In a brand new interview with Chaz & AJ within the Morning, a morning radio discuss present program on 99.1 WPLR, a rock radio station broadcasting from New Haven, Connecticut, William DuVall was requested how he got here to hitch ALICE IN CHAINS in 2006 because the substitute for vocalist Layne Staley, who died of a heroin overdose 4 years earlier. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It wasn’t precisely like a proper boardroom proposal. It was extra like — at the moment, I got here in, I did a rehearsal and, after all, I might identified [ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist/vocalist Jerry] Cantrell for some years by then, and we had toured collectively. He knew what was up, and it was only a matter of attending to know [bassist Mike] Inez and [drummer Sean] Kinney a bit extra. And so all of us performed collectively, after which afterwards it was form of, like, ‘Effectively, we have got these exhibits arising. Would you do these exhibits?’ After which I stated ‘sure’ to that. After which extra exhibits received booked, after which extra exhibits received booked, and earlier than it, we had gone around the globe in 2006. So, that is form of the way it developed. And right here we’re, 20 years later.”
When one of many interviewers famous that the ALICE IN CHAINS guys have been apparently very impressed with the truth that William did not attempt to sound precisely like Layne, DuVall concurred. “Yeah, precisely,” he stated. “I would not have executed it every other means. And that is all one can do, actually, I feel, ultimately, is simply be your self and do your factor. And so that is what occurred.”
DuVall seems on the final three ALICE IN CHAINS albums: 2009’s “Black Provides Approach To Blue”, 2013’s “The Satan Put Dinosaurs Right here” and 2018’s “Rainier Fog”.
Previous to becoming a member of ALICE IN CHAINS in 2006, DuVall was a member of punk rock bands AWARENESS VOID OF CHAOS, NEON CHRIST, BL’AST! and FINAL OFFERING. DuVall‘s lengthy musical historical past additionally contains COMES WITH THE FALL and Cantrell‘s solo work.
Cantrell befriended the members of COMES WITH THE FALL within the early 2000s, taking part in exhibits with the band on the West Coast, then enlisting the musicians to tour with him as each opening act and backing group in assist of his album “Degradation Journey”.
In Could 2025, ALICE IN CHAINS will seem at a couple of festivals, together with the MMRBQ in Camden, New Jersey (Could 10),Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio (Could 11) and Welcome To Rockville in Daytona Seaside, Florida (Could 16). They’ve additionally lined up a number of headlining exhibits, in Uncasville, Connecticut (Could 8),Nashville, Tennessee (Could 13) and Dothan, Alabama (Could 15). ALICE IN CHAINS can be on the invoice for the ultimate BLACK SABBATH/Ozzy Osbourne present on July 5 in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
ALICE IN CHAINS has solely performed one live performance since 2023 — an look finally 12 months’s Sick New World competition in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Within the final 4 years, Cantrell has launched two solo albums, 2021’s “Brighten” and 2024’s “I Need Blood”, and has toured extensively in assist of each efforts, performing materials spanning his solo profession and ALICE IN CHAINS.
