- Born
- Birth nameJerry Fulton Cantrell Jr.
- Height6′ 1½″ (1.87 m)
- Jerry Cantrell is an American musician best known as the founder, lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist and main songwriter for the Seattle Rock band Alice in Chains since 1987. The band was part of the Grunge movement and is known for the unique vocal harmonies between Cantrell and Layne Staley, and later between Cantrell and William DuVall. Cantrell also has a solo career and released the albums "Boggy Depot" in 1998, and "Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2" in 2002. He was named "Riff Lord" by British hard rock/metal magazine Metal Hammer in 2006.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Polly_Kat
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsGloria Jean Krumpos
- RelativesCheri Lynn Cantrell(Sibling)David Houston Cantrell(Sibling)
- Hard, distorted guitar riffs
- Long blonde hair
- Released a new album with Alice in Chains, "Black Gives Way to Blue", on September 29, 2009. It was the band's first album in 14 years and also the first without Layne Staley. The title song is a tribute to Staley written and sung by Cantrell accompanied by Elton John on piano. Cantrell is a fan of Elton John and told that his first album was Elton John's Greatest Hits. The first concert that Staley attended was Elton's when he was a kid.
- When Layne Staley passed away, Cantrell adopted Staley's cat, a female Siamese named Sadie. The cat appeared on Cantrell's episode of MTV Cribs, which was shot at Cantrell's ranch in Oklahoma in September 2002. Sadie died on the same night of Alice in Chains' concert in Seattle on October 8, 2010, aged 18. She lived with Cantrell's family in Oklahoma until her death.
- After watching a Guns N' Roses concert in Seattle in 1988, he gave Axl Rose an Alice in Chains' demo tape, but as Cantrell walked away he saw Axl throwing the demo away. Alice in Chains ended up opening for Guns N' Roses on their "Not in This Lifetime" tour in 2016. Cantrell is friends with the band's guitarist Slash and a close friend of bassist Duff McKagan.
- Lives in Los Angeles since 2003. Also owns a house in Seattle and a ranch in Oklahoma.
- Shortly after he learned how to write, he documented his goal in a Dr. Seuss book called 'My Book About Me', filling in the sentence 'When I grow up, I want to be a _______________' with the words "Rock Star" in sprawling cursive letters.
- We're in an interesting place right now. You don't expect to get to old age when you're a young musician, especially with the whole music and reality of live fast, die young, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. I mean, I'm in it until I blow up, don't get me wrong. It's pretty cool to stick around. I'm grateful to have made it through, and not ashamed of owning everything I did, good and bad.
- There's this dark, sarcastic humor that's there if you know the band ['Alice in Chains']. A lot of people don't of course, and that's completely fine. It's kind of comforting to have this separate public persona from the harsh lyrical content we're known for. Definitely there's not a lot of fluff in what we do.
- [on Alice in Chains' first album since the death of Layne Staley - Billboad, October 21, 2009] We had our hearts broken by losing Layne and losing ourselves. It took a lot to get through this process and to even take the chance, and stand-up and risk.
- [The Quietus - June 28, 2013] Both my parents were country music fans. That's what my house was filled with, not rock & roll, and I'm a big fan of country as well. I guess the first kind of rock & roll-type artist that I got into was Elton John. That kinda made me have an epiphany, like 'I wanna do that, I wanna be a musician, I wanna be in a band'. And when [I decided] I really wanted to be a guitarist was probably after listening to AC/DC...
- [on the collaboration with Elton John in the song "Black Gives Way to Blue" - Entertainment Weekly, October 1, 2009] Elton is a very important musical influence to all of us [Alice in Chains] in varying degrees, and especially to me. My first album was Elton John's Greatest Hits. And actually, we were reminded by Layne's stepfather that Elton was his first concert, so it was all really appropriate. So I wrote [Elton] an e-mail and explained what his music meant to us, and that this song was for Layne. We sent him a demo, and he said it was beautiful and he'd love to play on it. In the studio he was really relaxed and gracious, and he's got a great sense of humor. We were just trying to be cool: 'Oh, yeah, no big deal.' But we were excited. [Drummer Sean Kinney] and I had to walk out a couple of times to smoke cigarettes, like, 'Holy s-, this is killer.' It's one of those highlights you can't expect in life, and you're lucky to get them once in a while. And that is one.
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