Jerry Cantrell once claimed that Axl Rose threw away an Alice in Chains demo tape
Alice in Chains vocalist and guitarist Jerry Cantrell has lived through a career filled with soaring highs and crushing lows. One of the finest musicians of his generation, his work on the six-string gave the group some of their heaviest moments whilst also providing them with their softer, more emotional elements in what is a testament to the breadth of his skill.
Augmenting his playing with a distinctive vocal ability, in many ways, Cantrell was the most vital cog of the Seattle machine and even strove to keep them going when they were fraying at the seams. Yet, despite his evident genius, it took Cantrell and Alice in Chains a while to cement their name amongst the best of their era. As he once claimed, he would also be knocked back by Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose during the group’s early years.
According to Cantrell, he once gave Axl Rose an Alice in Chains demo tape when the band were in their earliest years. However, instead of being interested in the music, the guitarist maintains that the Guns N’ Roses vocalist threw it away as he walked off. He explained this in a speech honouring Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash at the Sunset Strip Music Festival in 2010, saying he attended a show by the hard-rock outfit and “brought a demo tape down to give the band”.
“I met Axl after the show, actually,” Cantrell continued. “I gave it to him, and as he was walking away, I saw him throw it away”.
Cantrell would revisit this moment in 2021 during a conversation on the Appetite for Distortion podcast. Despite this alleged slight by Axl Rose, he maintained that Guns N’ Roses remained an “important” influence on the Alice in Chains. “I did speak to him about it at a club in New York,” Cantrell said. “We had never really met before, other than just kind of meeting backstage at the show in Seattle at the arena where I gave him the demo tape.”
He continued: “I can’t remember what was on it. They were an important band to us, and Appetite [for Destruction] is one of a handful of records that’s one of those epic things that transcends space and time and the band. It’s a worldwide massive record, and it’s perfect.”
Elsewhere, Cantrell remembered once being in a nightclub with The Cult’s guitarist Billy Duffy when Axl Rose appeared. He brought up the demo tape claim, yet strangely, he remembered a small detail from that evening: “He comes over and is like, ‘I heard you telling that story about you giving me that demo tape – are you still with that girl that you met there?'”
Cantrell concluded by saying that he is now in the same position Axl Rose was when he gave him the demo all those years ago. He said: “It’s kind of just one of those fun things when you’re proud of your band when you’re kind of unknown, and they were pretty damn huge. People still give me their demo tapes all the time.”
