Jerry Cantrell

Jerry Cantrell is an American musician, singer-songwriter and guitarist from Tacoma, Washington. He is best known as the founder, lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist and main songwriter of Alice in Chains, a band associated with grunge, hard rock, alternative rock, alternative metal, doom metal and heavy metal.

Alice in Chains

Cantrell forms Alice in Chains in 1987 with Layne Staley, Sean Kinney and Mike Starr. The band becomes one of the key groups of Seattle’s grunge scene and is known for the vocal interplay between Cantrell and Staley, and later Cantrell and William DuVall. Cantrell begins singing lead on the 1992 EP Sap. After Staley’s death in 2002, he takes lead vocal duties on much of the group’s later material, including Black Gives Way to Blue, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and Rainier Fog.

Other groups and collaborations

Alongside Alice in Chains, Cantrell has associations with Cardboard Vampyres, Alice Mudgarden, Diamond Lie and Gypsy Rose. He also performs and records with a wide range of other artists, including Heart, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Pantera, Circus of Power, Metal Church, Gov't Mule, Damageplan, Pearl Jam, The Cult, Stone Temple Pilots, Danzig, Glenn Hughes, Duff McKagan and Deftones.

Solo work and recording

Cantrell has a solo career as well as his band work. His solo albums include Boggy Depot and Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2. His releases appear on his own label name, along with Buttnugget Publishing and Rooster’s Son Publishing.

Recognition and media work

In 2006, Metal Hammer names him “Riff Lord”. Guitar World ranks him among the 100 greatest heavy metal guitarists and the greatest guitar players of all time, and also places his solo in “Man In The Box” on its list of greatest guitar solos. He receives the 2012 Stevie Ray Vaughan Award from MusiCares for work supporting recovery from addiction. Cantrell is sober from 2003 and speaks publicly about recovery.

Film and soundtrack appearances

He contributes to the soundtrack of The Cable Guy, John Wick: Chapter 2 and Dark Nights: Metal. He also appears in films including Jerry Maguire, Rock Slyde and Deadwood: The Movie, and acts in the Alice in Chains mockumentaries The Nona Tapes and AIC 23.