Jerry Cantrell
Biography
Jerry Cantrell first came to prominence as a member of Alice in Chains, one of the prototypical Seattle grunge bands. With their 1990 debut Facelift, the quartet scored a surprise hit with the ultra-heavy "Man in the Box," and haven't looked back since. Racking up such hit albums as 1992's Dirt and 1995's self-titled release, the band rose to the top of the alterna-metal heap. Lead singer Layne Staley couldn't cope with the pressure of their enormous success, and sank further and further into substance abuse. Due to Staley's problems, the band has to date been unable to mount a substantial tour since 1993's Lollapalooza, and the rest of the band understandably got a little antsy.
Over the course of their career, the group has issued two successful all-acoustic EPs and one unplugged album, which focused primarily on the songwriting and arranging talents of Cantrell, whom fans found out had a very strong voice to boot. With the future of the band up in the air, Cantrell appeared as a solo artist on the soundtrack for the movie The Cable Guy, contributing the track "Leave Me Alone." After AiC opened for the first Kiss reunion show in Detroit in 1996, Cantrell began work on his very first solo album.
Selected Discography
ya but that is suiside to a certain exctent. R.I.P. layne. Alice in chains isnt the same without you! peace
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Jerry Cantrell signed like two autographs on the way out tonight(AIC in NYC 9/8)-not for nothing but there was 20 people there. It wasn't like there were hundreds. Him and DuVall got in separate cabs quickly and like 20 minutes later Kinney strolls out, signs the bootleg ticket I got ripped off for and is hanging out chatting and then Mike comes out and he's taking pics with everyone, felt really bad bout me scalping a fake ticket. Inez quote: "Man, that really sucks". He meant it.
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I agree with matt.lafonta i n e . To just say "couldn't handle the pressure" grossly simplifies the situation and leaves it too open to misunderstan d i n g . It's not like Layne was thinking, "Oh all these photo shoots are so tough!". It's more like grunge is totally antithetical to consumerism and the BS of our culture in general. Unfortunatel y , the lifestyle of a famous person is exactly what they were trying to rebel against. When Kurt and Layne got rich, I think they felt guilty and hypocritical .
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weird. Lead singers in both Alice in Chains AND Nirvana had problems, and commited suicide. Kinda odd how they both performed the same genre of music. Maybe grunge is bad for yor health lol.
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man i luv jerry's music and everything but his vocals bore me. theres no dynamics.
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Hahahaha, who the hell writes these bios? Lane "couldn't handle the pressure". You seem to have quite the wealth of knowledge. So much so that you can download the real desires and motives from a dead persons head. Maybe you could take his place, knowing so much about music and 'pressure'. Maybe you could write a platinum record and be a rock star, not some joe shmoe writing bios. Oh wait... thats right... ...No pressure dude.
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well, of course he is better with aic ... aic rocks! he is just talented ...
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Way better with AIC but i like his single stuff - He is a great guitar player and a good singer, especially with Layne
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mr. cantrell ... what a rockin motherf**ker he is. love the riffs, keep em coming. rock on ...
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JC was always better with Alice In Chains, Im glad he still has that Seattle sound.
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I love Alice in Chains, especially when Layne's voice is prominent. But I do think we have to give Jerry a great deal of respect for his solo stuff. He's made 2 great solo albums, pretty versatile sound on both of them.
I'm still curious about the new incarnation of AIC, with William DuVall on vocals, but hoping it is really good and heavy. I know William's old band, Comes with the Fall was real heavy. |
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A fantastic guitar player. The work he does on The Ozzy cover cd is f**kin killer. Keep Rockin J.C. Please your awesome.
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Cantrell always sounded better to me with Alice.
This thing doesn't post everything you type. I have noticed.... |
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I like Tool, Korn, AIC, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Nickelback, Def Leppard, Kid Rock, Collective Soul, The Killers, and many many more. I don't care what anyone thinks about it, because it sounds good to ME.....
Cantrell always ounded better to with Alice. |
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He was always the best in AIC, but this is a really weird picture of him on here.....
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I like both Tool, AiC and JCantrell. All 4 rock!
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I like jerry cantrell and tool they both rock theyre almost 2 different genres of rock
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wow how can you like jerry and alice if you dont like tool i mean i know alice rocked but come on man to say tool sucks is well weird
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Jerry Cantrell is one of the best songwriters of the past 20 years. His riffs are heavy and melodic - a great hybrid of metal and classical riffs. Very distinctive style too - you know a Cantrell riff right away. Simply put, he's great.
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yeah I think he's a genius and tool is pretty badass, so nedman, your just being a dick
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Hey Nedman, I can relate to his music and I think he's a genius but I also think Tool rocks and it takes a feeble simple minded person to not see greatness in Tool.
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Those who cant relate to his music are feeble/simpl e minded morons who probably think TOOL rocks.
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Cantrell's work is good stuff, but I'll make no proclimation s .
// Passes the mic back to the nickelback puffs now. |
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you know what loveisevol81 , that's just fine. you have your opinion, we have ours.
i didn't really care for most of Jerry's solo work either. Although i do like Alice in Chains. but honestly, the way you voice your opinion sounds a little.....i m m a t u r e . . . . n o offense or anything.... i ' l l see ya'll later. |
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You guys make me hate jerry cantrell even more by proclaiming him the greatest. all his songs suck and don't make sense. THEY'RE ALL THE SAME SONG!!!!!! just stop trying to get the last word in on this because you never will. the last word is always the right one, and jerry cantrell is an mediocre band, if anything at all.
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Saw them with the new singer - William DuVall. While no one can truly replace Layne, William is a damn good singer is his own right, and AIC rocked proving that Rock and Roll isn't quite dead yet...
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Of the millions of bands I've heard and that exist in my life time, this is the only one that I find myself saying "Damn, I wish I'd have had one more of those". Well, them and the Sea Hags.
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A legend in my opinion. I personally feel he was the creative force behind AIC (although of course Layne's distinctive vocals were equally important).
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