My Song Lyrics

Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr. (born March 18, 1966 in Tacoma, Washington) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter best known for his work with the grunge band Alice in Chains, as guitarist and co-lyricist. He performs lead vocals on his solo projects, and was part of Alice in Chains' harmonizing dual-vocal style. He currently co-resides in Los Angeles and his family ranch in the small city of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Jerry Cantrell would serve in Alice in Chains as the lead guitarist, co-lyricist, co-vocalist and main composer, until the group's near-permanent hiatus in the late 1990s after lead singer Layne Staley prolonged battle with drug addiction, which was followed by his subsequent death in 2002 from a drug overdose. Although he and Staley each wrote about half of the lyrics in their catalog, Cantrell wrote or co-wrote most of the music. Since Staley's death in 2002, the band has reformed with its surviving members. Beginning in 2005, Cantrell has joined Alice in Chains in a number of performances featuring singers such as Maynard James Keenan, Mark Lanegan, James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo, Scott Weiland, and William DuVall. Although he acknowledges the benefits of working as a solo artist, Cantrell has expressed his happiness with being back in the band culture. Following his tenure with Alice in Chains, Cantrell's song "Leave Me Alone" was included on the Cable Guy soundtrack in 1996, featuring Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Les Claypool of Primus. His first album, released April 1998, Boggy Depot, contains Cantrell's trademark odd time signatures. In June 2002, Cantrell issued his second album, Degradation Trip, with Ozzy Osbourne's then live rhythm section, Faith No More's Mike Bordin (drums) and Robert Trujillo (bass); it was re-released in November of that year as a double album on the same label, featuring eleven additional tracks. Degradation Trip was released soon after Layne Staley's death, and the album is dedicated to him. The song "She Was My Girl" was also included on the soundtrack for the 2002 film Spider-Man. Cantrell said of the experience of writing Degradation Trip: "In '98, I locked myself in my house, went out of my mind and wrote 25 songs. I rarely bathed during that period of writing; I sent out for food, I didn't really venture out of my house in three or four months. It was a hell of an experience. The album is an overview of birth to now." He has been rumored to be working on his third full-length solo album for several years, and had supposedly planned to release it in 2006. Subsequent work with the revamped Alice in Chains, featuring lead singer William DuVall in replacement of Layne Staley following his death, has since stalled this release.