Jerry Cantrell recently talked about the beginnings of his personal and professional relationship with Layne Staley.

Jerry Cantrell opens up on Layne Staley

Cantrell said that he appreciates the time they had together and that he intends to carry on with the “tradition” they started.

The incredible chemistry between Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley made them the Jimmy Page/Robert Plant equivalent of their generation and played a pivotal role in Alice in Chains’ early success.

In a recent interview with Rick Beato, Cantrell noted how he and his late friend were different people in many regards, even though they had similar music tastes:

“We liked a lot of the same music, but we also had a very individualistic tastes. Things that he liked and things that I liked that were that were ours, and then we shared a bunch in the middle. He had a really uncanny ability where he could, like, cop anybody’s accent just by hearing it once, or make a joke if he heard a line in a movie, and just verbatim repeat it. He had that kind of mimicry.”

They also bonded over their love of harmony in music:

“He was also a fan of harmony, and so was I. When we first started writing songs together, it was just an organic process. You’re just trying to write some songs and figure out what your language is. It took us probably a year of emulating other things until we started stumbling on, ‘Whoa, that’s kind of cool, right? Hey, maybe this might be us.’”

“It’s the same for all bands, and it depends on how long that gestation period of trying to find yourself until you make your first first record you feel is really you [lasts]. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen until the second, or third record, for some bands. But for us, on ‘Facelift’ [Alice in Chains’ 1990 debut], I think we were about 90-95% in focus on that record. I mean, it’s all us, but there were still some remnants of stuff we were still yet to cast off, and some old skin, if you will.”

Cantrell added:

“But we shared that in common, and it’s something we created together and [it] still makes me feel good to continue that, and makes me think of him. Of course, I miss him to death, but I appreciate the time we had, and the music we made together, and I carry on the tradition we started together.”