The past few years have been busy for Jerry Cantrell. The Alice in Chains guitarist has been on the road in support of his 2024 solo album, I Want Blood. On this run, he has headlined, opened for Bush, and performed at festivals worldwide. Sitting backstage at Corona Capital festival in Mexico City, the final show on his year-plus trek on the road, Cantrell isn\u2019t necessarily in a reflective mood (after all, in mere minutes, his beloved Seattle Seahawks are about to take on the Los Angeles Rams in a clash of NFC West titans. So, his focus is on that and his set). Nonetheless, he appreciates where his musical journey has taken him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs my sister [Heart guitarist] Nancy Wilson said to me the other day, \u2018I don\u2019t have any other skills,\u2019\u201d Cantrell jokes.<\/p>\n
Yet, here he is, nearly 35 years after Alice in Chains released their first album, soldiering on. Before his golden hour set, we caught up with Cantrell, where he discussed his recent appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoring his Seattle cohorts, Soundgarden, his thoughts on the Rock Hall, and what\u2019s next as this latest chapter comes to a close.<\/p>\n
V<\/b>ICE: What are you going to focus on now that this cycle with I Want Blood is wrapping up?<\/strong><\/p>\n Jerry Cantrell:<\/strong> In 2021, I made a record called Brighten and went out and toured. I had a lot of fun doing it, and we didn\u2019t have anything else going on at the moment. So, I made another one, which was this one. I\u2019ve had a lot of fun doing it, and I keep my focus where I am at the moment. Right now, I\u2019m focused on finishing this campaign, and then we\u2019ll figure out what we do next year.<\/p>\n How was it being at the Rock Hall and performing with Soundgarden?<\/strong><\/p>\n Fun, but it\u2019s always hectic because it\u2019s live TV. It\u2019s always good seeing everybody. Seeing a couple of bands that really mean a lot to me, Soundgarden being one, and Bad Company another, along with [Wrecking Crew bassist] Carol Kaye. It\u2019s always cool to see the community rally to recognize art, hard work, and the artists who stand out and influence generations. I\u2019ve been part of a couple of [Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies] for my friends\u2019 inductions with Heart and now Soundgarden. It feels good.<\/p>\n With Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden now inducted into the Rock Hall, how do you feel about Alice in Chains eventually getting in?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s nice to be recognized and to be honored. But does it really validate your career or make or break you if you\u2019re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or not? No. But it\u2019s nice, right? It\u2019s a nice thing, and I\u2019ve seen it firsthand with a lot of bands that I care about, that I grew up listening to and were inspired and influenced by, and see them go through the process and kind of have that moment. It\u2019s a beautiful thing.<\/p>\n What are some of the new rock bands out there that excite you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Man, I\u2019m the worst person to ask that question. I spend so much time kind of doing my own stuff. Unless I\u2019m playing at a festival or something, I run across somebody interesting, but yeah, I\u2019m not. I\u2019m not much of a listener, or I don\u2019t keep up with current bands.<\/p>\n So, who wins the NFC and goes to the Super Bowl?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s going to be between the Rams and the Seahawks. One of those teams is going to be in it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The past few years have been busy for Jerry Cantrell. The Alice in Chains guitarist has been on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[40820,18,117,19,17,40819,337,10321,44480,46438],"class_list":{"0":"post-187192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-alice-in-chains","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-jerry-cantrell","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-noisey","16":"tag-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame","17":"tag-soundgarden"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115571048395100044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}