Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell recently attended his friend Tom Morello’s podcast and talked about his new album ‘Brighten.’ Since they have been in the rock and roll world together, they recalled some memories they had together and they also mentioned the late singer Layne Staley.
Both Jerry Cantrell and Tom Morello made it to the Rolling Stone’s 100 greatest guitar players in the world list. While Cantrell was a long-time member of Alice In Chains, Morello was in Rage Against the Machine until 2017. They both succeeded in getting their names heard.
After Layne Staley tragically passed away in 2002, Cantrell replaced him and became the band’s vocalist. He also recently focused on his solo work and released a solo album titled ‘Brighten.’ While talking about the album with Morello, Cantrell reminisced about Staley and talked about a specific memory.
As Jerry Cantrell recalled, when Layne Staley heard Tom Morello play the guitar during a show they played together, he really got hyped to play it himself. Cantrell jokingly stated that he was hurt about the fact that Layne considered Morello as an inspiration for guitar playing instead of his own bandmate. Jerry also told Morello that he gave him the spark Staley is looking for to begin playing and writing songs.
Here is what Cantrell said:
“I remember, during that tour, Layne really had a shine for you. He wanted to play guitar more, and he was kind of intimidated because he didn’t play that much guitar, but he really was turned on by how you played guitar – I was a little hurt by that.“
Morello laughed and stated:
“You’re like, ‘What am I? Chopped liver? Like, dude, look to your left, I’m right here.'”
Cantrell continued:
“But, I remember that, and you gave him the spark to learn how to play guitar and write more songs.”
Morello reminisced the times he spent with Staley by recalling:
“He and I had a lot of laughs on that tour, man. We would have a daily argument of who was more metal: him or me. It would be part metal trivia and part posturing, but I remember that very very fondly.”
You can listen to their full conversation below.
