Alice In Chains singer/guitarist Jerry Cantrell was recently interviewed by SiriusXM’s Volume at the 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He praised Bon Jovi and The Cars. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
“It’s always good seeing old friends. Anytime there’s a gathering of musicians, you’re going to know a good portion of them, because we see each other all over the world. So there is some of that, and meeting people you’ve never met before, like I just walked by The Moody Blues back there, I’ve never met those guys. Their music has been in my head since I was a kid. The Cars, I spent a whole summer picking rocks out of a 4 acre lot doing landscaping for this guy listening to The Cars’ first record, that’s all I had. I listened to that record for the whole summer picking rocks, and it was great. I love The Cars, Dire Straits as well, and Bon Jovi. I’m really happy to see the guys from Bon Jovi get in.”
He later said, “It’s pretty easy, it’s very difficult to achieve any level of success in this business. If you’re able to sustain it, and to continually produce something that continues to touch people where you’re actually getting to multi-generations, and you’ve been around for 20, 30, or 40 years, it’s pretty rare. So luckily we’ve been able to, I’m still doing it, I still don’t have a straight job, and I get to hang out with really cool people all the time who are my heroes and my friends. To see them honored, it’s an of course thing, like of course. It’s always nice that anybody recognizes anybody’s life work. At this level, there’s not as many as you’d think.”
He said in another interview, “Bon Jovi I think is long overdue to be here, and they’re well deserving to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
“It’s incredible that they’ve had such a long career as they have. All of the different eras and songs, I became aware of them during the MTV days, when they used to play rock and roll.”
