The Tragic Truth About Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains was the first band to bring grunge into the mainstream. But despite their considerable fame and fortune, the band had more than their share of disasters, thanks to an array of drama, unfortunate incidents, and rock star excess. Here is the tragic story of Alice in Chains.

As the songwriter, guitarist, and co-vocalist, Jerry Cantrell is responsible for much that makes Alice in Chains great, and seeing as the band's musical vibe tends to skew toward despair, it's no surprise that Cantrell has his share of personal tragedies. One of the biggest blows came when Cantrell was only 21, and he lost his mother and grandmother over a short period of time. Cantrell explained to Kerrang!:

"Those losses really tilted my horizon. My whole f---ing life was basically taken away from me within the period of a year, and I felt like I was on my own."

Cantrell notes in Mark Yarn's Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge that he was living with the two women at the time, and when he was still dealing with the gut punch that was his grandmother's death, his mother informed him that she had mere months to live. Cantrell's mother was only 43 when she died of pancreatic cancer.

In Greg Prato's book, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, Cantrell says that the losses happened within a span of six months or so, leading him to a situation where he had no immediate family, other than his distant father. As a very minor silver lining, his mother's insurance policy left him with enough money to buy some music gear and, quote, "exist for a while."

Watch the video for more of The Tragic Truth About Alice in Chains.

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Losing a mother and grandmother | 0:00
Jerry Cantrell's father issues | 1:32
Layne Staley's tragic loss | 2:15
Layne Staley's hermit years | 2:56
Sean Kinney's broken hand | 3:43
The difficult "Dirt" album cycle | 4:30
Mike Starr's slow collapse | 5:36
Alice in Chains break up | 6:48
Layne Staley's tragic death | 7:29
The William DuVall situation | 8:22
Jerry Cantrell's repetitive motion injury | 9:24

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