Jerry Cantrell

Jerry Cantrell’s solo career did not come about from his long-term plans or long-held dreams. The idea to do something completely on his own sprang from growing problems among the members of Alice in Chains. The heroin addiction of the band’s vocalist, Layne Staley, was growing to monstrous proportions and stopped in its tracks any possibility for the band to do anything, so the musicians started to gravitate to other initiatives. Cantrell started out with his own with a single “Leave Me Alone” in 1996. Two years later, the artist released his debut solo album – the music on this record, as is the case with all of his solo releases, isn’t too far away from the music of his seminal band – and it originated two huge hits for Cantrell, “My Song” and “Cut You In.” A few months after Staley’s death, in 2002, Jerry released his sophomore album, Degradation Trip. As was the case with his first release, the record was extremely warmly received and proved that when it comes to this man, mediocrity is really out of the picture. Subsequently, Cantrell took a hiatus from his solo career and went on to reactivate Alice in Chains, so his third solo album, Brighten, only saw the light of day in 2021. The latest full-length record from the guitarist is I Want Blood from last year.