Alice In Chains singer/guitarist Jerry Cantrell discussed how William DuVall came to join Alice In Chains in an interview on Let There Be Talk with Dean Delray.
“There’s no replacing Layne [Staley]. William [DuVall] doesn’t sound anything like Layne, but he operated with me in a similar fashion that Layne and I used to operate writing wise and vocal wise. That’s a hallmark of the band that has to be there for this band to continue, he fit in really well.
When we got together and started jamming, he was the guy I suggested. So we brought him in, and I think we might have done, if I remember correctly we did Love Hate Love at soundcheck. He nailed it. I remember looking at Sean [Kinney] and Mike [Inez] and they’re like, ‘Alright, okay.'”
He was asked if other singers came in as well during this time, and the only other name Cantrell could recall was Sponge frontman Vinnie Dombrowski.
“Not really. We set up a rehearsal place, I think Mike and Sean had invited Vinnie down from Sponge to jam with us. He came down and messed around on a couple of tunes, because they had done a project with him and [Chris] DeGarmo I think called Spys4Darwin. So I think Vinnie came down and did a couple of tunes, but we didn’t really meld together as far as it sounding or feeling right, then William came in, and bam there he was.”
