Alice In Chains singer/guitarist Jerry Cantrell discussed quitting drugs and drinking in a new Rolling Stone interview.
On July 1st, Cantrell will be 15 years sober. There have been many casualties over the decades, some famous, others more obscure. Cantrell wasn’t one of them.
“I don’t get fucked up anymore, and that’s a huge difference in your life. I miss those days sometimes because it was so fun and carefree and innocent in the beginning – all the weird adventures you get into. It was fuckin’ fun, until it wasn’t. And by the time it’s not fun anymore, you’re already fucked.”
Those chaotic days are behind him, but the music goes on in ways even he didn’t expect.
“It’s weird to be 52 years old and have been in a band for 30 years and still doing it at a high level,” he goes on. “In life, a lot of time is about finding your family, and it’s not blood family. I found my family. We’re still going through this thing.”
Alice In Chains’ new album Rainier Fog closes with a seven-minute epic, “All I Am,” a swirling hard-rock tune that takes a long look backward, with sweeping guitar and echoes of Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. “I was thinking about the imagery of an old boxer or old soldier that’s been though a ton of battles, and all of the scars you obtain through life, all the triumphs, all of the falls,” Cantrell explains. “Multiple times in your life, you come to points where you question your faith or just assess. It’s a character questioning, ‘Is this all I am?’
