Watch Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell Talk Early Influences for Gibson Series

Alice in Chains’ guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell reflects on his early life in a teaser for an upcoming, long-form interview about his career via Gibson’s Icon series.

“Music was something that was always in our house from a very early age,” he says in the clip. “By that time, I was heavily into rock, like AC/DC and Kiss and all the English metal. And I grew up on bands that wrote good riffs. I just wanted to play guitar, write songs, and I’m proud to have sprung from the community and so many of my friends. Thirty-three years later they are still going, and the heart of the band is intact. And the reasons and the meaning behind why we all do it, where we all come from and what that means, that’s not lost on any of us.”

Cantrell will discuss how Alice in Chains formed, the band’s history and his approach to songwriting in the lengthy chat. Previous episodes of Icons have focused on Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and Metallica and Mötley Crüe producer Bob Rock. The full Cantrell episode will arrive in July.

Alice in Chains most recently put out a video for the title track of their Rainier Fog album and launched their own sci-fi series Black Antenna. Cantrell also recently looked back on his career in an interview with Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, in which he recounted how the band reformed after the death of singer Layne Staley.

“We had to think about this,” he said of the decision to bring singer-guitarist William DuVall into the band. “This is our life. We created this and just because our friend is not here, it doesn’t mean that this stuff isn’t still alive and still speaks to people. … We have full ownership. This is us. This is what we do. And it took a while.”