but at the end of the day, it’s just a basic plug-in-and-go rock amp. You can hammer nails with that thing all day and it’s going to frickin’ hold up for you.”

And pedal-wise, you’ve generally stuck to a few key pedals over the years, like a Boss chorus for Rooster and your signature Cry Baby for various leads…

“Yeah, there’s a few things I tend to have on the 'board. I always have a chorus in the mix. The Rotovibe is one I’ve gone to a bit as well. And of course, the main effect I’ve used consistently over the years, probably the one I’m most associated with, is the Cry Baby.

“When we were designing my signature one, I was after something a little thicker, with a darker edge to it. Other than that, I guess we use a flanger once in a while…”

Ah yes, we’d seen the EVH flanger on the ‘board at points too. We loved that story about you supporting Van Halen on tour and coming back to find he’d sent you a couple of guitars and an entire rig as a gift...

“Yeah, that was pretty amazing. He had a really big heart. It meant a lot then and it means even more to me now that he’s gone, that he took a shine to me. We had a little bond, you know. It was a really cool thing. 

“Any time we got the chance to hang, going to a pool hall or just meeting at his hotel and whipping out a couple of guitars or just sitting around backstage. Sometimes I’d be late for soundcheck and I’d show up and he’d be up there with the band, fuckin’ rockin’ out with them [laughs].”

That’s hilarious!

“Yeah! And honestly, those two EVH guitars mean the world to me. One of them was the Goldtop that went missing when I was making [2002 solo album] Degradation Trip. Somebody lifted it out of the A&M studio. 

“I just got it back a few years ago – a couple of AIC fans and collectors tracked it down and tried to do a sting on this kid who had it and was trying to sell it. He went dark on the first guy, who was from Florida. The second guy was a separate collector from San Diego. Between the two of them, it took about two weeks for me to get that guitar back… after 19 years!”

You must have been over the moon! Did you ever tell Eddie?

“Yeah, I remember giving Eddie a call saying, ‘Dude, do you remember that fuckin’ guitar that got stolen, the Goldtop you gave me? I got that thing back!’ And he was like, ‘No way… how long had it been?’ I told him and he said, ‘Man, I’m really happy for you, I never get any of my stolen shit back!’ 

“And then I told him, ‘Man, you’re Eddie Van Halen… if I had some of your gear, I might not give it back either!’ And we laughed and he was like, ‘Yeah, okay man, well I’m happy for you and really glad you got it back!’ I’m looking at it right now… it’s sat on my couch.” 

Despite the pandemic, it’s looking like you’ve been keeping busy with the Facelift reissues and new solo material…

“We all have to make do with this situation, and with AIC, we’ve never really taken the time to do a 20 or 25-year celebration. We figured it would be a good idea to do it at 30! It’s nice to look back, revitalize the music and put it back out there for the world, plus give fans the chance to own some cool vinyl and enjoy the history of the band and our music. 

“And that’s the thing about music… it’s alive out there. Through trying times is when you reach for it the most, I find. It’s always carried me through. Now that I’ve finished the new solo material, I’m excited to get that out there and see how many ear holes it gets into. Hopefully people will enjoy it.” 

You’re the master of creating some of the most emotionally powerful music using just a few simple, almost cowboy-like chords on songs like Nutshell, Your Decision and Scalpel. Other tracks like The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here are much more harmonically complex, but it seems whatever you do, there’s always this inexplicable depth...

“That’s very kind of you to say. And yeah, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here is a trippy tune. I just did a re-listen on that one not long ago, it’s a fuckin’ good tune, man. I feel it’s well orchestrated. 

“I’ve been fortunate to learn to become a writer and progress over the years. Where I come from and who I’ve been influenced by has always bled through my music. All those things you described are the things that touched me the most about my favorite artists. 

“That thing you can’t put your finger on… I don’t know what the fuck it is, but it’s the power that other things don’t seem to have. That’s always the goal for any artist.”

You’ve been a lot better at finding it – whatever it is – than most…

“It’s the quest that never ends. You’re trying to find your own fingerprint, I guess. You need to find what’s uniquely yours and that can only come from you. I’ve been in a great band, with some individuals who are completely unique. 

“A blend of all of us together is what makes us what we are. I’m really grateful to have that, not everybody gets that on a wider scale – some people might have it individually – but for a group, it really comes down to the right ingredients in the bowl. I’ve been lucky to find that with my brothers and continue on this journey… it’s not over yet [laughs]!”

After teasing a new signature guitar for Jerry Cantrell back in January – and revealing further details at Summer NAMM – Gibson has finally lifted the lid on the Alice in Chains guitarist's new model.

Having undergone the company's Murphy Lab treatment to carefully recreate the aesthetic of Cantrell's original Wine Red “Wino” Les Paul Custom, this fresh six-string – of which there are only 100 in the world – doesn't come cheap, with a hefty price tag of $8,999.

Build-wise, the Murphy Lab Jerry Cantrell “Wino” Les Paul Custom features a weight-relieved mahogany body with a maple top, Custom Cantrell mahogany neck with a hide-glued neck tenon, 12"-radius ebony fingerboard with MOP block inlays, and aged gold hardware. 

Electronics include not only a pair of 490R/498T humbuckers in the bridge and neck positions, respectively, but also a Fishman Powerbridge piezo pickup for on-the-fly acoustic guitar tones. As per Cantrell's original, the neck pickup features a gold cover, while the bridge pickup's coils remain exposed.

As a result of the pickup configuration, the axe boasts an unusual control layout, with a pair of volume pots controlling the neck and bridge humbuckers, respectively, a master tone knob and a third volume pot – in place of where an LP's bridge tone knob usually sits – which controls the output of the piezo pickup.

Other electronic appointments include 500K CTS Audio-Taper pots and ceramic capacitors, as well as a compartment on the rear for a 9V battery to power the Fishman Powerbridge piezo.

Rounding out the instrument's spec sheet is multi-ply body binding, a black pickguard, 24.75" scale length and Grover kidney bean-style tuners. Each guitar also comes with a certificate of authenticity and will be hand-signed on the back of the headstock by Cantrell himself.

For more information on the new Murphy Lab Jerry Cantrell “Wino” Les Paul Custom, head to Gibson.

Wino might not be the only Gibson/Cantrell collaboration to launch this year: in the video for new solo single Atone, the AIC man was spotted with a distinctly custom take on the company's Songwriter acoustic – complete with truss rod cover signature. Watch this space…

The dog days of August have truly arrived, folks, but just because people are kicking their feet up for the season doesn’t mean the guitar universe is too.

Between some hellishly heavy extreme metal from Cradle of Filth, a soothing slice of classic soul from Joanne Shaw Taylor, Grouper’s stirring return to the guitar, some industrial-funk from Ty Segall, and a whole lot more, we’ve truly been spoiled with great new guitar work in recent days.

So dig in to our latest playlist – there’s something for just about everybody here.

Jerry Cantrell - Atone

Anticipation for Jerry Cantrell’s new solo project reached fever pitch following sightings of the Alice in Chains icon filming a new video with Duff McKagan and Greg Puciato, and now we’ve had the first taste of his forthcoming effort, Brighten.

The news of a fresh Jerry Cantrell album – his first in almost two decades – inevitably prompted questions over how it will differ from AIC, and the answer lies in Atone – a bluesy, country-tinged offering offset by Cantrell’s ever-haunting vocal melodies.

With its foot-stomping open-tuned riff, acoustic-led middle eight and slide-laden full-band outro, Atone is something of a guitar epic, and further reinforces Cantrell’s status as perhaps the most emotive of ’90s Seattle’s lead players. He’s certainly more than deserving of that mysterious new Gibson signature acoustic featured in the video… (MAB)

Meet Me @ The Altar – Brighter Days (Are Before Us)

Because who doesn’t need a dose of pop-punk to liven up their week? Ahead of their forthcoming major label debut Model Citizen – which arrives August 13 via Fueled By Ramen – East Coast rockers Meet Me @ The Altar have dropped the feel-good Brighter Days (Are Before Us).

Proving that pop-punk can still be refreshing in 2021, the track sees guitarist Téa Campbell accompany Edith Johnson’s ultra-catchy vocals with a series of equally infectious powerchords and a hard-panned middle-eight riff that’s sure to stay in your head for the rest of the week. (SR)

Zeal & Ardor - Erase

First, a confession: staff absences meant there was no Essential Guitar Tracks last week, and thus we're a tiny bit late on this one. But there was absolutely no way we were letting this one go without shouting about it.

Manuel Gagneux and co have been sporadicly dropping singles, trailing the eagerly awaited follow-up to Stranger Fruit, for this writer’s money one of 2018’s very best albums. But while the new material has veered from eerie industrial chants to piano ballads, Erase is unquestionably one of the heaviest cuts to land from the Swiss metallers since their magnum opus.

A brief moment of fingerpicked calm is soon blown wide open by Gagneux and Tiziano Volante’s unrelenting down-tuned chugs, the track’s unease amplified by a Phrygian-flavored lead lick and tightly clustered intervallic stabs.

The fact that the pair are able to later weave the gentle waves of that introductory clean electric over the top of the track’s brutal breakdowns is testament to this band’s supreme ability to traverse genres with the greatest of ease.

With material like this, it’s easy to see why Meshuggah picked Z&A as openers on next year’s European tour. (MAB)

Ariel Posen & Cory Wong – Spare Tire 

In what surely takes the mantle of “Best Surprise of the Week”, Ariel Posen and Cory Wong dropped the totally out-of-the-blue track Spare Tire, which pits Posen’s virtuosic grasp on blues slide guitar with Wong’s masterful million-miles-an-hour funk-fueled right hand.

It’s swampy slide licks and tasty rhythm riffs galore, with the three-and-a-half minute offering serving up an exhibition of the pair’s deliciously diverse set of six-string skills. The super-concise hook, introduced by Wong, is executed with precision, and serves as the foundation upon which Posen is given free rein to conjure up with dazzling blues-based fretboard phrases and jazz-inspired chromatic runs.

If we’re being truly nit-picky, despite the plethora of tasty guitar parts the track is absolutely crammed with, there is one glaring critique we can give the masterminds behind Spare Tire – it’s only a one-off track, meaning we can’t expect any more Wong/Posen partnerships any time soon. 

Not to worry – we’ll just have this on repeat until we get a follow-up offering, no matter how long it takes. (MO)

The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die – Invading the World of the Guilty

The compositions of Connecticut emo ensemble The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die have always been as grand and sweeping as their name, and we’re happy to report that Invading the World of the Guilty, the first single from their new album, Illusory Walls, is no exception.

Though the band’s always-shifting lineup has slimmed down to five members (they’ve deployed as many as three guitarists onstage in the past), Invading the World of the Guilty is as cinematic, unpredictable and flat-out heavy as anything the band’s created to date.

Producer and lead guitarist Chris Teti and frontman David Bello create a veritable guitar orchestra – complete with spidery twin leads that touch on the band’s math-rock and metal influences, ironclad down-tuned riffing, and even some climactic tapping. 

It’s a tonal shift for this group, sure, but not an unwelcome one at all. We can’t wait to hear what the rest of Illusory Walls brings to the table. (JM)

Cradle of Filth – Crawling King Chaos

Dani Filth’s extreme metal juggernaut is back – and they’re as heavy as ever. Crawling King Chaos, which bears a similar name to John Lee Hooker’s blues classic Crawling King Snake (though couldn’t sound much further removed), is the first single from the band’s recently announced 13th studio album Existence is Futile, and plays host to plenty of drop-tuned six-string doom from guitarists Richard Shaw and Marek “Ashok” Šmerda. 

Hellish riffs abound over an array of blast beats and hauntingly gothic orchestral backdrops, proving once again why Cradle of Filth are such a tour de force in the guitar world.

“Conceptually, Dani Filth explains, the album is about “existentialism, existential dread and fear of the unknown”. “The concept wasn’t created by the pandemic,” he says. “We’d written it long before that began, but the pandemic is the tip of the cotton bud as far as the way the world is headed, you know?” (SR)

Ty Segall – Harmonizer

Veteran singer-songwriter and producer Ty Segall surprise-dropped his 12th studio album, Harmonizer, this week, and its title track sets phasers to yum (sorry) with the grittiest filter sweeps this side of St. Vincent.

With an old-school drum machine backing, Harmonizer is less riotous than some of Segall’s more garage-rock output, but the chunky, overdriven riff still possesses a most righteous groove. And perhaps most importantly, the song makes good on its title with an orchestra of fuzzy, harmonized guitars to bring proceedings to their wailing conclusion. (MAB)

Jared James Nichols – Bad Roots

Jared James Nichols has asserted himself as one of the world’s top modern bluesmen, and he illustrates exactly why on his latest single, Bad Roots. Verging on the boundaries of hard rock, =the track is fueled by crunchy palm-muted powerchords throughout, and features a dose of JJN’s gain-heavy lead wizardry at the 2:09 mark.

The attitude-heavy track is the second to be released from the guitarist’s forthcoming EP Shadow Dancer, with Nichols describing it as “an anthem to rise above and continue to reach for good instead of evil”. (SR)

Finneas – A Concert Six Months From Now 

Though Finneas – brother of breakout global pop superstar Billie Eilish – has already cemented his reputation as one of today’s most formidable and forward-thinking producers, his prominence as an equally talented singer-songwriter in his own right sometimes, unjustly, flies under the radar. 

His debut album, 2020’s Blood Harmony, has already been followed up with a slew of singles, though the 24-year-old’s latest offering – A Concert Six Months From Now – is perhaps cream of the crop. Though there’s never a lack of guitar in Finneas’s work, be it subtle acoustic strums or dreamy fingerpicking melodies, his latest track offers up perhaps his most guitar-driven soundscape to date.

Of course, this is Finneas we’re talking about, so the production work is sublime – hear his pick skate across the strings for those crystal-clear acoustics in one of the many carefully curated pockets of space, and marvel at the monstrously high-gain yet somehow-tame electric guitar lines of the chorus. 

Plaudits for his production work and celebratory comments for his masterful approach to arrangement are absolutely warranted, though don’t be fooled into slapping the one-dimensional label of ‘producer’ on Finneas without consulting his own discography first. As you'll quickly find out, he’s the entire package. (MO)

Grouper – Unclean Mind

Praise be, for Liz Harris has picked up the guitar again! Not that her last two albums under the Grouper moniker – 2018’s Grid of Points and 2014’s Ruins, both of which were piano-based – weren’t stunning full-lengths themselves, it’s just that Harris’s solo compositions for guitar are something we haven’t been treated to for the best part of a decade. 

For those uninitiated, Harris’s guitar-based albums are truly worlds unto themselves – melding the ethereal qualities of shoegaze, the piercing intimacy of folk and the tranquility of ambient music into hypnotically beautiful morasses of sound you could listen to hundreds of times and still not fully get to the bottom of.

Unclean Mind, the stirring first single from her upcoming album, Shade, harkens back to her late-2000s acoustic era, but cloaks Harris’s gorgeous voice in less cavernous reverb than albums past – much to the song’s great benefit.

Yes, Harris’s acoustic work here sounds simple on the surface, but listen to how her strumming subtly changes character in tandem with the ebb and flow of her lyrics, which oscillate between the straightforward documentation of tension in a relationship (“You leave me hanging all the time”) and more obscure imagery (“Send an empty bottle to sea/In a hollow and interior disguise.”) Like any great rhythm player, she knows how to quietly weave the guitar perfectly into the emotional fabric of a song.

Even 10 years since her last guitar-based solo work of new material, 2011’s monumental double-album, A I A, there’s still no one around using the guitar as a vehicle for music like this. (JM)

Joanne Shaw Taylor – Let Me Down Easy

It’s no secret that blues guitar star Joanne Shaw Taylor had recruited Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith to take up production duties for her upcoming album, though no further concrete details concerning the highly anticipated effort had been shared, bar her recently released cover of Little Milton’s If That Ain’t a Reason.

Thankfully, Taylor shed some light on the project earlier this week, and did so by unleashing her supremely soulful new single Let Me Down Easy. Found on the The Blues Album – an 11-song collection of classic blues track covers – Taylor’s latest single sees her emotively saturated vocals take center stage, while her shimmering guitar progressions unfold and swell underneath.

Nevertheless, Taylor soon switches on the drive and smashes up the gain for a scorching solo that explodes into life by way of some rapid-fire strums and blistering blues-note bends, conjured up on the fretboard of her 1966 Esquire Junior.

Blues numbers from iconic artists such as Albert King, Peter Green, Little Richard, Magic Sam, Aretha Franklin and more are all set to make their way on to The Blues Album, which drops September 17. (MO)

Alice In Chains man Jerry Cantrell has debuted Atone, the first single from his forthcoming solo album Brighten, due October 29.

The Atone video was reportedly shot in Joshua Tree - an appropriate landscape for its twanging, darkly psychedelic sound - but we’re most interested in the guitar he's wielding. 

Cantrell signed on as a Gibson brand ambassador back in January 2020 and we already know he has a new signature Les Paul on the way. 

The instrument he’s using in the Atone video is certainly a custom Gibson acoustic, likely a Songwriter, with what appears to be a square white scratchplate around the soundhole.

The fret markers on the neck and overall body shape tally with the Songwriter build, but – if you watch the video in 4K and get a bit ‘zoom-y’ – you can see what looks suspiciously like a Jerry Cantell signature on the truss rod cover.

We’ll have to wait and see for now, but in the meantime we can look forward to Brighten, which drops in October. 

Jerry says of Atone, “As a fan of Ennio Morricone scores and Sergio Leone movies, it’s got a bit of that outlaw vibe, with a cool psycho hillbilly stomp,” he explains. “It’s been kicking around in my head for like 20-plus years, haunting me. Sometimes it takes a while for a good idea to find its best form. Such was the case with Atone.”

The cinematic feel is perhaps informed by the album’s chief collaborator Tyler Bates, the film composer behind the music for 300 and John Wick, who co-produced the record. Duff McKagan also appears on bass across several tracks, while Greg Puciato (Dillinger Escape Plan) handles all the background vocals. 

Reportedly the album includes eight originals and a cover of Elton John’s Goodbye (approved by John himself), as the closer. 

Brighten tracklist

1. Atone
2. Brighten
3. Prism of Doubt
4. Black Hearts and Evil Done
5. Siren Song
6. Had To Know
7. Nobody Breaks You
8. Dismembered
9. Goodbye

Brighten is released on October 29, 2021.

Mere hours ago, we got the first taste of Gibson Brands' plans for the second half of 2021, with the launch of Kramer's eye-catching Custom Graphics Collection electric guitars.

Now, the company has given us a clearer picture of what it has in store for the remainder of the year, announcing the long-anticipated Epiphone Slash Collection of electric and acoustic guitars, two stunning new Gibson Custom Shop models – the '58 Korina Explorer and '58 Korina Flying V – and three new artist signature models – the Tony Iommi SG Special, Jerry Cantrell “Wino” Les Paul and Nathaniel Rateliff LG-2 Western acoustic in Vintage Sunburst.

All of these new models, as we write this, have yet to appear on Gibson and Epiphone's respective websites, but here's everything we know about them thus far.

First up, let's take a look at the pair of new Custom Shop models, the 1958 Korina Explorer and 1958 Korina Flying V.

The two guitars – which took two whole years to develop – feature Murphy Lab aging, Brazilian rosewood fingerboards and golden-brown Korina wood finishes. The company used 3D scanning technology to scan multiple 1958 Flying Vs and Explorers (1958 was each model's first year of production) and exhaustively reproduce them down to the very last detail. 

Even the guitars' original cases – brown with plush pink insides – have essentially been cloned.

19 Explorers and 81 Flying Vs were made in 1958, so, in tribute to those pioneering builds, the Gibson Custom Shop will make the same number of these painstaking recreations – 19 Explorers and 81 Flying Vs.

The guitars are set for a July 27 release, at which time we hope to hear more about what's under the hoods of these beauties.

Coming a year and a half after the Gibson Slash collection, the Epiphone Slash Collection is – like its Gibson predecessor – stocked with a Les Paul Standard available in Appetite Burst, November Burst, Anaconda Burst and Vermillion Burst finishes, a “Victoria” Les Paul Standard Goldtop, and a J-45 acoustic in Vermillion Burst and November Burst finishes.

"We are in a very exciting journey with Slash and today we are announcing the amplification of our collaboration with the launch of the Epiphone Slash Collection,” said Gibson Brand President Cesar Gueikian in a statement. 

“Our new Epiphone Slash Collection brings our collaboration with Slash to the next level, expanding the offering of the iconic Slash models to Epiphone with an accessible price point. Slash was intimately involved in every aspect of the development of his new Epiphone Collection, and we are all excited to see his fans around the world rock out with them!”

The Epiphone Slash Collection will, according to Gibson, receive its full airing next Tuesday, June 20. We'll be curious to see then how the guitars are spec'd up, especially in light of Epiphone's recent, kitted-to-the-high-seas Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Standard.

Finally, Gibson announced the upcoming releases of a trio of new artist signature models – the Tony Iommi SG Special, Jerry Cantrell “Wino” Les Paul and Nathaniel Rateliff LG-2 Western Acoustic in Vintage Sunburst.

First teased back in January, the “Wino” Les Paul is, we assume, a recreation of the Alice in Chains guitarist's ’90s Wine Red Custom Shop Les Paul. The Iommi SG Special, meanwhile, follows 2020's Tony Iommi "Monkey" 1964 SG Special.

The Iommi, Cantrell and Rateliff guitars are scheduled to be released on August 17, 24 and 31, respectively, at which point we hope to reveal to you fine readers some photographs and specs of the models.

Obviously, this announcement is less about detailing the guitars in question than telling the world where Gibson Brands is headed in the coming months, so be sure to return to Guitar World on the aforementioned release dates to learn more about all of these new models.

In the meantime, stop by Gibson and Epiphone.

Jerry Cantrell has taken to Instagram to share behind-the-scenes shots from a music video for his forthcoming solo album – and it looks like he's brought Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, plus former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato and drummer Gil Sharone along for the ride. 

Following filming at FD Photo Studio on Olympic Boulevard in LA, the singer posted two photos from the shoot, giving the first taste of the lineup for his new record.

Photos from the video shoot were initially leaked on Sunday 27, posted on Instagram by a woman who appears to be starring in the video, which led many fans identify McKagan’s involvement in the new solo outing. 

Targeting the leaked photos, Cantrell’s caption for his post reads: “Here’s a couple better pics than the ones leaked yesterday. May be time to upgrade that phone? Just saying”.

Puciato and Sharone have previously performed with Cantrell at two LA solo shows in December 2019.

While there is no official release date for the video or name for the associated track, it will form part of Cantrell’s as-yet unnamed third solo album – his first in almost 20 years, following 2002’s Degradation Trip. The AIC leader is no stranger to A-list collaborations – his last record featured Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin. 

In March this year, the guitarist took to Instagram to announce the record was complete, saying: “Finished my record tonight one year to the day from when we started recording it. What a crazy journey…always is. Look forward to setting it free upon your ear holes sometime soon.”

No official announcement has been made regarding the album's release date, but Cantrell’s brother, David, has speculated on social media that the record is expected in October this year.