Jerry Cantrell taps into the zeitgeist on new solo album 'I Want Blood'

Jerry Cantrell’s signature stylings consistently onshore him adjacent the apical of “best guitarist” polls. His heavy, nuanced songs and idiosyncratic lyrics — from Alice successful Chains’ “Rooster” to “Cut You in” and his 4 solo records
— are multilayered, often willfully opaque and ever powerful. Yet helium sometimes finds that lone a German connection gets the constituent across.

In the opening lines of “Vilified,” the archetypal way of his latest album, “I Want Blood,” helium sings, “Simulate the consciousness / Of each that’s existent and existent / Hey-a schadenfreude crescendo / Hey-a skew the innuendo.”

“Yeah, you don’t get to usage ‘schadenfreude’ successful a lyric precise often, truthful I was benignant of blessed to cheque that 1 disconnected the list,” Cantrell says with a hearty chuckle.

“At antithetic times, [people] look to instrumentality a small spot much pleasance successful creating chaos and pointing fingers astatine each other,” helium furthers of the song’s topical gist. “It seems similar we’ve benignant of been surviving done that, 1 of those periods wherever it’s a small much prevalent, successful your face. That connection gets thrown around, and I deliberation it’s an due descriptor.”

It tin beryllium hard to find an due descriptor for Cantrell. Since 1990, he’s travel crossed arsenic prickly, goofy (proof positive: 1990s shenanigans clad successful a bluish Speedo astatine New Jersey’s Action Park connected MTV’s “Headbanger’s Ball”), thoughtful, serious, wasted, and now, thankfully, 20 years sober. Born successful Tacoma, Wash., the one-time precocious schoolhouse choir president was an aspiring stone prima who hung astir astatine a Guns N’ Roses performance to manus a demo portion to Axl Rose. Which, the communicative goes, the red-headed alien promptly tossed into a adjacent trash bin. Sans an Axl assist, Alice successful Chains inactive emerged from a crowded Seattle grunge country and recovered deserved fame acknowledgment to respective timeless, hit-laden workplace albums and EPs successful the aboriginal to mid ’90s.

Addiction besides recovered the band, ending the lives of fractional its members, vocalist Layne Staley successful 2002 and ex-bassist Mike Starr successful 2011. Cantrell relocated part-time to L.A. wherever helium recovered a beardown assemblage of sober creatives, and he’s present thrived substance-free for 20 years. Cantrell, 58, explains, “I inactive unrecorded successful the Seattle country arsenic well, but L.A. benignant of became my adopted sober home, and my Bermuda Triangle is fundamentally Seattle, Oklahoma and L.A.”

Which makes his gig astatine the Tulsa Theater a hometown show, with his dad’s broadside of the household based successful Oklahoma “for generations.” Speaking by telephone up of his concert, Cantrell has already had a afloat day. After soundcheck, an day meet-and-greet and interview, he’ll “jump successful the shower, get my assemblage moving and bash a stone show.” Oh, and his younger member [David] is astir apt waiting for him to get disconnected the phone, helium says.

“When I’m penning songs, I effort to enactment aggregate meanings of definite phrases oregon lines. My occupation is to instrumentality my acquisition successful the satellite and spit it backmost astatine itself,” Cantrell said.

(Darren Craig)

Life seems arsenic bully arsenic the euphony he’s making, yet nary shortage of Cantrell lyrics delve into a drug-pervasive darkness. “I Want Blood” seems rife with treble meanings and entendres, with titles and lyrics similar “Off the Rails” oregon “Throw Me a Line” that could notation to struggling with tendency and substances oregon seeking salvation. Which were erstwhile possibly the aforesaid thing.

“That’s a portion of who I am,” Cantrell explains. “I’m a sober alcoholic, truthful that’s ever going to beryllium successful there. But I wouldn’t accidental that immoderate peculiar opus oregon the full grounds is geared toward that. It’s a thread successful the tapestry. When I’m penning songs, I effort to enactment aggregate meanings of definite phrases oregon lines. My occupation is to instrumentality my acquisition successful the satellite and spit it backmost astatine itself. And bash it successful immoderate benignant of manner that feels authentic and honorable to [me],” Cantrell says.

Successful touring and records with some Alice successful Chains (featuring vocalist William DuVall since 2006) and solo — among myriad different projects — tin ne'er easiness the trauma of losing truthful galore friends successful the Seattle scene. And much pointedly, the decease of Cantrell’s parent Gloria from crab erstwhile helium was conscionable 21. But the singer-songwriter is adept astatine funneling past symptom into the present, and seems driven and coagulated successful his creativity and life.

“Records for maine are a batch of hard work,” Cantrell says. “You person to support a batch of absorption implicit a play of time, and beryllium capable to support your imaginativeness intact done each the turbulence. Making a grounds is [seriously] turbulent arsenic hell,” helium says. “You’re bringing thing that does not beryllium retired of the f— acheronian into being.”

That said, some musically and personally, there’s often an undercurrent of sarcasm and adjacent immoderate levity successful and astir the darkness. “You’ve got to beryllium capable to person a small spot of a consciousness of wit astir yourself, and besides the satellite successful general, you know, oregon it’s gonna beryllium a [really] agelong grind.”

A premier example? Spinal Tap. Not conscionable the movie, but Cantrell’s little infinitesimal onstage with the set astatine the Universal Amphitheater, the storied venue whose incarnation since 2016 has been the Tap-appropriate the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Cantrell’s representation is somewhat hazy, but helium recalls being invited to play, “Christmas With the Devil” with Tap. Virtuosic Toto guitarist Steve Lukather was astatine the gig, and “I deliberation Jennifer Batten [of Michael Jackson fame] was determination too. You’ve already got 2 dense weights. I amusement up. I don’t person a guitar. I don’t person an amp,” helium recalls. “They’ve got each their large Bradshaw systems, craft power tower-sized amplifiers acceptable up connected stage.”

Harry Shearer and Michael McKean — bassist Derek Smalls and guitarist David St. Hubbins successful their metallic alter-egos — approached Cantrell somewhat sheepishly. “I cognize we invited you down, but we’ve got these guys, and we don’t person an amp for you,” they told the guitarist. “On a antagonistic they had a small battery-powered Marshall, a small mini amp,” Cantrell remembers. “I’m like, ‘Dude, enactment that connected the signifier and portion it down and enactment a large roar mic each the mode down to it. That’s [pure] comedy.’ ”

The duo was amazed Cantrell was up for the schtick, Shearer questioning, “You’ll bash that?”

“I’m like, ‘Yeah, dude, that’s f— Spinal Tap. I’ll play done that thing.’ They thought it was a large idea, and we did it.” Cantrell got his Stonehenge moment, and he’s inactive stoked by the memory. “I had my ain idiosyncratic Spinal Tap moment, which I helped make with Michael McKean!”

That “making it up arsenic you spell along” tone recovered its mode into the deluxe mentation of “I Want Blood.” Seeking to make thing chill for collectors, but without other songs to release, Cantrell thought he’d effort a spoken-word instrumentality connected Device’s “Vilify.” He felt the effect wasn’t “quite chill enough.” Fortunately, successful making “I Want Blood,” Cantrell was “surrounded by a clump of talented people, and my demo partner, Maxwell Urasky, is simply a talented musician. I’m like, ‘Hey, man, you privation to effort to enactment immoderate euphony to this? I conscionable wrote a record. I don’t privation to constitute different portion of music.’ ”

Urasky composed a “score,” for a spoken-word mentation of “Vilify,” and Cantrell showed the completed mentation to “I Want Blood” shaper Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool, Bad Religion), “and I deliberation [collaborators] Greg Puciato and Tyler [Bates, musician/composer] arsenic well.” The consensus? Cantrell needed to bash a spoken-word mentation of each opus connected the just-finished album. There was a two-week deadline. And the album’s remaining 8 songs caller euphony and soundscapes to spell nether Cantrell’s recitations. The vocalist recited the lyrics for each song, past sent them to his philharmonic allies.

“This is simply a bully record,” Cantell said of his latest solo effort “I Want Blood.” “It was like, ‘I privation to merchandise this, and enactment my sanction connected it; I basal down it.’ You propulsion it retired there. I’ve been fortunate capable to person radical respond to it, enactment it and get it. Get it,”

(Nick Fancher)

“Everybody rallied. I’m conscionable arsenic amazed arsenic anyone astatine the extremity of the day,” Cantrell laughs. “Like, beatified crap, that’s fucking cool. You ne'er would person got determination if you weren’t engaged and successful the process and trying to fig it out. It’s ever amusive to conscionable to spot what the hellhole I tin propulsion off, oregon beryllium a portion of pulling off, oregon creating.“

He joins the expansive contented of acheronian artists similar Jim Carroll oregon William Burroughs successful the spoken-word world, oregon arsenic Cantrell quips, “[William] Shatner and [Leonard] Nimoy.” “It was benignant of amusive to get into that space, that benignant of calm, audiobook benignant of voice,” helium admits, and portion he’s presently speechmaking Cormac McCarthy (which seems the cleanable accompaniment to Cantrell’s songwriting), he’s focused connected euphony alternatively than a vocation successful audiobooks for the foreseeable future.

Cantrell doesn’t constitute the simplest of songs to parse, but it seems helium wants to beryllium seen, arsenic good arsenic person listeners spot parts of themselves successful his music. The aural excavation is worthy it for all. While the reward of making a grounds is surely successful the creation, it’s besides successful the reception, arsenic the singer-songwriter notes. “This is simply a bully record. It was like, ‘I privation to merchandise this, and enactment my sanction connected it; I basal down it.’ You propulsion it retired there. I’ve been fortunate capable to person radical respond to it, enactment it and get it. Get it,” helium emphasizes, concluding, “You know, that’s the full thing.”