Jerry Cantrell is best known as the founder, lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and main songwriter of the rock band Alice in Chains.
152 Facts About Jerry Cantrell
2.
Jerry Cantrell started to sing lead vocals on Alice in Chains' 1992 EP Sap.
3.
Jerry Cantrell has collaborated and performed with Heart, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Pantera, Circus of Power, Metal Church, Gov't Mule, Damageplan, Pearl Jam, The Cult, Stone Temple Pilots, Danzig, Glenn Hughes, Duff McKagan and Deftones, among others.
4.
Jerry Cantrell has earned nine Grammy Award nominations as a member of Alice in Chains.
5.
Jerry Cantrell contributed to the soundtrack of The Cable Guy, John Wick: Chapter 2 and Dark Nights: Metal, and has made cameos in films such as Jerry Maguire, Rock Slyde and Deadwood: The Movie.
6.
Jerry Cantrell acted in the Alice in Chains mockumentaries The Nona Tapes and AIC 23.
7.
Jerry Cantrell grew up in Spanaway, and is the oldest of three children.
8.
Jerry Cantrell's father is an Army veteran, and his mother was an amateur organist and melodica player who worked as an administrative assistant for the Clover Park School District in Pierce County, Washington.
9.
Jerry Cantrell moved back with his mother to Spanaway where he attended junior high.
10.
Jerry Cantrell attended high school at Spanaway Lake High School, and, before owning his first guitar, he was a member of the high school choir which attended many state competitions.
11.
Jerry Cantrell picked up a guitar for the first time when he was in sixth grade.
12.
At that time he played clarinet, and his mother was dating a guitar player who handed his guitar to Jerry Cantrell and taught him a couple of chords.
13.
Jerry Cantrell picked it up very quickly, impressing his mother's boyfriend who suggested that she should buy her son a guitar, so she bought him an acoustic guitar.
14.
Jerry Cantrell learned to play guitar by ear, emulating his heroes.
15.
Friends recalled that Jerry Cantrell fell into depression and became a completely different person after losing both his mother and grandmother within a short span of time.
16.
The first album that Jerry Cantrell owned was Elton John's 1974 Greatest Hits compilation, which was a gift he received from his father when he was 10 years old.
17.
Jerry Cantrell noted in an interview that he was "raised on country music" as a youth and that he admires the emotion conveyed in the genre.
18.
In 1985, Jerry Cantrell was going to winter semester of college, but he decided to quit it and moved to Dallas, Texas, to join a band with a couple of friends.
19.
Jerry Cantrell worked doing asbestos abatement around the Dallas and Houston area.
20.
Jerry Cantrell worked at the music store Arnold and Morgan Music Company.
21.
In 1985 or 1986, Jerry Cantrell moved back to Tacoma and began a band called Diamond Lie, which included singer Scott Damon, drummer Bobby Nesbitt and bassist Matt Muasau.
22.
When Jerry Cantrell was 20 years old, he was working several part-time jobs to pay his rent, one of which involved throwing boxes of frozen fish in a warehouse.
23.
Jerry Cantrell spent his time outside of work playing guitar and jamming with any band he could find.
24.
Three weeks after his mother's death on April 11,1987, Jerry Cantrell went to see the band Alice N' Chains perform at the Tacoma Little Theatre, and was impressed by the voice of the lead singer, Layne Staley.
25.
Jerry Cantrell met Layne Staley, then Alice N' Chains' lead singer, at a party in Seattle around August 1987.
26.
Jerry Cantrell was homeless after being kicked out of his family's house, so Staley invited Cantrell to live with him at the 24-hour rehearsal studio "The Music Bank".
27.
Shortly after Jerry Cantrell moved in with Staley at the Music Bank, Alice 'N Chains broke up.
28.
Jerry Cantrell wanted to form a new band and Staley gave him the phone number of Melinda Starr, the girlfriend of drummer Sean Kinney, so that Jerry Cantrell could talk to him.
29.
Jerry Cantrell called the number and set up a meeting with Kinney.
30.
Jerry Cantrell mentioned that they needed a bass player to jam with them and he had someone in mind: Mike Starr, with whom Jerry Cantrell had played in a band in Burien called Gypsy Rose.
31.
Jerry Cantrell attended a Guns N' Roses concert at the Seattle Center in 1988, and took an Alice in Chains demo tape to give to the band.
32.
Jerry Cantrell met Axl Rose after the show and gave him the tape.
33.
Jerry Cantrell served as the lead guitarist, co-lyricist, co-vocalist and main composer of Alice in Chains until the group's near-permanent hiatus beginning in the late 1990s and leading through the death of lead singer Layne Staley in April 2002.
34.
Jerry Cantrell played bass on the track "Love Song", from the 1992 Sap EP.
35.
Jerry Cantrell started to sing lead vocals on the 1992 acoustic EP Sap, and his role continued to grow in the following albums, making Alice in Chains a two-vocal band.
36.
Jerry Cantrell stated that it was Staley who encouraged him to sing.
37.
Jerry Cantrell dedicated the album to his late mother Gloria and to his close friend Andrew Wood, lead singer of the band Mother Love Bone who died in 1990.
38.
Jerry Cantrell stated that he was ill during the performance as a result of food poisoning from a hot dog consumed before the gig.
39.
Between 2006 and 2007, Jerry Cantrell played in a number of concerts with Alice in Chains featuring guest lead singers such as Ann Wilson, Mark Lanegan, James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo, Billy Corgan, Scott Weiland Sebastian Bach, and William DuVall.
40.
Jerry Cantrell met singer William DuVall in Los Angeles in 2000, through a mutual acquaintance who introduced him to the first album of DuVall's band, Comes with the Fall.
41.
Jerry Cantrell started hanging out with the band and occasionally joining them onstage.
42.
The album includes songs which Jerry Cantrell described as "the heaviest he's ever written", and has Jerry Cantrell singing lead vocals on most of the songs and William DuVall as co-lead vocalist.
43.
The title track is a tribute to Layne Staley written and sung by Jerry Cantrell, accompanied by Elton John playing piano.
44.
Jerry Cantrell believes the mystery illness was the pain of saying goodbye to Staley.
45.
The band released their fifth studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, on May 28,2013, and Jerry Cantrell continued his role of main singer in the album.
46.
Jerry Cantrell took the album's title from the Mount Rainier in Seattle, and the title track is a tribute to the Seattle music scene.
47.
The title comes from the ghost town of the same name in Oklahoma, which is the area that Jerry Cantrell's father grew up in.
48.
The album cover shows Jerry Cantrell covered in mud standing waist-deep in a branch of the Boggy River.
49.
Besides singing, Jerry Cantrell played guitar, piano, clavinet, organ, and steel drums on the album.
50.
Jerry Cantrell's father played the sheriff in the music video for "Cut You In".
51.
Jerry Cantrell's touring band for the album included Alice in Chains bandmates Inez and Kinney, and Cantrell expressed hope to have a second album released by the following year.
52.
Jerry Cantrell opened for Metallica and Van Halen on their 1998 summer tour.
53.
Jerry Cantrell departed from Columbia Records during this time and had trouble finding a new label.
54.
In 1998, Layne Staley almost performed live again since Alice in Chains' last concert in July 1996, when Jerry Cantrell went to Seattle on his solo tour for Boggy Depot.
55.
Jerry Cantrell reportedly asked Staley to join him onstage, but Staley declined.
56.
Jerry Cantrell started recording a follow-up to Boggy Depot in 2000.
57.
Jerry Cantrell was living in San Francisco during that period.
58.
Jerry Cantrell had to sell his Seattle house to fund the album and produced it himself.
59.
Finally in June 2002, Jerry Cantrell issued his second solo album, Degradation Trip, with Ozzy Osbourne's then live rhythm section, Mike Bordin and Robert Trujillo.
60.
Jerry Cantrell has been rumored to be working on his third full-length solo album for several years, for a supposedly planned release in 2006.
61.
In February 2017, Jerry Cantrell released his first solo song in 15 years, "A Job to Do", featured during the end credits of the movie John Wick: Chapter 2.
62.
On February 6,2019, Jerry Cantrell performed a two-song acoustic set for BMG's Pre-Grammy Party at the No Name bar in Los Angeles.
63.
On December 6 and 7,2019, Jerry Cantrell performed two sold-out solo concerts at the Pico Union Project in Los Angeles.
64.
Jerry Cantrell performed his solo material along with Alice in Chains' songs and covers of other artists such as Elton John and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
65.
Jerry Cantrell was joined by Greg Puciato and Terra Lopez on vocals, Tyler Bates on guitar, Johnny Scaglione on acoustic guitar, James Lomenzo on bass, Gil Sharone on drums, Jordan Lewis on keyboards and Michael Rozon on pedal steel guitar.
66.
On January 24,2020, Jerry Cantrell announced that he was working on a new solo album.
67.
Jerry Cantrell started recording at Dave's Room Recording Studio in North Hollywood, California on March 10,2020.
68.
Jerry Cantrell has appeared as guest guitarist on several albums and projects, including the Danzig album Blackacidevil, in which he played on three tracks, and the Metallica album Garage Inc on the band's rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone".
69.
Jerry Cantrell provided background vocals for the track "Effigy" on Gov't Mule's 2001 album, The Deep End, Volume 1.
70.
Jerry Cantrell appears briefly with Warren Haynes in the documentary Rising Low, which documents the work of the band Gov't Mule following the death of bassist Allen Woody.
71.
Jerry Cantrell played guitar in the song "Fallen Ones" from Heart's 2004 album Jupiters Darling.
72.
Jerry Cantrell was the lead guitarist in all of the tracks from Ozzy Osbourne's 2005 album of cover songs, Under Cover.
73.
The songs performed by Jerry Cantrell were included on disc four of Osbourne's box set Prince of Darkness.
74.
In 2007, Jerry Cantrell played guitar on Glenn Hughes's rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop", featured on Hughes' solo album Music for the Divine, and played on the track "Soul Ecstacy" off the Stevie Salas's album The Sun and the Earth: The Essential Stevie Salas, Vol.
75.
In 2010, Jerry Cantrell played guitar on the song "Anything" from Pearl Aday's debut album, Little Immaculate White Fox.
76.
Aday stated that she thought Jerry Cantrell would be a good person to put in some "heartbroken, haunting, crying guitar" on the track.
77.
Jerry Cantrell played guitar on Duff McKagan's 2015 EP How to Be a Man, and has collaborated with Alternative Metal band Deftones, contributing guitar parts to the track "Phantom Bride" off their 2016 album Gore.
78.
Jerry Cantrell performed a snippet of "Man in the Box" followed by a cover of Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" alongside Pantera during their concert at the Seattle Center Coliseum on March 1,1992.
79.
Jerry Cantrell joined the band again for their performance of "Walk" during a concert in San Jose, California on February 6,2001.
80.
On October 9,1994, Jerry Cantrell joined Metallica for a performance of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" during their concert in Oklahoma City.
81.
In 2002, Jerry Cantrell played a series of summer dates with headlining rock band Nickelback.
82.
Jerry Cantrell can be seen playing Alice in Chains' "It Ain't Like That" with the band on their first DVD release, Live at Home.
83.
Jerry Cantrell was asked by Nickelback's frontman, Chad Kroeger, to contribute to the song "Hero" for the 2002 film Spider-Man.
84.
Jerry Cantrell was unable to attend the recording session and was replaced by Saliva's Josey Scott.
85.
Jerry Cantrell joined Metallica on backing vocals during their performance of "Nothing Else Matters" at the Download Festival in Dublin on June 11,2006.
86.
On October 6,2009, Jerry Cantrell joined Pearl Jam during their concert at the Gibson Amphitheater in Los Angeles.
87.
Jerry Cantrell hopped on stage to close out the night with the guitar solo on "Alive".
88.
Jerry Cantrell made a special appearance at a Stone Temple Pilots concert in Camden, New Jersey, on May 23,2010, playing guitar during the band's performance of "Sex Type Thing".
89.
On May 12,2012, Jerry Cantrell made a duet with Somar Macek accompanied by the Synergia Northwest Orchestra for a performance of Elton John's "Levon" at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, during a benefit concert for music education in Northwest public schools.
90.
Jerry Cantrell performed with Duff McKagan's band The Walking Papers during the band's concert at The Crocodile in Seattle on December 15,2012.
91.
On November 20,2015, Jerry Cantrell joined The Cult on stage at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles to perform the song "The Phoenix".
92.
On March 13,2017, Jerry Cantrell made a guest appearance at Steel Panther's concert at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood and performed "Man In The Box" with the band joined by Godsmack singer Sully Erna on lead vocals.
93.
On March 25,2017, Jerry Cantrell performed with Nancy Wilson and Mike Inez at the 5th annual Rock Against MS benefit concert.
94.
Jerry Cantrell was one of the musicians who participated on the Founders Award Celebration honoring The Doors at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture on December 7,2017.
95.
Jerry Cantrell sang "Love Her Madly" accompanied by The Doors' original guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboardist George Laks, bassist Zander Schloss, and drummer Brian Young.
96.
Jerry Cantrell came back at the end of the concert to sing "Roadhouse Blues" together with all the artists who performed at the tribute.
97.
On December 8,2017, Jerry Cantrell joined The Hellcat Saints, to open for Jane's Addiction at the third annual Rhonda's Kiss benefit concert at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
98.
Jerry Cantrell's song "Leave Me Alone" was featured in the 1996 dark comedy The Cable Guy and can be found on that movie's soundtrack.
99.
Jerry Cantrell returned to the movie scene in 2004 to write, with the newly formed metal band Damageplan, the song "Ashes to Ashes" for the movie The Punisher.
100.
The song features Jerry Cantrell sharing lead vocals with Damageplan singer Patrick Lachman, and it can be found on that movie's soundtrack, and as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Damageplan's debut album, New Found Power.
101.
In February 2017, Jerry Cantrell released the song "A Job to Do", the end-title song to John Wick: Chapter 2.
102.
Jerry Cantrell wrote the lyrics from the perspective of Keanu Reeves' title character.
103.
On July 19,2018, Jerry Cantrell released the song "Setting Sun" for the soundtrack of DC Comics' graphic novel Dark Nights: Metal.
104.
Jerry Cantrell's guitar playing is known for its unique use of wah pedal as well as odd time signatures.
105.
The first is a Rampage model which is very similar to the instrument most closely identified with Jerry Cantrell, known as the "Blue Dress Rampage" for having an image of a vintage pin-up girl wearing a blue dress, which Jerry Cantrell taped to the top of his first guitar.
106.
In 2011, Jerry Cantrell revealed that he had to retire the guitar due to a hairline crack from the neck all the way through the back of the body.
107.
Also a Gibson Custom Shop Jerry Cantrell SG, a 1952 Goldtop Les Paul, an Ernie Ball Music Man EVH that was a gift from Eddie Van Halen in the 1990s, but has been stolen from Cantrell, a dark blue Mosrite Ventures model, a Dean Michael Schenker USA V, and Dean Soltero guitars.
108.
Jerry Cantrell used a variety of amplifiers such as those made by Bogner, Mesa Boogie and Marshall throughout his career.
109.
Jerry Cantrell has most recently been using a signature amp called the, 'JJ100' made for him by Friedman Amplification.
110.
Jerry Cantrell is widely considered to be one of the greatest rock guitarists of his generation.
111.
Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell expressed his admiration for Cantrell's guitar work in an interview for Guitar International in 1995, saying that "the layering and the honest feel that Jerry Cantrell gets on [Alice in Chains' Dirt] record is worth a lot more than someone who plays five million notes".
112.
Jerry Cantrell was apparently thrilled at winning the title over several famous artists such as Slash, James Hetfield, and Jimmy Page.
113.
Jerry Cantrell was ranked 38th out of 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time by Guitar World in 2004, and ranked at No 37 out of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" by Guitar World in 2012.
114.
Jerry Cantrell was ranked at No 98 on the list of the "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time" by Envision Radio Networks' "Chop Shop" guitar show in December 2008.
115.
Jerry Cantrell did the harmonies with Layne, and they were haunting, especially on Dirt.
116.
In 2018, Jerry Cantrell was named "Guitarist of the Year" by Ultimate Guitar's readers poll.
117.
Between 2009 and 2010, Jerry Cantrell co-owned a hard rock bar called Dead Man's Hand in Las Vegas with Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian.
118.
In 2011, Jerry Cantrell appeared on a spot for NADCP, the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.
119.
In 2012, Jerry Cantrell's voice was featured on a smoking policy ad at the Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle.
120.
On May 18,2019, it was announced that Jerry Cantrell will compose the score for Shane Dax Taylor's upcoming sci-fi film, Salvage.
121.
On January 17,2020, Jerry Cantrell officially joined Gibson as a brand ambassador.
122.
In 1995, Jerry Cantrell played journalist Nona Weisbaum on the Alice in Chains mockumentary The Nona Tapes.
123.
In 1996, he had a cameo in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Cantrell Maguire playing "Jesus of CopyMat", the CopyMat worker who helped Tom Cruise's character make copies of his manifesto.
124.
Jerry Cantrell had a cameo as himself in the 2009 film noir comedy Rock Slyde, appeared on the background of two scenes from the first episode of season three of the HBO TV series Deadwood in 2006, and made a cameo in Deadwood: The Movie in 2019.
125.
In 2013, Jerry Cantrell played country singer Donnie "Skeeter" Dollarhide Jr.
126.
In 2018, Cantrell played Terry, a plumber who plays bass in a garage band in the short film Dad Band, co-starring W Earl Brown.
127.
Jerry Cantrell lived in Monroe, Washington, from the mid-1990s until the early 2000s.
128.
Jerry Cantrell has lived in Studio City, California, since 2003, and he has maintained a residence in Burien, Washington since 2012.
129.
Jerry Cantrell was homeless in the early 1990s and lived for some time at the house of Pearl Jam's manager Kelly Curtis.
130.
At the start of 1991, Jerry Cantrell moved in with Soundgarden lead singer Chris Cornell and his then-wife Susan Silver at their house in Seattle.
131.
Jerry Cantrell wrote the song "Rooster" at the Cornells' house and stayed there for a few weeks.
132.
Jerry Cantrell was a close friend of late Alice in Chains' lead singer Layne Staley, who was described by Jerry Cantrell as his best friend.
133.
I'm holding back tears onstage, and Jerry Cantrell would start crying onstage too a lot at that point, and a lot of times we would just look at each other when we were singing the stuff because it was the only way.
134.
Jerry Cantrell dedicated his solo album, Degradation Trip, released two months after Staley's death, to his memory.
135.
Jerry Cantrell adopted Staley's cat, a female siamese named Sadie, after his death.
136.
Jerry Cantrell is critical of religion and Young Earth creationism, satirizing them both in Alice in Chains' 2013 album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.
137.
Jerry Cantrell stated that he's sick of the hypocrisy that's taken over many facets of organized religion.
138.
Jerry Cantrell went to the emergency room but they could not do anything for him there, since the bone had slipped back in his hand and he would need a reconstructive surgery, but he had to wait for a couple of weeks for that to happen.
139.
Jerry Cantrell wanted to continue the tour, and although he was in a lot of pain, he played his first concert as a frontman without a guitar opening for Cheap Trick in Atlanta.
140.
Jerry Cantrell needed a titanium plate and four screws to put the bones back together.
141.
Jerry Cantrell reported that breaking his hand was the worst physical pain he ever had.
142.
Jerry Cantrell is a recovering addict and alcoholic and has been sober since 2003.
143.
Jerry Cantrell was awarded the 2012 Stevie Ray Vaughan Award from MusiCares, for his work helping other addicts with the recovery process.
144.
Jerry Cantrell is a longtime supporter of MusiCares MAP Fund, which helps musicians who are struggling with addiction, financial and health issues.
145.
In 1996, Jerry Cantrell became involved with anti-racism organisation Artists for a Hate Free America, alongside other musicians including Jeff Ament, Beck and Michael Stipe, to film public service announcements, and pose for a national ad campaign.
146.
On November 10,2004, Jerry Cantrell was among the musicians who performed a short acoustic set to benefit Help The Homeless in Hollywood, California.
147.
In 2007, Jerry Cantrell auctioned off some of his favorite clothes from key moments in his career to benefit MusiCares and the Layne Staley Fund, which provides support and treatment for heroin recovery in the Seattle music community.
148.
Jerry Cantrell founded the league to combine his love of fantasy football with the goal of helping a worthy cause.
149.
Jerry Cantrell won the league for the first time in 2016, and in 2017 he decided to donate the proceeds to MusiCares in Chris Cornell's memory, and to Music for Relief in memory of Chester Bennington.
150.
In 2018, Jerry Cantrell named the league's trophy after his friend Vinnie Paul, who had died recently.
151.
On May 15,2015, Jerry Cantrell performed at the second annual Acoustic-4-A-Cure concert in benefit of the Pediatric Cancer Program at the University of California, San Francisco.
152.
Jerry Cantrell is a supporter of St Jude Children's Research Hospital and has performed at benefit concerts and charity golf tournaments to raise funds for the hospital that treats children with cancer.