In this interview with Gibson TV, 90’s legend Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains talks about his 30 year career as a musician, guitarist and songwriter.
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[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] music was something that was always always in our house and from a very early age my family on my mother’s side is all musical everybody everybody pretty much played an instrument my mother played Oregon and so did my aunt my uncle and my mom I think played clarinet my grandmother played accordion & melodica you know which is cool little keyboard that you blow into and my dad’s side not so much they’re big fans of music but nobody really was kind of play played any instruments as far as I I can tell and I kind of grew up more with my
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mom and my grandmother anyway so you know my mom had come home from work and she’d be playing and I’d go in and sing with her and stuff and hang out and and the music shows were really important in our house Lawrence Welk was on all the time you know we watched Lawrence Welk and like any sort of like the Grammys or any any sort of American Bandstand any of that you know music was really appreciated and in in my family and I think my mother I was I know I know that it was one of her dreams to be a musician you know like a proper musician and when she passed I remember my my uncle Milan told me that he’s like look that you know this was her dream too and this is your shot you know you have a shot to do it for yourself you know and he gave me a lot of encouragement to continue on that path I think the first time I played guitar was with my mom while she was playing Oregon and she was dating a guy and he brought a guitar over and he was like jamming with her and stuff and you know was really interested in it you know I was kind of fascinated by the guitar and you know
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he’s he’s like you know sat me down and gave me the guitar and Todd taught me about three or four chords and I’ve picked it up really quick and he’s like does he play guitar and my moms like no he’s like what you got to think about maybe getting him one because he picked that up really fast you know so so she did she got me a just a cheap little Spanish you know Spanish nylon string acoustic guitar and I messed around with that for a little bit but it kind of just went by the wayside electric guitar you know it really was what I wanted one of to play because of my heroes playing him you know so like the music that I was into or whatever but remember when I was in eighth eighth grade I went to live with my father and he was stationed in Pennsylvania and my brother and I moved in moved out to Pennsylvania with him and by that time I was heavily into rock you know like ac/dc and kiss and you know all the all the English metal Zeppelin and you know kids make the make the list the Christmas list of what you want for Christmas and I cut out a picture of a Les Paul and I put it on my
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door and I wrote above it this is all I want you know but a week or two before Christmas or whatever you start seeing presents accumulate under the tree or whatever and I saw a case under there you know a kind of a you know wide bottom and then a triangular case and I’m like [ __ ] I got a [ __ ] guitar you know he got it for me and I remember I remember Christmas came and I opened it up and it was an acoustic guitar and I was so bummed I was the shitty kid that was totally pissed off that I didn’t get the electric and my dad my dad was so mad because he bought me a guitar cuz I wanted one and I I’m like I’m like I wanted a Les Paul and he’s like you get [ __ ] good on that thing and I’ll buy you a Les Paul but learn how to play that first I did the same thing with that guitar that I did with the guitar that my mother bought me I messed around on it for you know a couple of months and then I just went in the closet just didn’t hold my attention I wanted an electric guitar my first electric guitar that it did get was one my cousin Kyle
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got he went to a swap meet we still go to flea markets and swap meets all the time and just pick up cool stuff records eight tracks like knick knacks whatever but he came over to visit my grandmother and we were living with my grandmother so he brought over this this guitar in this stereo it was a kind of oddball piece of gear it was a sound design stereo so it was a you know a console with a radio receiver in it with an 8-track in the front a turntable up top two speakers and in the back of the thing had a guitar jack that said guitar on it was unbelievable you know you could could play records you could listen to the radio and plug your guitar into it it was like amazing and this guitar was so beat up it had like two strings on it and like the action it was like strings were like this far off then the fretboard and I think it was called Victoria right a Victoria guitar and it
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looked like like like a kind of a bastardized kind of Mustang or whatever you know with a kind of a weird headstock this thing was was just a heinous you know and but he brought it over and it had the it had the E and the a string so he could still make a barre chord on it and that figured out a Barre chord on and he brought it over we started playing it you know messing around with it and I’m like hey you think he could let me borrow that for like a week or two and he’s like yeah no probably was just kind of he was into it but not like I was and then Kyle started like you know hit me up like hey man I need that guitar back and I’m like you know he’d come over and I’d hide it and like all I took it over to my buddy’s place I basically stopped doing everything you know once I got an electric guitar my hand that was it I was on my way and it’s really all I wanted to do I just spent all my time on my room listen to music and trying to learn how to play it you know and my mom I remember my mom coming in and we didn’t have a lot of dough you know and I and I knew that and it meant a lot to
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me that you know she came in and she’s like you’re you’re not gonna give this up are you and I’m like nope and she’s like well let’s get the thing fixed for you then so you can play it properly so so as we went down to it we had a local guitar store grew up in a town called Spanaway which is a kind of a outlying verb of tacoma or whatever and there’s a guitar company called mana vista guitars but thanks and we took it down there and she got new tuning pegs put on it and they put strings on it made the action good it was actually a pretty decent playing guitar you know from then on it’s pretty really cool guitar it had like all sorts of knobs and switches on it and stuff and and but once once I got that a guitar in my hand I was kind of off and running I don’t have the guitar it and I don’t have the stereo either those are two things I really wish I had I believe I traded the guitar in on like you know the guitar and my and a little bit of money to buy my first real guitar
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which it was like a Hamer B or something like that like a brown Hamer v both my parents were really big country music fans my mom and my dad and I think that’s probably one of the few things that got along with they didn’t get along with much else other than us but yeah they were both they were both they were both big country music fans so all of the all of the classic greats you know Hank Williams and Willie Nelson you know Loretta Lynn George Jones Tammy Wynette I heard more of that then I heard anything else growing up and so that’s part of my DNA I loved that music too and so pure and there’s a real truth to that music you know and and the storytelling and doing it in such a compact thing in such a simple form it’s just so powerful it’s there’s there elements of that that have stuck with me and I think I’ve applied to my own songwriting and I think you can you know if you listen carefully you can pick
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some of that stuff out years later I you know remember there was a record that was being done called twisted Willy where like a lot of rock guys got the cover like Willie Nelson tunes and and I got asked to pick it to pick a song and everybody was picking all the big hits and stuff and I wanted to pick something a little kind of obscure and kind of left field then I found a song that I had never heard before it was called a I’ve seen all this world I care to see and it’s really dark tune and I covered it [Music] due to such will better be [Music] field of hate and greets around and I’ve seen all this world I had
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[Music] remember meeting Willi and Austin it might have been for like a South by Southwest thing or whatever he was gigging that night now when I went out to meet him I remember going up on the bus and hanging out with him you know just a huge-ass tray up just roaches all over the place and and you know smoke got the smoke a joint with Willi it was kind of a kind of an accomplishment a little little checklist that kind of a cool thing in life to do and he put the tune on to play and he’s like man why did you pick this one like nobody knows this song I’m like it’s [ __ ] cool it’s a great song he’s like it’s really kind of trippy to me that you picked this song he’s like I’d say hey that’s a heavy song I was in a really dark place I’m like well like I like music like that I kind of write music like that too so kind of makes sense you know he’s like yeah she’s like you know good job as far
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as Rocco’s that kind of really I mean the thing that really opened my mind to music and rock and roll was was Elton John you know Elton’s a big he’s a big thread in my musical fabric you know and what an amazing band you know Nigel Olsson and Davey Johnstone and D Murray and you know a lot of a lot of other cool musicians played with him too and the the lyric writing of Bernie Tobin and that was the thing that really got me to you know just the whole you know I was pretty young when you know and so I didn’t probably understand a lot of the stuff that they were talking about I would come to kind of know it on a deeper level as I became older but you know that’s where I kind of put together like how magical music is you know how magical writing a song is that elicits an emotion you know and for the writer to be able to communicate to get things out maybe put something down in a way that you couldn’t in conversation and
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maybe maybe you can be a it’s it’s it’s more raw deeper and and and then maybe you could say you know just talking about you can put into a tune and and and then sending that out into the world and having people having it hit people that you know and have them a listen emotion from it as well I got it you know I got that like you know in my head I was like you know at least smart enough to go like oh like this guy’s from like a country across the ocean that I’ll probably never meet and I don’t really know what he’s talking about or have anything in common with him but he’s making makes makes me feel you know I can kind of feel what what what’s going on here and that’s stuck to me at a very young age I got I had a real realization at a very young age of like okay that’s what I want to do you know I don’t want to be playing other people’s standards I need to write my own [ __ ] that makes makes other people feel like this is making me
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feel so I was watching the Tony Iommi interview it was a huge hero of mine and it was it was really trippy because there was like two or three things in there that that I have completely in common I wanted to play drums first right and and you know we didn’t have enough money to do it and plus it was just too loud an instrument so my mom’s like now you’re not getting a drum set but you can have this clarinet here you go you know got into band you know and then then I started kind of getting into choir you know and and then that kind of blossomed into like drama as well started doing a lot of kind of my first stage experience actually is was not in a band it was onstage doing like you know plays and musicals and [ __ ] in high school and and we had a pretty progressive school in junior high and high school there was a ton of arts like half my classes were arts you know I think it was my senior year god it was great because I only had like three classes that were [ __ ] that I hated like math and you know crap like that then my
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first class in the morning was a was a class called instrumental technique and in our teacher was mr. Hall and coincidentally he was my mother’s band teacher as well so at a different school when went when she was in school and he was a cool dude instrumental technique was no tests no no nothing no paperwork no anything all you do is go and you go you play your instrument for an hour that’s it so it wasn’t much but that was my first period of school everyday but it was great it was a big band room you know with there was all terrorists for like a proper proper you know Banda to be set up but it also had like four or five ISO rooms along the back wall that you could fit three or four people in and so kids would just pair up and go on those rooms and there were a you know a few of them there were drum sets and then we just rock out for like the first hour of school is killer you know so kids skip class to come listen to me and my buddies play like Judas Priest and Maiden and [ __ ] and Van Halen and ac/dc
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and Aerosmith and you know ma’am we just we just rock out for the first hour of school but all of that had a had a really really big impact on me especially in high school because I had such great teachers I had mr. Hall was great like that you know because we could just kind of basically run free and kind of have fun just have fun play play your [ __ ] and my choir teacher was Jo Ann backer and she was really really supportive and you know we got into you know she we got into like doing like a lot of acapella kind of like Bartok II type stuff you know like you know a quartet quartet II type stuff but dark you know dark music and and real goth kind of sounding stuff you know and and and we do we’d compete we’d go to state competitions only might even a one one a year or two but in all three years of high school I was on stage and that was my first stage experience was you know
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doing doing plays and dancing around and singing a you know South Pacific and Bye Bye Birdie and he get your gun stuff like that you know yeah I graduated in 84 and started going to Tacoma Community College because I basically got the ultimatum from my mom and my grandmother either get a job or go to school so school is a better option because I had more time to play play my guitar it’s just that I was jamming with a couple of buddies of mine guy named Jim ciphered who was a drummer and bass player his name was Ben depositary we would later played in a band had started a band in LA called Pretty Boy Floyd or whatever we were all going to the same school basically you know he sort of he was like ragging me up one day like while we were in a class together gym he’s like a year older than me but we were in the same class and and he’s like and we need to quit college for a year and like go to Texas go to
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Dallas my dad will give us jobs and we could work you know we’ll get paid good and we’ll we’ll try to try to make it in the band you know like God’s a bunch of clubs down there the scenes great he was a real kind of like blues rock kind of guy and it was cool I like I like blues you know but I was I wanted to I wanted to play some rock and we were in a class at Tacoma Community College and and Jim starts winding me up about how we should quit college and give it a year and go playing a band I’m like ok sounds good so I grabbed all my books for him although you know it was like you know from all my classes and I walked up to the teacher’s desk and I had the test that we were taking on top of my books and I just said all my books and the test on that on that on his desk and I’m like I quit and he’s like well this is gonna affect your grade I’m like no no I don’t think you understand I quit I quit everything here’s all my books I’m leaving I’m walking out and I walk back and the rest of the class is kind of down doing their tests and Jim’s like looking at me like I do what the [ __ ] you know and I’m like
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hey man this was your idea I quit let’s go you know and he’s like well let me at least finish the test it’ll affect my grade I’m like [ __ ] you you [ __ ] let’s [ __ ] him go so I let him take that test and he wanted to take one more test that took a week but but a week later we were on our way to Dallas you know it so I called his bluff and we we went and we worked at his dad’s company and it was an insulation company and basically what they did was blow that kind of that cellulose crap you know that sticks to the ceiling or whatever like I have one vat of glue one bat of cellulose and it would kind of meet in the hose and you just kind of spray it around as a horrible job basically we would work all day and we just spend all night in the club you know like we would just watch bands and and you know we worked about half the year in Dallas and half the year in Houston and there was a there was a few few rock clubs in Dallas that we used to hang out at but want the one that we went to the most was a believe a club called Matt Lee’s phase two and and we’d
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watch rock bands and then Houston there was a smaller club called cardies and I loved that place because they had great acts coming through there I saw I saw so many great bands I saw Yngwie Malmsteen with with Dallas opening up on rising force guy that was [ __ ] awesome in a little Club you know and and I would just go there every night and just like soak it up you know what’s not Pantera roll through there when they still had Terry before Phil was in the band that’s what how I met diamond and Benny you know in 85 at that club and I’m a fan of anybody who who is a master of their master of their instrument the more fan of people who are just in touch with what the who just have an innate thing that that is just unlike anybody else and and dimed is one of those guys you know and man I hit it off with him and Benny like right away and I remember I remember after that show like going up to him and introducing myself and and
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asking him about his amps and his tone because it was just like otherworldly you know he’s a huge Van Halen fan and you could tell that by his playing you know but he was also into heavier [ __ ] too and that’s why you got the kind of kind of blend of what what diam was but there’s really nobody like him and I remember you know [ __ ] what was I was like you know 18 you know so he we were the same age were born the same year so he’s like 18 you know 19 years old or whatever when I saw him when we met in that Club in Houston and you know I was a I was a fan from that that performance but I but I started hearing about you know these guitar contests that he used to that he would enter every year in Texas and it was like the best guitarist for the six years running or whatever when it came to like kind of rock or whatever and it’s you know it’s obvious you know he was he was a badass and and I think for I think early on you know he just he just had talent
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and he had hit another worldly thing and he was just a great dude you know it was just a really good guys one of the best friends that in this life of you know pirate ship rock and roll I was working at the insulation company I also was thinking it’s time for me to stop playing with Jim I need to move on to something that’s a little bit more where I want to go I met these guys in Dallas they were the the West brothers can and Mike I believe Ken played guitar and Mike played drums but he played guitar too and he actually wrote songs you know and and I had started to write songs too so I was like man I really you know we got we got along and the West brothers their dad worked at a music store called Arnold Morgan music company and they they’re like let’s just join our band man and our dad will give you a job like okay cool so I jumped ship from the insulation company and started working
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for Arnold Morgan music company and both both Ken and Mike had GNL rampages so those the first time I ever saw one of those and I remember picking it up and like it just felt so good you know it had the it was you know I mean it was basically Leo fenders version of Frankenstein you know I mean all the guitars of that era basically are based off of Eddie’s design kind of you know it’s like a big you know a bigger wider fretboard kind of smooth smooth back neck you know one tremolo system one knob one volume knob and a humbucker you know it was just a really simple guitar and I loved it so I worked at that music store and you know kind of God got my got my guitars on layaway and they did take a little out of my check every week to pay it off and when I got the first one paid off I bought the second one so I get my for the two GL’s that I still have to this day and that have been on every thing I’ve ever recorded pretty
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much as well as as well as a blend of other guitars I also started playing a you know got myself a couple of Les Paul’s kind of you know in the early 90s as well one of my biggest heroes was ace frehley and you played the Les Paul when when I told you the Christmas story where where I put all I want is a for Christmas as this and I put a picture of a Les Paul that was because of Ace Frehley and then I moved back you know I think in probably like 80 86 you know and and my grandmother took ill and she passed away and then my mother took ill like about a month after my grandmother passed away and then she died about five months later so I basically lost both my parents and my house in about it in the period of about a year my whole world basically came to an end and that that’s when I met the guys in the in Alice I met Lane at a house party I think in God West Seattle I believe and and I
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never had never met him before but I’d seen his band and I remember remember the I remember the first time I heard him sing I was like man that guy’s cool you know that guy’s got a great voice I would love to be in a band with that guy we ended up actually meeting not long after that a couple months after that they played a show in Tacoma and I want to see it Lane’s guitar player at the time had met me and brought me over the party and I ended up meeting Lane you know just coming out of basically my whole world kind of blowing up after coming back from Texas and he worked at a he worked at a place called the music Bank which was like a rehearsal hall and it was 24 hours a day seven days a week and like 40 some rooms like you know like it was awesome it was one of the coolest things ever but basically you know we just kind of crashed there he worked there you know worked a shift of letting bands in and out of the rooms like when they were doing gigs or whatever and then lock everything up and make sure everything’s secure he met me at that party and we hit it off and he’s like man I you know Nick was telling me
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too you know about your situation and if you got nowhere to stay you can come come stay with me now I could probably even get you a job and he did so I basically moved in with him at the music bank which was underneath the Ballard bridge and I got a job with Lane and Lane had worked one shift I’d work another and basically maybe four or five of us that would kind of split shifts and kind of lived at the place each one of us got part of our pay what a scam we didn’t get paid cash we got we got a free room and and and after a while of us complaining the guy who ran the place and the guy named Dave he wouldn’t give us a he you might give us a couple of bucks here and there but the the fringe benefits where he’d smoke us out all the time and and then we complained enough like hey dude we got to eat you know so he started buying TV dinners and I was never free hit this yet like a like all our names on a graph and like how many TV dinners he ate and you had to put a
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little check mark every time he ate one and a couple of us would cheat and not [ __ ] put it in there and by the end of the end of the week a couple of guys that were supposed to have dinners didn’t have them and but uh we we lived there until till we started the band pretty much and that was so that was slobs 87 December of 87 we played our first show after being a band for like a couple of weeks you know the era we were kind of getting together in was kind of like the tail end of you know there’s a like like a lot of mix of stuff like you know the kind of 80s new wave to the LA Strip kind of rock you know and and then you know of course you know all of the all of the English metal of the kind of five to ten years before that I think lanes idea for for the band that he had together in the way that he came up with a name I think he and another guy came up with a name they were trying to trying to start a band that would play
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like kind of satanic speed metal but dress and drag you know and I mean so like they were trying to get like a hard soft word and a hard word so Alice Alice in Chains and kind of like a kind of like a play on that so I was kind of more like a classic rock and metal kind of background and you know Shaun was into the Beatles and Duran Duran and you know you missing-persons plus all the other rock as well and and then Mike was probably more star was probably more in line with me you know like kind of classic rock and metal and stuff like that but you know when it’s sort of living with laying at the at the rehearsal place we would jam and you know he wasn’t really interested in when I was doing it he knew I wanted to put a band together but he already had a band so I’m like oh I’d just rather play with you he’s a guy and I got I got kind of got my own thing and he did so you can’t really argue with that you know I’m just like some kid moving up to the big city of Seattle from you know from down south and and he
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already had his thing and it was never that sort of a attitude or anything it’s just like you know he’s he’s got a band I don’t yet so we’re gonna what I’m asked him to quit a band for for what I don’t have anything yet so but he was always real supportive and I just kept going at it and before we got together as Alice I’d met I’d met Mike on his own then I’d met laying on his own and I started asking Lane about you know musicians or you know if he knew any other people that play tour that would be cool to hang out with and he’s like yeah you know I met this guy named Sean on Alki Beach like last year and it was kind of a really funny dude and that he played drums I don’t know how good he is but he seemed like a pretty cool dude you know and I think I still have his number and he’s dead so he gave me his number and I called up Sean and I’m like you know hey I’m Jerry looking to kind of put together a band you know my buddy Lane says you guys met and yeah you know we’re down here at the music bank we got a room if you want to come down and jam he’s like yeah that sounds cool he’s asking me a few questions on like what I was into and stuff like that he’s like
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yeah I’ll come down you think you got a bass player and I’m like well you know I’m like I don’t but he’s like well what kind of bass player you’re looking for I’m like well you know I played with this guy named Mike Starr for a couple of weeks thought he was pretty cool maybe somebody like that you know that is a guy I do know that is this my best friend and I’m a dating his sister so it’s like I’ll bring him down too so so they came down Mike and Melinda and Sean they all came down and we ended up jamming together I think lame was you know mildly interested but he wasn’t really involved you know but but then he started to kind of you know listen to us play a little bit and and we started picked a couple of covers to play at first I think why think it was like Hanoi Rocks like taxi driver or something like that or suffered it City David Bowie you know Lane lanes had his band which was a which used kind of the same name but it was more like Guns and Roses Allison chains instead of Alice in Chains and then he had this other band with uh with another dude named Ron
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which was kind of more I don’t know it’s like kind of like dead or alive kind of stuff like kind of you know kind of glammy goth kind of dance stuff or whatever but but still with some heavy guitars and and he’s like hey I’m doing this thing with this other guy and you want to play guitar in that you know and I’m like I’m like and and you if you want to play a couple of songs with Alice – man that’d be cool I’m like okay that’s cool I’ll do that for you but why don’t you sing with us too as well so we made a deal with each other to jam on this third project between our two projects and then after after a period of time Shawn and Mike and I were like we were kind of tired of that and we kind of had you know you know you’re cocky we’re like look better than those [ __ ] guys you know what I mean like we need to you need to jump ship and come over here and play with us and he’s like well I don’t really want to leave my thing and blah blah blah and we’re like okay so we’re like how do we get him to quit his other side projects or whatever and we were like let’s just start trying out singers in his room cold blooded you know but you
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know he couldn’t really argue with it either it was he was like he wasn’t really mad about it but he was kind of a little irked I think but we put an ad like in the I think in the like the rock at the local local music mag or whatever were you you know been looking for must have equipment talking you know all that [ __ ] and so we we we had a couple of days where we had just had a parade of idiots coming into the room that were just horrible one guy was like a male stripper with he was like like bright red hair and he had like the spandex and like the handkerchiefs all the way down to his feet like a kind of trying to be a knockoff David Lee Roth but just horrible couldn’t sing where that [ __ ] we tried a couple of guys out and he was like the last one and Lane was working working the desk so these guys would walk through and then he’d get to hear through the wall as kind of trying to play with him and after that last dude the male stripper guy he came down he’s like all right all right I’m in all
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right I can’t I can’t I can’t let you guys be playing with these [ __ ] guys man [ __ ] no and we’re like we weren’t really serious man we just wanted to get you pissed off enough to join he’s like well you got me okay I’m in so he quit all these other bands and that’s how we started everything really happened fast it didn’t necessarily feel like it at the time but in retrospect I mean there was a there was a lot going on and the cool thing about Seattle is it was it was really insular you know I mean it was you know we were real this outpost up in the northwest and you know wouldn’t really consider it to be a capital of the entertainment business or anything like that and I think that’s why we all kind of got to develop and what we developed into you know and it was always a really artistic town and city and we had you know we had some really great artists to be proud of and call our own you know heart Queens Reich and Jimi Hendrix but
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there was a there was a lot of us that were all basically about the same age within a couple of years like you know like seven or eight bands worth of guys like in the same kind of zone you know and everybody knew everybody because it’s it’s it’s scandals not that big a city you know I mean and and you knew what was going on so you you you know you everybody was well aware of Green River and Soundgarden and we were aware of Nirvana and and and and you know Mother Love Bone and and the trees and you know did I say mud honey mud honey yeah money was badass there was just so much music those are those are the ones that I guess most of the world knows now but but there were so many other bands as well it was just it was it was just a cool thing man it was like everybody was in a band everybody was in a band and you would go to see each other play and stuff and and and it was kind of a it
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was never like a kind of an oppressive thing like you you know we’re gonna kick their ass or anything like that it was just you know like it was more a it was a more really a supportive thing it was like you know everybody was striving to be an individual or a unit that was unto itself rather than trying to copy you know let’s do what they’re doing and I [ __ ] that their grid it they’re really good at that so we needed to be us and try to be really good at being us it was a pretty small scene you know I mean it ended up you know with a lot of us under the same management with Susan silver and Kelly Curtis you know Susan managed Soundgarden and Kelley managed Mother Love Bone who became Pearl Jam and they managed us together the trees I think were kind of in in the office there for a while too and we had an office right downtown and well you know all of the bands would be in there all the time and we you know we all shared the same merch guys and loaned each other the same van and you know we all kind of pooled our resources if somebody got a somebody had
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a little dough and another band didn’t we’d you know kick we’d kick stuff back and forth to each other so it was a really supportive thing you know we made a demo tape and and we started kind of you know figuring out you know maybe we need to start talking about management and stuff like that and we started hearing that you know Soundgarden was talking to a major label and started hearing that Mother Love Bone was talking to a major label and so we ended up I think we were with we were with somebody that was representing us that was it’s kind of a crook it was a nice guy but he was a criminal and he had some legal issues and had to do a little time so thankfully we never signed a contract with him and we met Susan and Kelly right about that time you know you could feel something was happening and you knew you were a part of it and you didn’t know it was going to turn out it’s the way that it did I don’t think you could I would think anybody who says that would be full of
0:35:01.5 –>
[ __ ] but you knew something was happening and you knew you were on the right place at the right time and everybody from LA and New York started coming to Seattle and then and then Soundgarden gets signed a and and then Love Bone gets signed to epic you know and then we got signed to Columbia before it turned to Sony you know and then and and then and then Nirvana got signed and the trees got signed and you know it was like in kind of in rapid succession and was kind of like a critical mass sort of thing it’s like you knew something was happening but you didn’t know exactly what it was or how big it was going to impact and it ended up you know being a pretty big splash yeah the material that ended up being facelift you know we pretty much had together you know we we didn’t really we’ve never been a band where we like need somebody to tell us how to write a tune or whatever it’s good having direction and
0:36:01.1 –>
it’s good to have somebody on the wheel to you know to take the pressure off the members you know while you’re making a record and also to have a neutral neutral mediator when you have a disagreement what you got on facelift is us almost InFocus [Music] it’s about 95% focus or what the we were right there so we were peaking at the right time for our first record rather than to come into focus on your second or third so you know for that be enough for that record being our first record and and the impact that you know man in the Box had you know with with you know radio with with MTB and just being one of the songs along with the songs of all
0:37:00.3 –>
of our kind of brethren that just just kept you know cracked the door kick the door open tear it off its [ __ ] hinges you know what I mean the whole wall goes down you know I mean it was just like one after the other you know you know yeah belief that you know that it’s good and you can kind of feel the energy of something to it turning but you know you you don’t know it’s gonna I didn’t know was gonna be you know that big of an impact I knew we did know that that was the song to put out you know as far as like what we had on that record there were some there were emphases tracks and that was one of them that we wanted to get to I remember having a big argument with the record company who will completely deny it to this point I still have conversations with Nick terzo or you know songs too slow need to speed it up but it’s not the song to go at dude trust me this song is [ __ ] killer and this is what we’re putting out [Music] [Applause]
0:38:01. –>
[Music] [Applause] [Music] first first time I met at Van Halen I was getting ready to go on onstage opening for his band and he’s standing in my pit with Valerie right next to him and Wolfie in her arms and he’s got his guitar on and he’s like just running scales and he’s like hey what’s up I’m like are you [ __ ] kidding me Eddie Van Halen’s standing there with his with Valerie Bertinelli and Wolfie Annie’s in my pit and I’m opening for his band and I was so [ __ ] nervous so I came over and said hi to him and it’s
0:39:01.4 –>
like hot man you can be fine and I think it was probably the worst show I ever played in my life cuz I could not stop thinking he’s right there you know so I just couldn’t focus and I just I couldn’t wait til the gig was over and then after that it was fine but that first gig that’s that first gig was nerve-racking because I just I just could not get out of my head that Eddie Van Halen is looking at me and we’re playing in front of Van Halen and you know but uh we ended up being really good friends and we you know they kept asking us to do more and more legs and I think we ended up spending maybe six months for those guys we did a leg and they’re like hey do another one and do another one you know and Sammy was really cool too you know he’s another friend that I made from that that era so both of those guys you know there’s there’s a connection that I that I have with would those two guys and and everybody in the band does but but as a guitar player you know anytime ed would come to come to Seattle he’d come pick me up and we’d go to a pool hall and play pool or we’d go see a band or or we
0:40:02.2 –>
just end up in his hotel room playing guitar all night you know getting drunk and playing guitars and stuff you know playing like name that riff you know play a couple like you know Zeppelin journey like it’s kind of going back and forth you know on that tour he he had you know he had the 5150 heads the peds that he that he had kind of made and he had the music man guitars that the eddie van halen the ebh music mans which he had just kind of kind of designed and kind of and I was like it’s like man I’d really like to have one of those maybe think he’d give me a good price on one of those and he’s like [ __ ] that do it I’ll just give you a guitar he’s like it’s like now that he’s like everybody gives me everything for free now when I can totally afford it when I couldn’t afford it nobody to give me anything so I’ll let me do that for you I’ll give you I’ll give you a guitar I remember coming home out that tour and I was living with Kelly Curtis and his wife Peggy and I
0:41:00 –>
was living down in the basement not sure if Eddie Vedder was there with me you might have he moved in there down there for a little while see we were both living in the basement of her manager he comes out and I think think it was insane remember it was a nice sunny day and he’s like hey man welcome home man you have a good tour is like man well now he can relax hey by the way you think he can clear your [ __ ] out of my garage I’ll need to put my car in there I’m like what are you talking about he’s like Eddie Van Halen filled the garage with gear for you I haven’t been able to park my car on my garage for months I’m like a geek what he’s like he hits the clicker and it goes up and it’s just like like a scene from a movie like the whole thing is filled with like you know cardboard boxes – full stacks – you know so four cabs two heads a couple of guitars you know and and and it’s in a tiny packed garage anyway so it’s like just sitting there in the middle and I’m just trying to process this like okay eddie van halen just filled my garage with with gear and so I like I’m opening all this stuff out and I still have
0:42:00.5 –>
those two guitars interesting story I just got back last I think was last year or the year before I was recording degradation trip over at Hansen which used to be a a.m. I think at the time and Eddie gave me a gold top music man and uh in a trans blue so you can see the wood grain you know so I had two of them right – to EB H’s and then two full stacks of the 51 50s and I still have those too but I was recording degradation trip and that guitar went missing in that session and I just never knew what happened to that guitar and I tried to track it down for years and I just couldn’t figure it out and then like a you know in the middle or at the beginning of probably the Ranier fog tour I got a call out of the blue from Dave Friedman who design you know design the the double J amp so that we that we put out together and he’s like a man I got I got
0:43:00.4 –>
a guy in Florida he was like a guitar collector and he collects those e DHS I think he found your guitar and I’m like really and he’s like he’s a gay reached out to me because he knows we work together and so I called him up he’s got named Tom Marino in Florida and he collects those EB H’s and he’d found online that it had finally popped up after what like 18 years of being missing or whatever and and he’s like that’s Cantrell his guitar is there was only they were artists artists guitars and I think they only made like 23 or 26 of each one of those and they just went to artists so they were just kind of gifts from from Ernie Ball and Eddie to people you know and in mine in particular I had them routed out so that I could pull the pull the Floyd back I was never a big a big fan of a Floyd Rose I’ve you know it was like the Caylor because I could kind of reef on it this way so I had him route that out so out of those 23 guitars that mine are
0:44:00.6 –>
the only two that have that rear route I think he’s like yeah that’s your guitar and he showed me the site sure [ __ ] it was and I but I could you know it could tell it was mine and we tried to set up a sting with a dude to get it back and he kind of went dark on us and then I’m like great I gotta get this close to getting that guitar back which means the world to me because I got it from Eddie you know and about a week later and another guy calls from San Diego yeah Greg Dorsett another collector and he’s like dude I got you guitar he’s like this kid wants to sell me your guitar for like 7 grand he and I started I was asking him about where he got it and he said his dad used to work at AM Studios his dad or his uncle or something like that so it had basically stayed underneath the bed till he gave it to the young kid now the kid was like 20 20 21 years old and he wants to sell a guitar and make some money off it so Tom bought the guitar for like 7 grand or whatever and then just drove it up from San Diego and gave it to me he’s like I don’t even want you to pay me back man
0:45:00.8 –>
this is your guitar and you should have it then I call Edie and I tell him the story he’s like you remember those guitar that went missin I told you that Gold top that he gave me yeah man it’s like I got that back man he’s like are you kidding me man like yeah 18 years later I got it back man like two separate guys one guy in Florida one guy in San Diego within a period of about a month tracked it down and got it back to me and he’s like I’m really happy for you man but what the [ __ ] doesn’t that happen to me man I never get my ship all my stolen stuff stays stays missing I’m like well it’s cuz it’s Eddie Van Halen’s [ __ ] do it I wouldn’t give it back either yeah I guess you’re right pretty funny facelift was was was a big you know a big thing for us and and you know we’re starting to think about working on some stuff we’d already probably started playing you know playing some tunes or at least jamming on tunes that would become dirt but we
0:46:00.7 –>
had a bunch of other stuff too you know it’s kind of acoustic type stuff and so camera curl was gonna do this movie yeah called singles and he remember him asking me to read it song for it and I demoed a demo two song called would and I’d written a song for Andy Wood who had just passed he asked us to come up with a song so we’re like you know and it’s you know it’s working for a major making a film for a major film studio they got cash to burn so they gave us a couple of grand go demo demo the tune for real you know I’d give him a little four track version of it he’s like yeah that’s great perfect you know we got some cash so we went in to demo that song but while we demoed that song we had all these kind of acoustic Tunes and like some stuff that would kind of go kind of develop into dirt you know as well and so we just demoed at all we use the money to demo a like I don’t know like eight or nine songs and then we gave
0:47:00.5 –>
Cameron his one we kept the other ones right it was it was different you know there was there was like five or six songs which basically we ended up later deciding to put together into the EP that ended up being SAP I remember we were having a meeting at down at the office or whatever and Shawn came in and he was all stoked up he rolls in and he’s like man I had this dream that we put those those songs those acoustic songs man we put it on an EP and we called it SAP and it was killer we’re like okay that sounds like a good idea you know salut called up called it Columbia and they thought they thought it was a great idea so we thought it would be kind of a cool Easter egg thing to do to not advertise it not let anybody know anything make no announcement about it we’ll just Pat we’ll package it up we’ll put it in an EP we’ll make an acoustic EP and we’ll call it SAP and we’ll just throw it in the stores and let fans just kind of find it like what what is this and anyway so we put that in there put that in the stores
0:48:01.2 –>
and wasn’t really like it was a hit right away you know yeah but it was just kind of a cool thing and I remember actually we we the first time we tried to play some of that stuff there was like a benefit concert and I think we did a couple of we did a we did that like three or four songs I think and I remember a few more like throwing [ __ ] at us like ice and cups and stuff and like whoa that’s pretty hard just sitting there scratching our heads because we were playing acoustic music and you know we’re supposed to be this rock band or whatever what that did for the band was really cool it it opened up it opened up another field for us to play in at a very early stage in the band’s career and that’s why you got jar of flies and that’s why you know we’ve been able to incorporate you know elements of that it opened us up to being really versatile you know and for people being okay with us being versatile you know dirts an intense record
0:49:10.3 –>
material that that we were writing at that time was pretty gnarly you know there was a lot of [ __ ] going on that’s a hard record you know it’s really pretty too and it’s a good mix of both and I think that’s kind of a with the equation of the band you know as a mix of like the the harder heavier uglier stuff with the with a pretty beautiful [ __ ] you know sound so we came to LA to record dirt and we moved into Jordan’s studio and that was right about the time that the cops were on trial for the you know beating of Rodney King and we were all kind of watching the trial intently because you know we knew we we had a
0:50:02.7 –>
feeling which way it was gonna go and it wasn’t gonna be good for the black community at all or Rodney King and these guys were gonna get off if they did get off it was gonna be there’s gonna be apocalyptic you know that’s what we were we were all talking about it and thinking about it and sure [ __ ] and then when that verdict came down and those cops got off within minutes you know the town started erupting you know and we started seeing fires and we started seeing people get pulled out of cars like on TV and this is like the first load end day of like you know first or second day the right at the very beginning of the recording process and like man we gotta get the [ __ ] out of here you know we were like and kind of like in the valley over on Lankershim and we were staying at the oakwoods which was out in Venice so we still had we had to go get us either just either leave right there with what we have or go home and grab a few clothes and get out of town for a bit because because it
0:51:02.6 –>
was the city was quickly devolving into into a really dangerous place to be and you know people were rightly pissed off you know and and but I remember us making that kind of conscious call and and we’d been we were hanging out with Tom Araya you know and we were like what do we do and I think somebody came up with the idea let’s go out to Joshua Joshua Tree in the desert until things cool down it’s we’re like okay so we’ve picked a place to meet and we had I think we rented a couple of Volvo’s or whatever and we basically were the getting from from North Hollywood to Venice to to the oak woods to get like our clothes and some money and some stuff and try to get out of town was a battle man I remember us like you know I remember the streets being you know full of people running running around buildings on fire we stopped for gas and people were just
0:52:00.4 –>
coming in and just taking [ __ ] you know just just take people were going into stores taking stuff class bein broke fights getting you know getting started not trying to look anybody in the eye too much and just try to do you know get your gas get get it get some water get some food and get the [ __ ] out you know but uh that’s how that records started you know and then we went out went on to Joshua Tree and you know dropped acid and I think Tom had a couple of dry peyote tabs I think we took out there for like four or five days but that was the beginning of dirt I remember writing that song staying over at Cornell’s place that’s Susan silver and in Chris Cornell’s house they had a little guest room and at their place out in West Seattle tiny little room it just had room for like a little bed it was kind of like a converted closet I think but it had a window looking out at the water and remember I stayed up all night may even have taken acid or whatever that
0:53:02.3 –>
night am I not sure but I remember I remember staying up all night and writing that song and I knew I was on to something really cool and I wanted something kind of washy and watery sounding you know kind of Hendrix II almost you know and and I was thinking about my dad you know you know like most kids you know my folks got divorced when I was pretty young and so my dad wasn’t a big part of my teen years and you know he was a he was a he was a badass and a hard-ass you know it was a Army sergeant so you know and it but I didn’t see a whole lot of them so one of my mother my mother had passed he was my only parent left and as you know I was as I became a man I started to realize that you know I can’t be mad at him for you know mmm can’t be mad at him for like kid [ __ ] you know like every kid’s mad at their dad for something you know her parents or whatever like I started trying to think
0:54:00.9 –>
about putting myself in his shoes and like you know what he’d been through in his life in in you know multiple tours UNAM and and just where he came from and things that he had had to deal with and I sort of asked him myself you know did what I’ve done any better you know could I have done any better and I couldn’t say yes and so that was kind of a first little thing of me kind of putting myself in his shoes and trying to take the blame off of him and like trying to make peace and you know have a relationship with my dad again [Music]
0:55:08.1 –>
so that was kind of a cool song for a lot of reasons personally it was it was what I just described and then and then it actually happened you know like we started to become more pals of buddies and [ __ ] and over the years we’ve grown closer and closer you know we started a built a ranch together about 20 years ago and he’s still living on it and running it in Oklahoma and that song in particular means a lot to servicemembers and their families because I’m a family member of a service members and I mean so it’s it’s kind of taken on a life of its own so it’s been glad that that song you know has kind of had the impact that it has I didn’t intend for it to other than it being a kind of a pathway for my dad and I’d have a better relationship
0:56:01. –>
which worked I’ve always been a fan of bands that have multiple voices you know and multiple lead singers you know people that can carry a tune and have a different palette you know it’s something I always thought that was kind of cool about our band that maybe a lot of other that the Seattle bands didn’t have so much I never really wanted to be a lead singer ever I just wanted to play guitar write songs and sing backups you know I mean and I partly just because it’s a lot easier to do that and secondly you know we had Layne Staley you know I mean like I don’t need to be singing anything he’s got it covered you know I’ve still never heard anybody that sounds like him and I never will and it’s really cool to have been in a band with him and created the music that we did together he had his own thing there’s no you didn’t sound like anybody and nobody’s really sounds like him and you know I
0:57:00.1 –>
remember having a couple of conversations with Layne especially on the first EP because that was pretty much my first experience of like singing a lead you know on an ALICE record you know he was like it’s like man these are these are your lyrics you know they know no offense but they probably mean more to you than they do to me like I love singing them and all of that but they’re they’re your words you should sing some of these you know and I’m like I really don’t want to sing him and I don’t not as good a singer as you so you’re great but you just keep singing and it’s like now you should really try I started to eventually kind of sing more and more and that kind of just kind of kept happening you know so we became more of a tandem you know instead of me just being a backup singer two lanes lead singer we started to kind of get a little bit more closer and carrying that carrying the weight together and also be having the versatility of having a couple of different kind of voices and the cool thing about it is the way that we sang
0:58:00.2 –>
together like the two of our voices kind of made a bigger voice you know I mean we’re like sometimes you can totally tell when it’s him and you can totally tell when it’s me buts a lot of times when we sing together you can’t tell which one is which it kind of makes a it makes a thing you know [Music] the search for peace [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Mike and I were hanging out somewhere in jammin with a couple of other people in in town and and we ended up in somebody’s house and I started playing the riff to just kind of came up with a
0:59:01.3 –>
riff to have him beside you I don’t remember who it was that we were playing with but there were they were like hey that’s really cool and I looked at Mike and I’m like no like let’s play something else and we started playing something else and then when dude left the room I’m like that’s killer man but we gotta [ __ ] work on this song that’s great it’s gonna be a good one we can’t play it with him though because he’ll think you wrote it so I remember I remember having a moment with Mike where we realized we were on to something and that ended up turning into have him beside you grind was something there was a song I demoed at my house and a little you know a little recording kind of system out there and and I remember bringing that in that song into Sean I kind of demoed it complete and then brought it in and played it to Sean at the at the office and I remember him being really excited about that song and and I’m glad that it ended up making the record and being a single good team [Applause] [Music]
1:00:07.6 –>
[Music] the MTV Unplugged series was I was a fan of it I thought it was really cool and we had been asked to do it you would think that we would be a natural fit because we’d done someone could done the acoustic AP’s and stuff and but we I remember as a band we were kind of like everybody’s already done it so I think we turn him down like three or four times they kept asking us to do one it was really weird because it was in that period where we weren’t really doing many live shows and like for some reason all four of us agreed to do it like hey you know that unplugged thing they asked again like really no I’ll do it lanes like alright I’ll do it everybody agreed that we would we would
1:01:01.6 –>
do it which really surprised all of us cuz we weren’t really playing too many shows so it was just something that we all agreed to do and it being a really cool a really cool gig I think you know a lot of people it’s one of the it’s one of the records that people bring up to me the most with along with a handful of others you know or a couple of others but but out of that series I’ve had a lot of people comment on how that’s one of their favorite ones you know and I remember the show and it was really it was powerful it was fun you know we had a lot of our friends in the audience all of the Metallica guys were there they were in New York doing something and and we just had a bunch of a bunch of friends and it was a really cool it was super loose you know for for the most part what you see is what you got I think we we might a there might have run a couple of songs a few times I remember one time in one song in particular sludge factory I think we had to play like four or five times because Lane kept messing up the second verse he
1:02:00.3 –>
would like get to the second verse and blank and then go [ __ ] you know can we could we do it again like okay yeah everybody was like yeah I do it again so we did it a few times until we got it right but but mostly it was just pretty much what you got we didn’t mess with it all a lot you know there’s not a whole lot of tweaking or re-recording or any [ __ ] like that it’s it’s what happened you know and what’s one one one of my favorite records too because it was a kind of it was just a moment we got asked to do some shows for for kiss so they were kind of coming back and in furnace so the only handful of shows that we did play for that record unfortunately but but it kind of was the end of us being a touring band I guess and kind of creeping toward the end of us being a band at all but I remember those shows were really fun and we were all kiss fans and so we all said yes and and it was it was really cool to deal we were all I remember watching those guys play
1:03:00.9 –>
and we do our set and then we you know watch them play every night I think the first one was in Detroit Detroit Rock City man you know it’s cool because for like a for a couple of minutes they’re you know or a period of time you and you turn into a 12 year old again you know like you know he just like me lose yourself in the moment because you know they were kind of heroes to all of us you know when we were that age and you know they were cool they do there were definitely fun when we kind of stopped being a touring unit and it looked like we were maybe even gonna stop being a band I had to really invest some serious thought into like okay well what do I do now so that you know I started thinking about you know did I want to try doing some music on my own and I had the time and I thought it’s at least worth a shot so that’s how Boggy Depot came into existence and degradation trip after that and those first two records was
1:04:02.1 –>
more we weren’t doing anything I would have much rather done records with Alice because it’s really been been my focus is the band so I had the time and the opportunity to and it was different it was really different to to be center stage and occupy that sort of the space and it was a real learning experience you know and I think I think I think I learned a lot from doing those two and I’m really curious to kind of do it again here now that we have a little time when Lane passed pretty much we had thought you know that’s that’s that’s the end of it this is never gonna happen again and and rightly so the thought of continuing on without him wasn’t really in anybody’s mind but you know we’d created all this music together and it really meant a lot to to us to do that and even more so that so many people cared about it so I don’t know like you know we had that some conversations about you know a norm use
1:05:01.1 –>
ition so what do you do now you’re in a really tough spot so and we had talked about you know maybe getting back together to it at the very least to go out and play the music one more time and kind of celebrate it for ourselves and take it around the world for our fans you know the fans of the music and celebrate our time with with with our friend Lane you know and so but you know we just had a few conversations about of this and that and then and then that tsunami happened and there was just such a kind of world altering event and everybody you know was really inspiring to see everybody around the globe especially in the artistic community rally and like start doing gigs and raising money and trying to help people out and and we wanted to be a part of that so we’re like this would be a perfect time to do that so why don’t we why don’t we why don’t we why don’t we get together and invite some friends won’t play the songs we’ll do it at home we’ll do it in Seattle and so we got together and we did that show with a bunch of friends
1:06:01.2 –>
and that was the first time we played any of that stuff without you know without laying and it was really heavy and really hard but I’m glad we did it and it’s and obviously it was something that needed to happen and was also about us feeling a bit you know owned and what had happened and also owning the positive part of it too of it there’s a whole this is all of ours man you know and there’s no reason that we can’t can’t at least you know you go around though go around and play this music for everybody because it’s it’s it’s all of ours and and it’s not even all of ours anymore it’s anybody who cares about it it’s their music too you know I had known William and we had done some some time together you know on on the degradation trip tour and we fit really well together and and kind of worked on us could worked in a similar way we did some adolescent material so we had some experience playing that stuff so when we started think of getting together to jam you know he was
1:07:00.3 –>
a natural suggestion for me and I you know we suggested him to the guys and brought him down to rehearsal love hate love might have been the first song we did and he just killed it you know he did a great job and I’m remember Mike and Sean looking at me like all right he’s pretty good you know and we just kind of went from there and then the attention was just you know just what I said just take it around the ticket around the globe for a couple years play to all our fans and then leave lead the thing in a better place than it will got left at you know at least on an up note and then after a period of time while we’re touring songs start getting written and then you you know thoughts start like man that’s really good and then wow there’s another one that wow that’s that’s happening like okay now we’ve got a records worth of material so you start thinking wow you know could we could we make that move and that’s a that was a real hard decision to make you know for us you know because you know if we’re the type of guys if you’re gonna do it you’re
1:08:01. –>
gonna go all the way and it had to feel right if it didn’t feel right to anybody that wasn’t gonna work so and it it did we just kept taking the next step that happened naturally and that turned into some really cool tours and the rebuilding of you know our connection with our fans and and the music and and then we you know came up with black gives way to blue and that kind of restarted a whole second chapter for the band Rainier fog was recorded in Seattle we made a conscious decision we hadn’t recorded in Seattle for a while and we had also kind of heard that studio acts the you know where we which was bad animals at the time we had recorded their self-titled record might not be in existence anymore and it was really really sad to hear that because it’s like the only a real studio in downtown
1:09:00.9 –>
Seattle I mean so many great records have been recorded there it’s just a huge piece of Seattle history you know we got to go back in coincidentally you know wasn’t planned to be this but just kind of looking back on it you know the the self-titled record was our third full-length record even though you know we had to be you you know ep’s released as well but a third full-length record and Rainier foggy ended up being the third full-length record of this incarnation of the band as well so you know they’re both recorded at the same place so it was really good to go home you know I had this I had this song called Rainier fog and in be you know we went home to record and it kind of just made sense to call the record that as well it was kind of was kind of like coming home you know figuratively as well as literally you know and it was just cool to be there you know there’s summertime and just kind of soaking up the vibe and
1:10:01.9 –>
and it’s a really cool record man I’m really proud of that record it’s a trip man it just like you know you mentioned all those other guitar players you know that the whole the whole riff Lord thing it’s an honor but at the same time I just I just don’t there’s a part of there’s a part of me that that just doesn’t look at it doesn’t look at it that way you know and like and like I think that what keeps me I don’t know it keeps me kind of propelled forward I realize I’ve written some riffs and and and and I grew up on bands that wrote good riffs you know I mean so I’m just another link in the chain and and there’s another generation of riff Lords that have come after me and hopefully they’ll be many more you know and at some point we all start by emulating something and then if you’re lucky enough you become yourself you know and then other people start emulating you
1:11:01.1 –>
it’s weird it’s a trick well I mean I’m always writing and I’m always demoing it’s just something I if I didn’t do it professionally I’d probably do it as a hobby you know I mean because it’s just kind of interesting it’s [ __ ] maddening too you know and and it’s it’s torture but it’s really cool and you can go through all of that and come out the other side with a tune you know and I think you have to go for me I know I have to go through that I don’t know how it is for other people that right I’ve had some conversations with other people or writers and and it seems to be fairly similar but some people enjoy it more than others and I do but but but it is a man is a journey into like nothingness because it’s like you got to start from a zero every time what you did before it doesn’t matter at all if anything it makes it harder because it’s got to be as at least as good as that you know to me it’s like I think every record that that that I’ve been a part of with Alice and even the couple of
1:12:00.9 –>
records that I’ve done I don’t think really one of them sounds like another you know what I mean the that’s that’s the that’s the that’s the goal I guess is to be able to kind of change and go where you want to go naturally the reason that those records sound different is we’re just in a different place you know it’s just a different time and you know it might be the same guys you know but but you know years of past and experiences are different so each record has its own thing and that’s what you want as a artist or a musician is to have an identifiable fingerprint that’s one of the main goals you know where when somebody hears a note or two they know exactly who it is and doesn’t matter if it’s from 30 years ago or whether it’s from two years ago or right now like I know who that is you know you know real thankful that we have that not every band gets that you know on a on a wide scale everybody has it individually for sure
1:13:00.9 –>
you know but whether it speaks to like an audience as wide as we’ve been able to speak to you can’t can’t plan on that man it’s just cool to be part of a story you know and I’ve had the opportunity to come from a town that was so artistic and so free and it was about self-expression and finding yourself and being individual you know it’s like 33 years later and we’re still going still proud of where we come from you know and we still the the heart of the band this is is intact and the reasons the reasons of the meaning behind why we all do it where we come from and what that means you know that’s not lost on any of us you know it’s cool you know I’m proud to have sprung from the community and and so many of my friends you know and it’s to have created a lot of really cool
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work and the fact that I’m you know about to turn 54 here next month and I still don’t have a straight job it’s pretty cool I think you just have to follow your heart you know if this is something that you feel like it compelled to do if you’re if you want to really in anything in life you know there’s there’s a hundred reasons not to do it you know and you know this isn’t the most stable job in the world and it the guaranteed for success or the ability to pay your rent or feed yourself or pay your medical bills you know pretty low success rate you know and I mean and like you know my parents didn’t think it was a great idea and I’m sure you know they always told me you know at least you know go to school have something to fall back on and one of the last conversations I had with my mother was was you know you know what are you gonna do if you you know if you if you don’t make it you gotta have something to fall back on and I just remember telling her I’m not falling back and she looked me in the eye and saw that a
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minute yeah and she’s like okay and there was enough for her to know that it was pretty much the last meaningful conversation we had but but I guess what I’m saying is you just got to follow you got to follow what you feel you know and if it’s something that you want to do bad enough and you work hard enough at it and you get a little luck you know it can it can happen for you I think that can happen for you with anything you want to do in life [Music] [Music] [Music]
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