ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell, who is currently promoting his upcoming solo album, “Brighten”, spoke to the “Let There Be Talk” podcast with with rock and roll comedian Dean Delray about the band’s plans for the coming months. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We’re talking about doing some gigs in 2022. We’re just trying to figure it out. I think we wanted to just err on the side of caution rather than push it. And I wanted to do that with my record too. So we thought we would just wait till 2022. So from March to May, we’re planning on doing a States run for the ‘Brighten’ tour, on my record, and hopefully, COVID willing, maybe a little jaunt over to Europe. And then maybe toward the end of summer, fall, ALICE is talking about doing some shows with maybe some other bands as well.”
Last December, Jerry told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” that ALICE IN CHAINS had planned on taking a year off even before the pandemic hit. “So we’re just waiting to see how this pans out and plays out,” he said. “Obviously, a lot of people are affected. We’re pretty blessed and lucky where we are while we’re all weathering this together. But, as you know, we’re part of a community that relies on getting people together to work and have fun. So we’re just seeing how this all plays out. And we don’t wanna go back to work until it’s safe to work, and I don’t think anybody will. So I’m kind of thinking we’re gonna be off again for about another year.”
“We just kind of planned on taking a year off,” drummer Sean Kinney echoed Jerry‘s words. “Jerry had a solo thing he wanted to do. Will [singer William DuVall] was gonna go do his thing and was starting up on that. So it was kind of a plan to take this time off and people could go do whatever they wanted to do — do their own deal. And then this kind of shut those things down to a degree. So we haven’t really had a discussion of if, when, where, what, why, but I would assume, probably… Like Jerry said, I don’t think we’re gonna magically be okay to go back and everybody get back to the life they had before within the next year. Maybe by this time next year, if there’s enough vaccine.
“Our industry, as you know, is completely existent upon people having disposable income — a little extra dough to buy a ticket or something to go see something — and then cramming as many people as you can as close to each other into whatever-size venue you can fill with people,” he added. “So it is the worst situation, probably, of anything.”
ALICE IN CHAINS regrouped in 2006 with DuVall joining the band, and released its third LP with DuVall in the lineup, “Rainier Fog”, in August 2018.
Due on October 29, “Brighten” was co-produced by Jerry over the past year with film composer Tyler Bates and Cantrell’s longtime engineer Paul Figueroa. They welcomed a dynamic cast of supporting players, including drummers Gil Sharone and Abe Laboriel, Jr. (Paul McCartney), pedal steel master Michael Rozon, Vincent Jones on piano, Wurlitzer, and organ. Other rock legends added to the fun of this LP, including Duff McKagan (GUNS N’ ROSES) on select bass tracks, Greg Puciato (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) handling all of the background vocals and Joe Barresi (TOOL, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE) overseeing the mixing of “Brighten”. Together, they recorded eight originals and the LP closes with an approved-by-Elton John cover of his classic “Goodbye” as the finale.
