WILLIAM DUVALL FIRST CHOICE ON VOCALS FOR JERRY CANTRELL AND ALICE IN CHAINS

Alice In Chains had no doubt that William Duvall would be their new vocalist and willing to record a new album with them.

Alice in Chains who rose to stardom in the Grunge music scence of the 1990’s are set to release their first album in 14 years and it will also be the bands first album with their new lead vocalist, William DuVall. DuVall has some pretty big shoes to fill as he will be replacing lead vocalist Layne Staley who passed away in 2002 due to his ongoing battles with substance abuse. Alice in Chains new album will be titled “Black Gives Way to Blue” and will be released September 29th, 2009.

Artisan News caught up with lead guitarist Jerry Cantrell to get his thoughts on William DuVall being the first choice to replace Layne when the band decided to continue on as Alice in Chains.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. We met each other in 2000 in L.A. and when we started toying around with the idea of maybe getting together and having some fun and just playing some songs, William was the first guy I thought of to bring in. We had a good time that day and that just kind of slowly sort of turned into a lot of really important and good things for us. It turned into a couple of shows, it turned into a tour, it turned into another tour and now it’s turned into a record and we decided to continue on. Music is what we do and we feel really strongly about what we just came up with and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you guys.”

Alice in Chains worked with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Stone Sour, Rush) for “Black Gives Way to Blue” and the first single was “A Looking in View” which debuted at #14 on The Billboard Rock Singles Chart upon its release. Alice in Chains also recently announced that Elton John will be making a very special guest appearance on the upcoing album as the two collaborated on the title track, “Black Gives Way To Blue,” which is a heart-stirring tribute to Alice In Chains’ late lead singer Layne Staley. rnAlice in Chains will be performing at Epicenter Music Festival in Pamona, Ca on August 22nd along with Tool, Linkin Park and Wolfmother to name a few. The band has announced a new run of tour dates which kick off September 4th in Washington and extending until September 28th in San Francisco, Ca.