COREY TAYLOR: ‘ALICE IN CHAINS, To Me, Is One Of The Greatest Rock Bands That Ever Was’

During the question-and-answer portion of his December 13 appearance at Jo Ann Davidson Theatre at the Riffe Center in Columbus, Ohio, SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor was asked to name his favorite of the “big four” Seattle grunge bands — SOUNDGARDEN, ALICE IN CHAINS, PEARL JAM and NIRVANA. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It has to be ALICE IN CHAINS. ALICE IN CHAINS, to me, is one of the greatest rock bands that ever was. And I don’t just mean that from a grunge standpoint or metal or anything like that. They revolutionized so much musically and they inspired me to change the way I write music. I mean, full stop, period, the end of sentence. [Late ALICE IN CHAINS frontman] Layne Staley is still one of the greatest fucking singers that ever lived. Now, that is not a reflection of the demons that he had to fight, obviously, and that’s everything to do with his talent. He just made it look so fucking easy, and he could sing anything, he could write anything, and the shit that he was writing about was killing him, and yet we loved it. To me, that was the greatest baring of the soul that I ever listened to. And if you need any more proof of that, all you need to do is listen to ‘Nutshell’. It’s one of the greatest songs ever written. And that’s not even my favorite ALICE IN CHAINS song. My favorite ALICE IN CHAINS song is ‘Would?’ Full stop. That song is fucking incredible. But ‘Nutshell’ is such an outpouring of trying to share with you the darkness that’s in his heart. And even though you’re hearing it, it’s so light, you’re just, like, ‘Fuck. Where is he?’ And we never knew. And that’s the great tragedy of people like Layne. It’s not just Layne, obviously; there’s so many people that came from that generation of artists. The pain they dealt with — some of them won, some of them didn’t. But the great thing is that we can listen to their music and it can help us get past our own pain. And there’s probably not a day that goes by that I don’t listen to ALICE IN CHAINS. It’s still just that good. And the fact that I know those guys now is just icing on the cake. It’s rad to be able to hang out with your favorite band.”

Back in 2015, Taylor said that he “would love” to collaborate with ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell. He said: “We’re really good friends. I’ve known those guys for quite a while, and ALICE IN CHAINS is one of my favorite bands of all time. I would love to create something cool and dark with him, and just have fun with it. So if I had a chance to, man, I would totally be down with that.”

2021 has been as busy as ever for Taylor. Having just wrapped SLIPKNOT‘s “Knotfest Roadshow” U.S. tour, Corey also hit the road in support of his debut solo album, “CMFT”, released an inspired new cover of CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG‘s “Carry On” and fronted GROUND CONTROL, a supergroup also comprised of Taylor Hawkins (FOO FIGHTERS), Dave Navarro (JANE’S ADDICTION) and Chris Chaney (JANE’S ADDICTION) performing at “The Bowie Celebration: Just For One Day” in tribute to the late David Bowie.

“CMFT” made impressive debuts on charts around the world in October 2020, entering at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Current Hard Rock Albums chart, while claiming No. 2 on Current Rock Albums, No. 6 on Vinyl Albums, and No. 9 on the Top Albums charts. Furthermore, “CMFT” landed Top 10 on the official album charts in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with Top 20 debuts in the United Kingdom, Finland and Japan (international chart).

“CMFT” was recorded at The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas with producer Jay Ruston and Corey‘s band — Christian Martucci (guitar), Zach Throne (guitar), Jason Christopher (bass), and Dustin Schoenhofer (drums).