In a new Kerrang interview, Alice In Chains singer/guitarist William DuVall revealed that the band’s new song “Never Fade” was inspired by his grandmother, Chris Cornell, and Layne Staley. Note that the attribution of the quote in the interview appears to be of Jerry Cantrell, but it had previously been reported that William DuVall wrote lyrics to the song, so it appears the quote is actually his, though it could be Cantrell as he sings the chorus.
“I think there was some residue from the past lingering, but the ghosts were benevolent, they were there to help, not hinder,” the frontman recalls. “I wrote the lyrics to the song Never Fade right there in Studio X. I thought, ‘I’m not leaving this room until I chase this song down.’ I sang about the history, all the songs that had been written, all the arguments among bands and discussions about the future.
I was thinking about my grandmother, who’d just died a few months earlier; thinking about Layne Staley, thinking about [Soundgarden’s] Chris Cornell, who’d just passed a month before – just letting it wash over, and at the end, I walked out into the dawn and felt I’d had a significant spiritual experience. It couldn’t have happened anywhere else.”
Listen to “Never Fade” below. The song appears on the band’s new album Rainier Fog. Alice In Chains previously paid tribute to Layne Staley on tracks on their 2009 album Black Gives Way to Blue. Layne Staley died in 2002, while Chris Cornell died in 2017.
