A few months prior, Cantrell had watched a concert of Alice N' Chains in his hometown at the Tacoma Little Theatre, and was impressed by Staley's voice. Staley met guitarist Jerry Cantrell at a party in Seattle around August 1987. Original vocalist Layne Staley performing with Alice in Chains at The Channel in Boston in 1992 The name change happened in 1986, a year before Guns N' Roses became a household name with their first album Appetite for Destruction, released in July 1987. According to Bacolas, the decision to use the apostrophe-N combination in their name had nothing to do with the Los Angeles band Guns N' Roses. Due to concerns over the reference to female bondage, the group ultimately chose to spell it differently as Alice N' Chains to allay any parental concerns, though Staley's mother Nancy McCallum has said she was still not happy with this name at first. One of the passes said "Welcome to Wonderland", and they started talking about that being a reference to Alice in Wonderland, until Klatt said, "What about Alice in Chains? Put her in bondage and stuff like that." īacolas thought the name "Alice in Chains" was cool and brought it up to his Sleze bandmates and everyone liked it, so they decided to change the name of the band. This was prompted by a conversation that Bacolas had with Russ Klatt, the lead singer of Slaughter Haus 5, about backstage passes. This band went through several lineup changes culminating with Nick Pollock as their sole guitarist and Bacolas switching to bass before discussions arose about changing their name to Alice in Chains. Other members of this group at that time were guitarists Johnny Bacolas and Zoli Semanate, drummer James Bergstrom, and bassist Byron Hansen. History 1984–1989: Formation and early years īefore the formation of Alice in Chains, Layne Staley, a drummer at the time, landed his first gig as a vocalist when he auditioned to sing for a local glam metal band known as Sleze after receiving some encouragement from his stepbrother Ken Elmer. They were ranked number 34 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock and as the 15th greatest live band by Hit Parader. 1 hits, and received 11 Grammy Award nominations. The band has had 18 Top 10 songs on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, 5 No. They have sold more than 30 million records worldwide, and over 19 million records in the US alone. Since its formation, Alice in Chains has released six studio albums, three EPs, three live albums, four compilations, two DVDs, 43 music videos, and 32 singles. The band regrouped in 2006, with DuVall taking over as lead vocalist full-time, and they have since released three more albums: Black Gives Way to Blue (2009), The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (2013), and Rainier Fog (2018). Although never officially disbanding, Alice in Chains was plagued by extended inactivity from 1996 onward, due to Staley's substance abuse, which resulted in his death in 2002. They achieved success during the era with the albums Facelift (1990), Dirt (1992) and Alice in Chains (1995), as well as the EP Jar of Flies (1994). Cantrell started to sing lead vocals on the 1992 acoustic EP Sap, and his role continued to grow in the following albums, making Alice in Chains a two-vocal band.Īlice in Chains rose to international fame as part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s, along with other Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. The band is known for its distinctive vocal style, which often included the harmonized vocals between Staley and Cantrell (and later Cantrell and DuVall). Often associated with grunge music, Alice in Chains' sound incorporates heavy metal elements. The band took its name from Staley's previous group, the glam metal band Alice N' Chains. William DuVall joined the band in 2006 as co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, replacing Staley, who died in 2002.
Alice in Chains (often abbreviated as AIC) is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1987 by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, who later recruited bassist Mike Starr and lead vocalist Layne Staley.
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