What’s going on my fellow rock n’ rollers.
Don’t forget to smash the bell notification
icon to be notified every time i put out a
new video on my channel. Now 1994 was going
to be a massive year for the grunge group
Alice in Chains. They toured extensively the
two previous years to support their sophomore
LP Dirt which sold upwards of 6 million copies.
And they would start off 1994 releasing the
Jar of Flies EP which topped the billboard
album charts which was a 1st for the band
and the group was offered a highly coveted
spot opening up for Metallica on their summer
tour in addition to playing woodstock 94.
But it wasn’t meant to be as infighting
and drug addiction cannibalized the band as
singer Layne Staley slipped back into drug
addiction while the band also broke up for
a period of 6 months prior to hitting the
road with Metallica This resulted in another
band named Candlebox stepping in and having
a phenomenal year. Stay tuned to find out
the full story.
The seattle band candlebox found massive success
in 1993 with the release of it’s self titled
album that summer. The album featured 3 huge
singles including You, Far Behind and Cover
Me and The album would quickly go quadruple
platinum And even though the critics and the
music industry detested them they found a
loyal legion of fans and by early 1994 they
were opening for the likes of Rush playing
Madison Square Garden and soon enough Candlebox
was headlining it’s own tour with groups
like The Flaming Lips opening for them. Wayne
Coyne the frontman for the Flaming Lips would
tell author Mark Yarm in the book Everybody
loves our Town. Cnadlebox wasn't just a nail
in the coffin for grunge, to me they arrived
as the coffin for grunge. We toured with them
for 3 months at the end of 1994 and at the
beginning of that phase they were playing
4 to 5000 people a night. And by the end they
were playing giant arenas hockey rinks for
the most part that hold 10,000 [people and
they are selling them out a couple of nights
in a row he’d remember.
Coyne would go on to say we saw the clumsiness
of their shows and their songs and everything
about it seemed damn was this is too much
too soon. Candlebox really had nothing he’d
remember. You’re probably asking yourself
how did Candlebox get so big to the point
that they were headlining arenas.
Well they can thank alice in chains for a
part of that success. Alice in chains drummer
Sean Kinney would reveal the straw that broke
the camel’s back in the spring of 1994.
He would tell author Mark Yarm we were rehearsing
at the moore theatre to get ready for metallica.
Layne was in a treatment place and we had
been rehearsing ourselves. Nobody had talked
to him and he had been gone all of that time.
He showed up and there were some bad circumstances
and it just wasn’t happening. Lost a lot
of trust in him, lost a lot of trust in each
other for a while too. Alice in Chains bassist
Mike Inez shed some more light on what was
going on in the band saying everybody points
to layne but I gotta tell ya it was all of
us. We were doing all kinds of different shit.
We had a meeting and it became apparent that
we shouldn’t go out on that Metallica tour.
It was one of those times where we needed
to go hold on a second, let’s not sacrifice
our health. Let’s not go and literally kill
ourselves. For us to say no to Metallica who
were basically our older brothers is a testament
of the love we had for each other. And Candlebox
drummer Scott Mercado would tell author Mark
Yarm that while the band was friendly with
some of the big 4 seattle bands none of them
took Candlebox under their wing and took them
out on tour. Not that it would matter because
the band would get some high profile offers
from both Metallica and Living Colour. And
despite the fact that Candlebox took Alice
in Chains spot opening for Metallica it wouldn’t
create hard feelings between the bands as
Mercado would reveal howhe was actually friends
with Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney.
Mercado would reveal to Yarm he told me i
like your style, you’re a great drummer
i just don’t like your singer, i don’t
like your music. I admired Sean for saying
that as opposed to talking about us behind
our backs.This was actually after we got the
gig with Metallica because Alice in Chains
dropped out.
Candlebox guitarist Peter Klett would also
reveal that in addition to taking Alice in
Chains spot opening for Metallica the band
also took Alice's spot at woodstock 94. He
would reveal Layne wouldn’t answer his phone.
The story I heard is that they call him to
leave a message on his answering machine.
Then they call back and it’s a different
outgoing message so he was obviously fing
with them. Because of that we got their slot
at Woodstock he’d remember.
So where was layne during the weekend that
alice in chains was supposed to play Woodstock?
Well he was out on a camping trip with his
friend Johnny Bacolas in a town named Twisp.
Bacolas would reveal that Layne was trying
to kick heroin at that time and that’s the
reason he went on the camping trip to try
and clean up. It was during the trip layne
and his buddies went to safeway at 2 in the
morning and some kid started badgering the
singer. Layne in turn punched the guy and
ran out of the store and got into their car
and sped away.
And Scott Mercado would reveal how even though
the band stepped in for Alice in Chains multiple
times both bands shared the same feelings
about their success. Mercado would reveal
how kinney once told him you guys probably
get bummed by critics not liking you or people
in the industry not liking you or people in
the grunge scene not liking you. Now you know
i feel whenever someone comes up and says
too bad your band’s too screwed they can’t
go out on tour.. That does it for today’s
video thanks for watching be sure to hit the
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for future topics let me know in the comments
section below. Take care.
