Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

Sheeley played the bass line for “Ramble On” and handed the guitar to Mike, who tried to match what Sheeley had just played. “I’m more of a technical bass player. Mike was more of a thrasher, which I think made the band, honestly. It was a big part of their sound. So when he took the bass from me, he could not play all the notes I was playing. Out of all the notes I showed him, he took certain ones, and that became the bass line.” They would repeat this process for every song except “Would?” which had already been completed. Sheeley used songs by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as a point of reference for Mike to develop his bass lines.

The sound and tone of the bass on the album can be credited not only to Mike but also to Sheeley or Jerden, depending on whom you ask. Jerden bought an electronic piece of gear for nine hundred dollars—whose name and brand he can’t remember—which, when mixed in with Mike’s amplifier setup, would be the sound of the record. “I remember I made it programmable and got a sound on this thing that was great. It was like a growl. We made a program. I named it ‘Mike Starr.’ I don’t know what the piece of equipment is, but whoever’s got it, it probably has a program on it called ‘Mike Starr’ that was the sound of Dirt, the lower end,” Jerden said.

Sheeley offered a similar account but claims he was the one who programmed the settings. “I took a particular piece of equipment down there to One on One that I ran with the Ampeg SVT that gave the signature sound of Mike Starr for that album. I programmed my own setting for that album, and that’s what you hear on the album.”

The band wanted Sheeley to stay in Los Angeles as long as a month, Sheeley said, but he stuck around for only about a week. On one occasion, Sheeley accidentally walked in on Layne shooting up while he was writing lyrics at the studio. According to Jerden, Layne was sneaking out after curfew to score drugs downtown while the riots were still happening.8

Another vivid memory of Sheeley’s is from his first day with the band at One on One. The gear was set up and all four members were supposed to be there, but Sean hadn’t come back the night before. Jerden was not happy, Sheeley said, because they were wasting studio time and eventually decided to call it a day. “So about that time, the door flings open and in comes Sean. His hair was all sticking out, looked like he had stuck his finger in a light socket. He had been out the night before partying in Hollywood.”

“He’d been up probably twenty-four hours, I’m guessing, because he had probably been out drinking all night long and was still on a drinking high,” Sheeley said. “Sean comes in the studio, and everybody’s kind of pissy from him not showing up. It was told to him, ‘Nah, we’re just going to call it a day. You need to go home, get some sleep, and come back,’ blah, blah, blah. And he said, ‘Let me play my drums. Let me just try one song.’”

The studio was set up so everyone’s instruments were in the big room, but the amplifiers and PA were each isolated in separate rooms. Microphones were set up inside the big room to capture Sean’s drums. They went inside and ran through a performance of “Rooster,” and Sean nailed it. Sheeley thinks this first take is the cut that appeared on the album. Jerden and Carlstrom did not recall this, but did not dispute Sheeley’s account.

It was obvious early on that “Rooster”—Jerry’s tribute to his father who served in Vietnam—was special. “The first time I heard it on the demo, it just sent chills up my spine when he starts singing the ‘ooh, ooh, ooh.’ It’s just a great song: the guitars come crashing in. My idea was just to make them gigantic when they came in,” Jerden said. Cameron Crowe was visiting from Seattle, and he was allowed to come into the studio while the band was working on the song.

Production was eventually shut down for a few days as the band members left town to get away from the riots.9 They regrouped and continued recording.

Jerden heard “Them Bones” when the song was in its infancy. “That song is what Alice in Chains is all about, and only Jerry Cantrell could come up with something like that. He played that for me over the phone. We keep in contact, and sometimes he’d call me at three o’clock in the morning and [say] he just wrote a song or something.”

While recording “Junkhead,” Sean—for no particular reason—said the words “junk fuck,” which were picked up by the microphones. While editing the song, Jerden said, “Let’s leave that in there!” Carlstrom put it at the beginning, so it would start the song before Sean’s opening count.