Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell recently sat down with Grammy.com to talk about the bands highly anticipated fifth studio album. A couple of excerpts from the interview can be found below.
Cantrell explained that due to unforeseen circumstances, the writing process of the record has taken longer than initially anticipated. “The thing that set me back is I had some bone spurs [and] cartilage issues in my shoulders,” the guitarist said. “I had the same issue in the other shoulder about six years ago so I’ve had them both done now. It’s a repetitive motion injury from playing. But the repair takes a year [laughs]. So that kind of set us back a little bit, but it takes time anyway — my body started a vacation.”
Despite Cantrell’s health issues, Alice In Chains have been collectively working on the album for the past twelve months and now, Cantrell has revealed that the record is well underway and has even hinted at the possibility of an end of year release date. “It’ll depend on when it’s done. We started writing stuff last year. I think we’re all good with that now, so now it’s time to cut it. So we’re gonna try to, but if not, it’ll probably be out early next year. It’ll be out about three or four minutes after we’re finished [laughs]. Give the record company time to set it up and plan the attack and tour for hopefully a year, year and a half.”
Meanwhile, Cantrell is preparing to receive the prestigious ‘Stevie Ray Vaughan Award’ at the 8th Annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert on May 31. Cantrell will be joining the likes of Alice Cooper, Chris Cornell, Anthony Kiedis, Dave Gahan, and James Hetfield in receiving the award for his commitment to the MusiCares MAP Fund and helping other addicts with the addiction recovery process.
Cantrell spoke about what the award means to him: “That the award is honoring Stevie, who’s an incredible musician and then also a person that made changes and turned his s*** around — it’s a hell of an effort. It’s nothing easy. It’s doable, but it’s not an easy thing and I can tell you that from experience. It takes some balls for sure, and it takes some serious effort at times. To receive this, what it means, is I’m very honored. And obviously that it started with Stevie, that’s a pretty great thing. As a guitar player you don’t get much better than that.”