Songwriter and guitarist Jerry Cantrell had eaten a bad hot dog and was barely staving off the effects of food poisoning (if you’re watching the show, you can spot a trash can next to him). By all accounts, Staley was high but just high enough so that he wasn’t actively in withdrawal and could function in public. Combining the long break with the band’s numerous personal obstacles during the actual show was a major risk, and the night could’ve easily gone south. MTV had been after Alice in Chains to do an Unplugged taping for some time, and they finally agreed, rehearsing first in Seattle and then New York. (This would be the group’s last studio release to feature Staley in a 2018 interview, Cantrell called it “the sound of a band falling apart”.) They did not tour in support of the album. Due to his heroin addiction, Staley would frequently miss sessions, and the band, who had drifted apart, wrote much of the material in the studio, stretching the recording time to four months. The recording of their previous album- Alice in Chains, released in November 1995-was painful and prolonged. It’s the only one we’ve done in three years.” Staley laughs and says, “Well, it’s still the best.”īefore Unplugged, Alice in Chains had indeed been offstage for about two and a half years. One of Staley’s bandmates, it’s unclear who-responds, “Layne, it’s…the only one. MTV aired the show on 28 May, and the live album version was released by Columbia Records on 30 July, eventually going platinum in the US.
“I would have to say that this is the best show we’ve done in three years,” Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley announces during the band’s MTV Unplugged performance, recorded on 10 April 1996, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Majestic Theatre in New York.
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