Alice In Chains guitarist/singer William DuVall recalled in a new interview with Kerrang! how he first felt when he joined the band in 2006, stepping behind the mic after the death of original singer Layne Staley four years earlier.
DuVall said, “Between the pressure that I put on myself anyway, and the pressures that the four of us put on ourselves as individuals, there was an incredible amount of internal pressure inherent to the situation.”
Asked how he kept himself together under the circumstances, DuVall replied, “You don't have much choice . . . it was a process of, 'How do we bring all this history, baggage, and expectation from people and navigate it?' Of course, the way you do it is, you do it.”
DuVall spoke with us at the time about taking Alice In Chains into the future while honoring its past: “You have to do this in a way that takes into account the legacy of everything they did before, and nobody wants to be a part of anything that tarnishes that and doesn't build onto that, you know, doesn't add to what's there — least of all me. I don't want to, you know, step in and then step on anything.”
DuVall was also asked if it was difficult to sing tracks originally performed by Staley. He remarked, “It's incredibly powerful, especially if there's a sea of people in front of you . . . Layne was doing the same thing that all of us try to do as songwriters: you're trying to tell your truth, and hopefully it strikes a chord with somebody else. And when it does strike a chord, it's an incredible thing.”
Alice In Chains has released three album since reactivating with DuVall, including 2009's Black Gives Way To Blue, 2013's The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, and 2018's Rainier Fog.
