Interview — Jerry Cantrell Talks Solo Tour and New Music Plans

Jerry Cantrell has had a good summer.

For starters, he got to participate in the “world’s biggest rock ‘n’ roll high school reunion,” as he described his recent experience paying tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne at Back to the Beginning.

Now, he’s starting the final leg of his tour supporting 2024’s I Want Blood, his latest solo album. The Alice in Chains guitarist returns to the stage on Saturday and has dates running through November.

Jerry Cantrell: ‘Anything Can Happen’ on Tour

“It’s always interesting, because for all intents and purposes, it’s basically the same thing. You’re showing up to a venue, you’re on a stage, you have an audience and you’re trying to perform well and connect with the audience,” Cantrell tells UCR. “But there’s so many variables that are different — the place, the night, the crowd and the band. Maybe you’re particularly on one night and all of those things are clicking.”

“Other nights could be really difficult,” he continues. “Maybe somebody’s sick [or] maybe the audience is particularly stoned or drunk. We had a couple of those over in Europe. Man, they definitely [had fun]. There [were] a couple of really stoner crowds and that’s all cool, man. There’s a lot of different elements that you don’t know what’s going to happen that night … and that’s really what keeps it interesting, because it’s a fresh night and anything can happen.”

How Jerry Cantrell’s Early Artistic Risks Continue to Pay Off

Cantrell tends to change course with each new album he puts out, whether it’s under his own name or the Alice in Chains banner. It’s no surprise he lets the music do the talking.

It’s important “to follow the [song] where it wants to go and not be afraid to take some risks,” he explains. “That’s something we did in the early days of Alice when we put out Facelift, which was a pretty fucking rocking record. Then, we put out an acoustic EP [1992’s Sap]. It was something that we did and it was music we enjoyed, but we took a chance to put [Sap] out. And then we did Dirt and Jar of Flies. So early on, we took some artistic chances not to be put in a box, like, ‘This is just what they do.’

“We were fans of all kinds of music and we wanted to play all kinds of styles of music. That set the tone for us to not be worried about trying to make the same record over and over. But also, maybe the people that liked us [would realize], ‘Hey, these guys do a lot of different shit and that’s cool.’ So they expect us to do some different stuff and that’s all healthy, I think.”

Why Alice in Chains Embraced Touring With Unusual Bands

While Alice in Chains got their share of high-profile tours, including Van Halen‘s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge run in 1991, they’d already proven they weren’t intimidated by an unusual lineup.

“One of our first tours was opening Clash of the Titans in 1991 [featuring Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax]. I don’t know that we necessarily, at that time, fit with those bands,” he says now. “I think that we do and over time, it’s been proven that we do. But we cut our teeth with that. And we went out with Iggy Pop. We would play with anybody just to get the opportunity to play, especially a bigger stage, where maybe some of the other bands in Seattle might have passed an opportunity or two because it wasn’t cool.

“But we were like, ‘Fuck it, man. We get to play an arena? Let’s go. We’ll play with anybody. We want the experience.’ And that’s the cool thing about about music. Some of my favorite shows and favorite tours, like Lollapalooza ’93 or some of these festival bills that you get to play every year or so, that are just a diverse mix of stuff. My favorite ones are the ones that are not genre-specific. It’s just a whole bunch of different shit. That’s fucking awesome.”

Is Jerry Cantrell Working on New Music?

As Cantrell approaches the end of his current cycle with I Want Blood, he’s already got his eye on the next thing. But he says he’ll take some time to refuel before jumping into a new project — and he’s not laying the groundwork while he’s on the road.

“For me, songwriting and touring don’t really mix,” he says. “They’re two separate things. I’m always collecting ideas or riffs or I’ll hum something into the phone. I’m always doing that, just a little sniglet or a little riff, just some shit that happens at sound checks or in your bedroom. Hell, I’m sitting on the couch. I hear something in my head. I’ll just start singing it into the phone. But as far as complete songwriting, that doesn’t really happen until I’m off and recharged and ready to go again. But when that time happens, I’ll have had a year and a half of collecting all of these riffs and ideas, and then I’ll start sifting through them.”

“I find more often than not, if in the moment you’re excited about something and you put it down, when you revisit it, more often than not, you’ll probably be justified for having kept that,” he continues. “Whoa, something caught my ear. Hey, record that, don’t let it go. That’s part of my process. I’ve been doing that from the beginning too.

“So I’ll call [this collection of ideas] the riff mine. After doing this for years and years, there’s a lot of riffs in the riff mine from all different eras and different albums or writing processes. Not everything gets made, just like not every script becomes a movie. So there’s a lot of shit to wade through there.

“Occasionally you’ll revive an old one that took years to actually blossom into a real song. “Atone” was one of those songs on Brighten. It was an idea I’d had around for years, and I just didn’t have the final middle eight or the ending for it. It took as long as it took for it to find its way onto an album — and it’s a great song.”

For now, Cantrell is focused on his tour dates with Sparta, and he’s not taking a single moment for granted.

“It’s been a really interesting, fun ride,” he concludes. “I’m often reminded that I’m pretty lucky to be able to to have done this and still be doing it right now, today.”

Watch Jerry Cantrell’s ‘I Want Blood’ Video