Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

“Check My Brain” is driven by the repeated bending and releasing of two notes on the guitars, giving it a sort of back-and-forth, seasick feeling. Lyrically, the song is about “finding yourself in the belly of the beast, and totally being cool with living there,” according to Jerry. “Every rock band’s got the California tune, so it’s kind of like the anti-California California song, without really bagging on the place.”29 There were preliminary discussions for the band to team up with Mark Pellington again for the music video, but it didn’t work out and they chose another director.

The album’s emotional centerpiece is its title track, “Black Gives Way to Blue,” the band’s musical tribute to Layne. Jerry wrote the song and said of its subject, “We dealt with all of that privately, and are continuing to do so, the reality of Layne dying and the reality of what do you do with the rest of your life, I kind of put that into a song. I guess that was the first time I kind of said it out loud.”30 When it came time to record “Black Gives Way to Blue,” there was a discussion about who should play the keyboard part. Baldy, the band’s blogger and member of their road crew who had worked with them for years, made a seemingly implausible suggestion: “Why don’t you call Elton?”

They laughed at the idea of getting Elton John at first, with Jerry skeptically noting, “Yeah, right! I’m sure he has plenty of other things to do than to come play on our song.”

But Baldy, who had previously worked for him, persisted. “You never know unless you ask,” he observed. Jerry sent Elton John an e-mail explaining what his music meant to them and what the song was about, along with a demo. Much to everyone’s surprise, he responded, saying he liked the song and he would play on it.

“In the studio he was really relaxed and gracious, and he’s got a great sense of humor,” Jerry recalled. “We were just trying to be cool: ‘Oh, yeah, no big deal.’ But we were excited. [Sean] and I had to walk out a couple of times to smoke cigarettes, like, ‘Holy shit, this is killer.’ It’s one of those highlights you can’t expect in life, and you’re lucky to get them once in a while. And that is one.”

“I was kind of surprised that Alice in Chains would ask me to do anything. I never thought I’d play on an Alice in Chains record,” John told Entertainment Weekly. “When I heard the song, I really wanted to do it. I liked the fact that it was so beautiful and very simple. They had a great idea of what they wanted me to do on it, and it turned out great.”

So it was that Elton John—the man whom Jim Elmer had taken Layne to see for his first concert, whose songs Layne had sung while sitting at a piano and drinking cheap beer during late nights at the Music Bank, who had a profound influence on Jerry’s decision to become a musician—wound up playing piano on an Alice in Chains song about Layne.31

In early July 2009, Susan was having a party at her West Seattle home with forty to fifty guests in attendance, including Jeff Gilbert. At one point during the party, she said, “I’m going to put on some new music downstairs.” Gilbert and about a dozen other guests followed her into the room, where, unbeknownst to everybody, she proceeded to play Black Gives Way to Blue in full—premiering the record to a handful of close friends.

“She put it on and, boy, oh boy, you heard that riff from ‘Check My Brain.’ And, right there, you’ve got that old adrenaline shiver just shot through the room,” Gilbert recalled. There were no fears of the album being surreptitiously recorded and leaked online because the guests were all close friends of Susan’s and because it was a complete surprise.

Black Gives Way to Blue was released on September 29, 2009, and entered the Billboard charts at number 5, eventually being certified gold by the RIAA. One major change in the fourteen years since Alice in Chains had last released an album was the emergence of the MP3 format and file-sharing technologies. It leaked online two weeks ahead of the release date. During an interview with the radio station Q101, Sean jokingly compared it to prison rape: “It’s like going to prison—[you] know you’re gonna get raped, but you’re not ready for it. You think you’re all prepared for it, but you’re not really prepared for how violent that rape is.”32