Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

Sean and the former guitarist from Queensrÿche, Chris DeGarmo, formed a side project in 1999 after they finished touring behind Boggy Depot. Mike Inez and Vinnie Dombroski were recruited to fill out the band. The group went by the name Spys4Darwin—named after one of the homeless people who hung around the Seattle recording studio where they worked. In 2001, the band released a six-song EP titled microfish. After Jason Newsted quit Metallica, Mike was considered as a replacement, although Rob Trujillo ultimately got the job. Mike joined Heart in 2002, a gig that would last for four years. On October 22, 2004, the Alice in Chains partnership—at this time consisting of Jerry and Sean—received a letter from Sony Music that stated, “Sony BMG has recently received notice that both Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney have ceased to perform as members of the group ‘Alice in Chains’. Sony BMG hereby notifies you … of our election to terminate the term of the Agreement,” referring to the band’s contract signed in September 1989.16 Alice in Chains was without a record label for the first time in fifteen years.

More than two years after Layne’s death and two months after being dropped by Sony, it took another tragedy—one of cataclysmic proportions—to bring the surviving members of Alice in Chains back together. On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 to 9.3 earthquake in the Indian Ocean set off a devastating series of tidal waves, killing more than 227,000 people and displacing nearly 1.7 million in fourteen countries throughout Southeast Asia. It was the third-strongest earthquake on record since measurements of magnitude began in 1899.17

A few months later, Sean was helping to organize a benefit show in Seattle, with all proceeds going to relief efforts. The show was announced on KISW. The buzz and demand for tickets was immediate. According to Jeff Gilbert, “It just detonated all over this city. I’ll tell you, that thing sold out so flippin’ fast, there were people scrambling, trying to find tickets.”

The plan for the show was for Sean, Jerry, and Mike—in their first public performance as Alice in Chains since 1996—to play with a revolving door of singers, including Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin, Heart’s Ann Wilson, and Damageplan’s Pat Lachman. The show ended with Wilson, Keenan, Lachman, and Scantlin taking turns singing in what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer described as a “We Are the World”-esque performance of “Rooster.” The show raised more than $100,000 for relief efforts.18

The crowd response was overwhelmingly positive. “It was a really cool thing to do in the hometown, and we probably didn’t really think about it until we were up onstage. We were like, ‘Whoa…’ playing those songs without Layne. That was a heavy thing, and it was also kind of a healing thing in a way, too, dealing with that reality,” Jerry would later recall.19

“The crowd went apeshit. I think that might have been the point where those guys stepped off and said, ‘Okay, I think we can do this again.’ And they looked great—they sounded just so powerful,” Gilbert said. “It was brilliant. It was a very healing moment to see them come back out, like, ‘We’re not dead yet.’ They tore it up, big-time.”

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After the band regrouped in spring 2006, Duff McKagan temporarily joined as a rhythm guitarist. While there was criticism about the band carrying on without Layne, McKagan was unapologetically for it. “These guys had to move on because they still had way too much to offer the rock-and-roll world. In an age of paint-by-numbers corporate rock, we fucking needed Alice in Chains,” he wrote in his memoir. For the first rehearsal with William, the plan was to ease him into it, but he went straight for “Love Hate Love,” a more vocally challenging song, and nailed it. After they finished, Sean looked at William and the others and said, “I think the search is pretty much over.”20

William’s first public performance fronting Alice in Chains took place on March 10, 2006, at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Alice in Chains and other musicians had been invited for an episode of VH1’s Decades Rock Live! honoring Heart. It was the second time Alice in Chains had performed publicly in a decade—their biggest show since Layne’s final shows in 1996—and it was going to be filmed for a television special.21

The plan was for Alice in Chains to perform “Would?” with ex-Pantera front man Phil Anselmo handling vocals—a performance he dedicated to Layne and his slain former bandmate Dimebag Darrell; “Rooster” with Ann Wilson; and “Man in the Box” with William. During a camera rehearsal, Wilson hadn’t arrived yet, so William stepped in and sang “Rooster.” Wilson arrived in the middle of the performance and, after hearing him, told William, “Okay, you’re going to have to do that song.”