Jerry Cantrell almost threw a Guns N’ Roses album out the window while high.
When asked on the Broken Record Podcast about his first conversation with Duff McKagan regarding Guns N’ Roses, Cantrell recalled, “Boy, I think I probably told him like… When I finally connected with this band, I mean I was aware of the band and a lot of my favorite bands I don’t like instantly.” He explained that while he liked their rock and roll sound, he didn’t initially connect with the record.
Cantrell continued, “I love Aerosmith, good funky, R&B, f*cking nasty rock and roll. So overtly I liked it and it was blowing up but I didn’t connect with the record. I think I listened to it for about a week and I don’t know, I think I told him a story.”
He then shared a moment from his past: “I was living in an apartment downtown behind Seattle Center and I still hadn’t connected to the record. So I decided to drop acid and listen to the whole thing one more time. I decided on that trip and I listened to the record. If I still didn’t like it I was going to throw it out the window.”
Eventually, a specific song changed his perspective. “And by the time ‘Rocket Queen’ came on, that bass, the drums in the bass got me. That’s when it all came into focus and I was just coming on to an acid trip and I think I told him that story. It was a good one and I got it. The doors of perception were open and I connected.”
In a 2021 interview with BBC Radio, Cantrell talked about his longtime friendship with McKagan. When asked about their history, he joked, “Yeah, yes, we’re old. It’s all right, you can be a leathery old dog and still rock ‘n’ roll.”
He also reflected on how they met: “Probably late-’80s, we’ve been friends ever since. He and Slash, I made a real close connection with both those guys. They were a very important band to us and inspired us. They were part of a bigger change in the music of the late-’80s where it was making a turn, bands like Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, and Guns N’ Roses… There was a change on the horizon.”
Cantrell released his fourth solo album, ‘I Want Blood,’ on October 18, 2024. He is set to kick off his North American tour on January 31 in Niagara Falls.
