CANTRELL THEN & NOW
JERRY CANTRELL LIKES TO KEEP NOSTALGIA at arm’s length. “I never look back too much,” he says. “I think if you spend too much time on the past, you’re not moving forward. I was never the kind of guy to just kick back and cruise. I’m always thinking about getting over the mountain. I try to keep my eye on what’s in front of me.”
Even so, the guitarist is happy to spend part of our interview strolling down memory lane, reflecting on those years — now three decades ago — when his band Alice in Chains, along with fellow Seattleites Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and others, fused punk, hard rock and metal for a sound that revolutionized music. “It was a cool time,” he says. “It was very personal, and that’s what made it cool. It was exclusive to you and your buddies and your extended friends who would show up to gigs. The musical community in Seattle was going on for a couple of years, and you could feel something percolating. It was just a good energy. Everybody was in a fucking band.”
As for how he now feels looking back at that era in the rear-view mirror, Cantrell lets out a thoughtful sigh. “Sometimes that whole period feels like yesterday; other times it feels like it’s an eternity ago,” he says. “I think we all know that the clock moves a little bit faster than you’d like. Most of the time, it’s a good distance away, but I have those other moments, too.”
For most people, time stood still throughout much of 2020 during the initial wave of the COVID pandemic, and Cantrell was no exception — in virtual lockdown, he was forced to stay close to his home base in Seattle. Before COVID hit, he had just recorded most of the basics for his new solo album (a three-way production he shares with Tyler Bates and Paul Figueroa) in Los Angeles, and once he returned to Seattle he resumed work on the record at home studios in one-on-one sessions, or by sending files back and forth between musicians.
In a strange way, Cantrell almost welcomed the isolation. “I was glad to have something to work on through
