The Alice in Chains record made with a broken hand: “Not going to be the same”
Alice in Chains is a band that can directly be credited with having a broad impact on the music industry. They’re not just a band that people like; they’re one of the biggest bands to emerge from the Seattle grunge scene, which found its feet in the 1990s and completely took over the world.
Given that Alice in Chains became such a worldwide phenomenon in grunge, it’s interesting to hear that their early influences were far removed from the sound they went on to champion. In fact, if you had stumbled upon one of the band’s rehearsals in the early days around 1984-1985, you would have thought you were listening to a budding glam rock band rather than the proprietors of grunge.
Initially, they were inspired by bands such as Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses and tried to channel that sound into their music. After years of practice and refinement, they arrived at the sound which would be captured on their debut album, Facelift. Alice in Chains had been working hard on the record and were finally given their big break, which is why it was so devastating when it looked like they might miss their chance to record it when drummer Sean Kinney broke his hand.
Just before they were due to start recording the album, Kinney broke his hand, leaving them scrambling to find a replacement. They called in a drummer from another band, but it didn’t look like the songs would come out the same.
“I almost didn’t play on the record – they started rehearsing with the drummer from Mother Love Bone, Greg Gilmore,” Sean Kinney recalled. “I was sitting there playing with one hand, guiding him through it. [Producer] Dave Jerden came in and they started to try to do it. He was like, ‘Screw it – pull the plug. This is not going to be the same.’”
You can only imagine how frustrating this will have been for Alice in Chains. Only four years prior, they were a poor carbon copy of a glam rock outfit, but after commitment to the band, an unwavering approach to rehearsal, and trying to find an independent sound, they had stumbled across something they were proud to call their own. Once that sound had finally been picked up by a label and they were ready to record their debut, it looked as though things were going to stop before they had even started.
Kinney wasn’t willing to let such a big opportunity for the band slip, so he decided to brave it and do whatever he could to record the album. This meant putting his hand at serious risk, as he braved drumming the complicated rhythm section with a fracture.
“Luckily, we took a tiny bit of time off. I had that cast on for a while and was like, ‘I can’t miss this’,” he said. “I cut my cast off in the studio and kept a bucket of ice by the drum set. Kept my hand iced down and played with a broken hand. I tried not to do that again – your first big break, and you f*** it up.”
