Layne Staley tragically passed away in 2002 after a lethal combination of heroin and cocaine. During a recent interview with journalist Andy Hall, guitarist for Alice in Chains, Jerry Cantrell discussed covering the Elton John song ‘Goodbye’ for his upcoming solo album that is set to be released later this month. Jerry Cantrell revealed the ‘greatest’ Pearl Jam song not too long ago.
During the interview, Cantrell stated how he got got premission from Sir Elton himself to record the song and how it was like ‘saying goodbye’ to Layne. Credit to Ultimate-Guitar for the following transcription.
“Yeah, I’ve been lucky enough to have had a lot of experiences like that in my career, and meet a lot of my heroes – and befriend a lot of them too.
“Elton is top of the heap for me, and having him be a part of [the 2009 Alice in Chains album] ‘Black Gives Way to Blue,’ our – if you want to call it a comeback record, with William [DuVall making his studio debut on vocals] and basically, on that song, saying goodbye to Layne [Staley], and also saying hello to the future for us…
“To have him be a part of that was a really important and kind of a full-circle moment. I did a couple of shows in L.A. in the process of demoing stuff for ‘Brighten’ in December, and we closed both shows with ‘Goodbye.’
