Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

The lyrics to “Man in the Box” can be traced to a dinner conversation between the band and Nick Terzo. Layne told Rolling Stone, “I started writing about censorship. Around the same time, we went out for dinner with some Columbia Records people who were vegetarians. They told me how veal was made from calves raised in these small boxes, and that image stuck in my head. So I went home and wrote about government censorship and eating meat as seen through the eyes of a doomed calf.”2

During a 1991 interview, Layne and Sean criticized bands for writing about subjects they didn’t know about, specifically “political stuff.” Layne said, “We write about ourselves, and we know about ourselves. I’m not any authority to write on any political nothing.” The interviewer asked, “What’s ‘Man in the Box’ about?” And Layne replied, “Ah, shit. It’s kinda loosely based on media censorship, but only my theory, so it’s not a fact or a statement.”

“It’s about veal,” Sean added.

“Plus I was really stoned when I wrote it,” Layne said. “So it meant something different then.”3

Layne’s “Sexual chocolate, baby!” scream at the end of “Real Thing” can be traced to the period when the band was living together after moving out of the Music Bank. According to Steve Alley, the band had been watching the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America, in which a Murphy character is the singer of a band called Sexual Chocolate. Alley said it became a recurring joke for Layne, which eventually made its way into the song.

Mike bought his bass guitars and equipment from Evan Sheeley, formerly the bassist of Seattle hard rock band TKO, who at the time was working at Seattle Music. Sheeley was at home when he got a call from Jerden, who said they were having problems with the bass and amplifier he had sold Mike and asked him to come in. Once at the studio, Sheeley noticed Mike had set the levels on the instrument and the amplifier all the way up to 10.

“You can’t do that because that’s going to make it sound like crap. It’s going to sound all distorted,” Sheeley explained. “I’ve been in the studio a lot, so I just took the bass—there’s the tone. Dave Jerden came on the talkback and said, ‘That’s the sound I want. That’s perfect.’” According to Sheeley, after getting the right levels on the bass and the amplifier, they put duct tape on the bass knobs so Mike couldn’t touch or change them. The knob settings on the amplifier were marked with a knife so they wouldn’t be forgotten. More than two decades later, those markings were still visible on Mike’s amplifier.4

Champagne vaguely recalled this episode. Jerden doesn’t recall it but doesn’t dispute Sheeley’s account. At the same time, he points out that besides being a bass player himself, “I had extensive experience at recording bass in terms of techniques. At that time, I’d recorded Bill Wyman from the Rolling Stones and I’d worked with tons of great fucking bass players, so I knew how to get a bass sound.”

During separate interviews with Greg Prato and Mark Yarm years later, Susan said, “The only one that was difficult to manage was the original bass player—he had that notion that if you sign a major record deal, you can go and spend a lot of money. The rest of the guys were really great about being money conscious and realizing that the money you get is your money, and the way you spend it is going to be how much you have at the end.” Beyond her criticism of Mike, Susan said Jerden had something of a profligate attitude regarding the budget and encouraged the band to buy gear.5

Jerden disputed Susan’s claim, saying only two pieces of equipment were bought for Facelift. The first was a six-string bass that cost around five hundred dollars, which Jerden bought from Sheeley and paid for himself. This bass was used for the choruses to make the songs sound heavier.

The second piece of equipment was the Voice Box for “Man in the Box,” which the band paid for so Jerry could use it to perform the song live. “I think that Voice Box cost like a hundred dollars, and that was the hook sound for ‘Man in the Box,’ and to me it made the whole difference in making a hit record. I had them buy two things totaling maybe six hundred dollars for a hit song that sold millions. I didn’t tell them to go to the store and just start buying shit. Anything else they bought after that, I don’t know about and I had nothing to do with.” Jerden and Susan were getting along during the making of Facelift, but they would have a falling-out several years later.

Champagne backed Jerden’s account, saying they went to American Music in Seattle once because Jerry needed to buy picks and strings. Regarding Mike’s spending sprees alleged by Susan, Sheeley backed up Jerden’s account, saying Mike did not spend a lot of money on gear.