From Pink Floyd to Hank Williams: Jerry Cantrell and Chino Moreno once picked their favourite songs
Since the early 1990s, many consequential heavy rock groups have emerged. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find any with such an immediate and long-lasting influence as Alice in Chains and Deftones. On the face of it, both acts’ music differs, with the former’s heavy blues removed from the latter’s mostly chromaticism-ignoring alt-metal. Still, beneath the surface, there’s a similarity in tying together abject terror with glistening beauty. Both outfits are so spiritually linked that in 2016, Jerry Cantrell was featured on the Sacramento band’s ‘Phantom Bride’, an overlooked moment.
While the nu-metal umbrella that Deftones are wrongly lumped under might have sounded much different from the grunge that came before it, it was groups such as Alice in Chains that opened the door for them by changing the zeitgeist. This arose after it was embarrassingly dragged through the mud by the hair metal scene in the 1980s.
Of course, Alice in Chains and many of their grunge peers are closely tied to the classic rock and metal that inspired them, but they always stood out from the other prominent Seattle groups. Bluesy it may have been and pulsating solos Cantrell might have conjured, but the way they toed the line between darkness and light was more arresting than any of their contemporaries.
This notion of inhabiting the liminal space between moods, emotions and textures is something that Deftones have also weaponised, and over their career, have continued to make the space their own with records such as White Pony, Deftones and Koi No Yokan. Accordingly, it made sense for Cantrell and Deftones frontman Chino Moreno to sit down together for iTunes’ Celebrity Playlist Podcast in 2010 to list their respective ten favourite tracks and examine their importance.
While relatively short, both lists gave great insight into their inner workings, both as artists and people. As they were born and grew up in different periods, their collections varied in complexion. The Alice in Chains leader’s selection heavily concentrated on classic rock, while Moreno’s encompassed everything from the djent of Meshuggah to niche electronic music.
Yet, they were both united in one thing: what they look for in musical character. It might appear surprising that Cantrell would select Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ given it’s basically a pop song, but he outlined how it distils the emotional heaviness he loves in music. He said: “This song is so minimal, and also it’s kind of dark and foreboding as well, and I’ve always been drawn to music like that. One of my favourites, and you know, we’re Alice in Chains, so it’s got ‘chain’ in it too, so that’s kind of cool, kinda, maybe…”
Elsewhere, in choosing country great Hank Williams’ ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’, Cantrell noted there was always “a real haunting element” to the late pioneer’s sound, conveying “the darker element of humanity” that has always pulled him in. Discussing his love of new wave and groups like The Cure, Moreno concurred, saying: “I’ve always been the same way.”
Offering insight into what inspired him as a child, one of Cantrell’s picks was the Pink Floyd duo ‘Brain Damage / Eclipse’ from 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon. He said: “What I always liked about Floyd was their ability to get visual with their music; you can just listen to it and see,” which he has also achieved with the nature of his work.
In picking ZZ Top, Cantrell connected the playing of Billy Gibbons and Joe Walsh – whom he had discussed earlier – and revealed how their attitude-laden approach influenced him. He explained: “As a guitar player, Billy Gibbons to me… Along with Joe Walsh and a handful of other guys, who were not really known for being big pyrotechnic guys, just blazing speed and stuff… It’s more about tone, feel, writing and attitude, and ZZ Top’s a band I’ve always really dug.”
Moreno’s was a much more assorted list. Undoubtedly, the most surprising pick was crooner Perry Como’s ‘Rosary’, a musician he revealed has such a soothing effect on him that he sometimes listens to his work in the shower. To illustrate just how far-reaching his taste is, one of his later choices was ”New Millennium Cyanide Christ’ by Swedish extreme metal innovators, Meshuggah, whom he had high praise for. He called them “the best metal group that exists today” before claiming that 98% of contemporary metal artists are “lightyears behind”.
Find Jerry Cantrell and Chino Moreno’s favourite songs below.
Jerry Cantrell and Chino Moreno’s favourite songs:
Chino Moreno
- Tarentel – ‘Two Sides of Myself, Pt. 1’
- Perry Como – ‘The Rosary’
- I Monster – ‘Heaven’
- Tortoise – ‘Crest’
- M.I.A. – ‘CAPS LOCK’
- Tarentel – ‘Two Sides of Myself, Pt. 2’
- Doctor Octagon – ‘Blue Flowers’
- Meshuggah – ‘New Millennium Cyanide Christ’
- Telefon Tel Aviv – ‘Mostly Translucente’
- Bohren & Der Club of Gore – ‘On Demon Wings’
Jerry Cantrell
- Pink Floyd – ‘Brain Damage / Eclipse’
- Elton John – ‘Madman Across the Water’
- Fleetwood Mac – ‘The Chain’
- KISS – ‘Do You Love Me’
- Hank Williams – ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’
- Led Zeppelin – ‘No Quarter’
- Joe Walsh – ‘Life’s Been Good’
- David Bowie – ‘Fame’
- ZZ Top – ‘Waitin’ for the Bus / Jesus Just Left Chicago’
- Creedence Clearwater Revival – ‘Run Through The Jungle’
