Jerry Cantrell

Playing for someone else's crowd is always difficult for any band.

I've never been a big soloist; I just put in what needs to be there. I'm more of a rhythm player who plays lead - or tries to play lead.

I can sing fine and I can play guitar fine, but put 'em together and it becomes a thoughtful effort.

Success has a lot to do with luck, but it also involves a lot of real hard work. The thing about success is you really can't gauge things by album sales.

I've been a fan of Metallica and friends with those guys for a long time and that was just great - half Alice In Chains and half Metallica playing together.

One thing that you hope for when you want to be a musician is that you have that recognizable sound.

To me not one thing is better than anything else, I'm completely proud of everything I've written and recorded.

Rehearsals and this band are two words that don't really go together, kinda like Military Intelligence.

Every record that you do man, is sooo different in every way.

I'm going to keep thinking about topping myself every time. I can say very confidently that Alice In Chains have done that on every record. It surprises me. I don't go in there expecting that, but I do go in there hoping for it.

And when power ballads come back, we'll get big hair again.

In '98, I locked myself in my house, went out of my mind and wrote 25 songs. I rarely bathed during that period of writing, I sent out for food, I didn't really venture out of my house in three or four months. It was a hell of an experience.

Times change and you have to adapt.

Every record, you've got more experiences to draw on as a writer and a musician.

That's always been a dream for me, to be able to collaborate and make music with the people that inspired you to make music.

I'm doing the best I can with what I got and that's all anybody in my band is doing.

Bands don't last. Bands don't last forever - it's a rarity when they do.

You feel different every day of your life. You just have to create your own space to survive, personally and professionally.

Our music's kind of about taking something ugly and making it beautiful.

Like everybody, I'm making up my life as I go along.