Line #19 Trivia/AliceInChains


1	''Music/DirtAlbum'' has [[Trivia/DirtAlbum its own page]].
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3	* BlackSheepHit:
4	** "No Excuses", and "Nutshell" are [[SurprisinglyGentleSong gentle songs]] in contrast to their usual metal styling, although they're pretty good examples of what their acoustic material sounds like.
5	** Their SignatureSong "Man in the Box" is also this; while having a fairly heavy dark sound, it also has a lot of Glam elements to it and lacks any of the doom metal they'd incorporate later. Though, again, this is pretty indicative of [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the album it came out on.]]
6	* BreakawayPopHit: Arguably, "Your Decision". The song has replaced "No Excuses" as the go-to Alice In Chains acoustic ballad on rock radio. The song charted very high, since there was almost nothing new that sounded like it at the time of its release.
7	* BreakthroughHit: "Man in the Box", which brought them into MTV's Buzz Bin and served as one of the heralds of the imminent alternative explosion. The following year brought them even more critical and commercial success with their sophomore album ''Dirt''.
8	* ChartDisplacement: The band had five #1 hits on rock radio: "No Excuses" and four songs from the William [=DuVall=] era, all minor compared to "Man in the Box" and the hits from ''Dirt''. "Check My Brain", also from the reunion era, was their only entry on the Hot 100 and only #1 on Alternative radio.
9	* CreatorBacklash: The band's origins in hair metal. Layne Staley was originally the vocalist for the hair metal band Sleze, and later "Alice 'n' Chainz" (or however they spelled it; they could never really settle on a consistent spelling), but none of the other members of Alice in Chains were in Alice 'n' Chainz. However, the other members [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130605021221/http://aic.gsg2007.de/Fotos/AIC-%20Gallery/Sleze/ExposedAIC2.gif weren't exactly clean, either]].
10	* CreatorBreakdown:
11	** Layne Staley had a long and tumultuous one that eventually led to his death. Throughout the 90s, he dealt with a heroin addiction he was unable to break that affected the band's ability to record and tour. By 1996, he became very sickly and had lost several teeth due to his habits,[[note]]The band's MTV Unplugged session and their concerts with Music/{{KISS}} have him with a noticeable lisp due to the visible loss of his front teeth.[[/note]] and he admitted that he felt like he was "walking through hell." However, the moment that completely broke him and brought him to despair was the death of his fiance, Demri Parrott. Afterwards, he developed a crack addiction and his physical state took a nosedive as a result. By 1999, he became a total recluse, eventually dying alone in 2002.
12	** Bassist Mike Starr had a similarly problematic drug addiction that he claimed was the reason why he was kicked out of the band. This led to multiple altercations with the law and eventually his death in 2011 when he overdosed on prescription drugs.
13	* CreatorRecovery: Jerry Cantrell was also battling his own drug addictions in the '90s with cocaine and alcohol. Thankfully, he kicked them in 2003 and has been sober ever since.
14	* DoingItForTheArt: As Sean Kinney said in a LA Times interview, “It’s not really worth doing unless you enjoy the people you’re doing it with. None of us are fame seekers. We’re not out working our own brands independently, putting out hot sauce and [stuff]. We’re lucky that anyone ever cared. We know that.”
15	* ReclusiveArtist:
16	** During the final years of his life, Staley became very reclusive thanks to his deteriorating physical state caused by his addiction and rarely left his apartment in the University District of Seattle. It got to the point that it would be normal for his bandmates and friends to go weeks without hearing from him. The only people who saw him with any regularity were the patrons and employees of a nearby bar, where he was apparently a semi-regular himself (though he never bought anything and mostly just sat at an end table, usually in a drug-addled stupor; he left everyone who was there alone and they did the same). The rest of his time was likely spent playing video games, making art, or using drugs and passing out. On what would be the day before his death, Staley actually threw Mike Starr out of his apartment, demanding that he not call 911 about his ailing health and never come back, which Starr had no choice but to oblige, much to his future regret. It wasn't until his accountants noticed that he hadn't made any bank withdrawals in two weeks that anyone went back to his apartment, where his two-week-old corpse was discovered.
17	** Music/JerryCantrell at one point secluded himself for over a month while working on his ''Degradation Trip'' album. This is chronicled very frankly in his song "Pig Charmer".
18	* ThrowItIn:
19	** The words "junk fuck" can be heard at the very beginning (before the count-off) of "Junkhead".
20	** "Iron Gland" was spawned from a riff that Cantrell kept playing that the other members hated, and he promised them that he would never play it again if they allowed him to record it.
21	** Layne took a bong rip and ad-libbed "Sure, God is all-powerful, but does he have lips? ''Whoa''." at the beginning of "God Am" while fucking around in the studio, and the band thought it was funny and also wanted people to see the goofy, good-natured Layne that they saw instead of the half-dead druggie that had become his public image.
22	** The main riff to "It Ain't Like That" was apparently a mistake that sounded cool enough for Cantrell to keep.
23	* TroubledProduction:
24	** ''Dirt'' was plagued by Layne Staley's huge drug addiction. Staley would arrive in the studio singing off key due to how stoned he was. At one point, his drug dealer even came into the studio, trying to tell longtime producer Dave Jerden how to mix the album. Staley ended up turning himself into rehab not long afterwards. On top of that, Sean Kinney and Mike Starr were struggling with alcohol addiction. There was also issues with the band arriving into the studio on time, as the day after they started recording the Los Angeles Riots had started, causing massive traffic jams. At one point, Jerry Cantrell actually watched a convenience store get held up by a robber. They ended up taking an emergency vacation into the Joshua Tree desert until the riots calmed down. Nonetheless, the album became a massive success, putting Alice in Chains in the same tier as Music/{{Nirvana}} for popularity in grunge.
25	** Their self-titled album was no slouch either. By the time of its production, Staley had deteriorated rapidly due to his addiction, and had to keep it in check multiple times during the recordings. Relationships within the band were at an all-time low; days passed by while his bandmates and studio personnel were waiting for him to finally arrive, and hours passed by waiting for him to come out of the bathroom. When he did leave, it was anyone's guess as to whether they would be able to get some quality takes, or if the day would be a loss because he was too fucked up to do anything.
26	** The recording sessions for the songs "Get Born Again" and "Died" were the last ones Staley had done with the band. At that point, he was effectively a walking corpse, but one who could at least sing to some extent. Once again, the band had difficulties getting him to work as he would either not work at all or make up excuses to leave so he could get high. This upset Cantrell to the point where he yelled at Staley for his excuses and refused to work in the same studio with him. The recordings also initially involved Jerden, who was later replaced with Toby Wright as tensions rose.

Context Trivia / AliceInChains