“You felt like something was happening and you were actually part of it. That's a pretty cool feeling.” Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell looks back on the dawning of the grunge revolution in Seattle
· louderBy Paul Brannigan
published 1 October 2024
Jerry Cantrell reflects on the birth of the Seattle Sound
Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell reflects on the development of the early grunge scene in a new interview with YouTube personality Rick Beato, and recalls how numerous Seattle bands paved the way for the breakthrough of Nirvana and Pearl Jam in the early '90s, via “stepping stones” laid down by their own small victories.
“It was an interesting time,” Cantrell remembers. “There was so much great music. Music was already changing in the late '80s, there was a heavier, more aggressive element to it, not just in our town, but across across the globe.”
The guitarist recalls the Seattle area being “just littered with bands” in the late '80s, and points out that with Jimi Hendrix, Heart and Queensrÿche, the city already had some rock heritage.
“It was a pretty vibrant scene all along,” he continues, “music and the arts are celebrated there. Also it's kind of out of the way, and I think that's a big part of maybe why we had time to gestate, and develop into what we we developed into, without any meddling from anybody. Nobody gave a shit about the Northwest until we made made them give a shit about it.
“You felt like something was happening, and you were actually part of it. And that's a pretty cool feeling for a young fella of 19, 20 years old.”
When Beato points out that Alice In Chains were actually the first 'grunge' band to score a gold record (signifying 500,000 sales) in the US, for their 1990 debut album Facelift, Cantrell is quick to point out that other bands too played their part in drawing attention to the community, and elevating their peers.
“We were the first band to kind of break MTV open... but you can't look at it in that microcosm,” the guitarist states. “Because [there were] Soundgarden's records and their videos, and [Mother] Love Bone too was a really important band, and Mudhoney, and even before that, Green River. They're all little stepping stones.
“And even though we weren't working together, we were all helping each other with all the success that we kept having individually, and also as a group collectively, even though it wasn't planned that way. So with each one of our successes it gave it rise to a bigger thing until it gained critical mass and Pearl Jam and Nirvana happened.”
You can watch the full interview below:
Jerry Cantrell: Creating the Iconic Sound of Alice In Chains - YouTube
Speaking recently to Classic Rock magazine, Cantrell spoke about his pride in the fact that Alice In Chains have a legacy, and also remain relevant to young music fans.
“To keep a group together and create a repertoire and a body of work over 30-40 years and still care about it yourself, and have people care is pretty amazing,” he says. “That’s the goal: you want to be the Stones, you want to be Metallica, you want to be Heart, to make some music that maybe people pass down. I think that we've achieved that with Alice, and it's really humbling and a fucking honour.”
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Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
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