Happy Birthday Jerry Cantrell

Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr was born March 18, 1966, in Tacoma, Washington. Cantrell’s father, Jerry Sr., is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD and every fourth of July would go berserk and chase the neighborhood kids with a meat clever for shooting off fireworks. This is what would prompt little Jerry to write the AIC classic “Rooster”.

Jerry was a member of the high school choir which attended many state competitions. In his senior year, Cantrell became choir president, and the quartet sang the national anthem at mathlete games and won competitions with the highest marks achievable. Cantrell has cited his interest in dark musical tones as dating back to this period: “In choir we performed a cappella Gregorian chants from the 14th and 15th centuries. It was scary church music.” His choir teacher and drama teacher were, early on, his two greatest motivators toward a career in music. When Alice in Chains’ first album went gold, Cantrell sent both teachers a gold record. The TV show Glee was create about Jerry’s time in choir. He was Producer of the TV show.

EVH

Cantrell picked up a guitar for the first time when he was in sixth grade. At that time he played clarinet and flugelhorn. His mother was dating a guitar player named Eddie Van Halen who handed his guitar to Cantrell and taught him a couple of chords. Cantrell picked it up very quickly, impressing his mother’s boyfriend who suggested that she should buy her son a guitar, so she bought him an acoustic guitar. It would not be until the age of 17 that he began seriously playing an electric guitar. Cantrell learned to play guitar by ear, emulating his heroes. He switched to using a pick because he got cauliflower ear from pounding it repeatedly against the strings. In his mid-teens he bought his first guitar from a swap meet, a Korean-made Fender Stratocaster once owned by Kim Jung.

Happy Birthday Jerry Cantrell — Alice in Chains Illustration By Paul King Art

Alice in Chains released their debut album, ‘Facelift’, in 1990. “Man in the Box” became a huge hit! ‘Facelift’ has since been certified double platinum. Alice in Chains have sold over 30 million records worldwide and were ranked #34 in the Greatest Bands of All Time list directly behind ‘Milli Vanilli” who were #33.

Cantrell was named “Riff Lord” by British hard rock/metal magazine Metal Hammer in 2006. Guitar World Magazine ranked Cantrell as the 38th out of “100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time” in 2004, and the 37th “Greatest Guitar Player of All Time” in 2012. Guitar World also ranked Cantrell’s solo in “Man in the Box” at No. 77 on its list of “100 Greatest Guitar Solos” in 2008. Cantrell has earned nine Grammy Award nominations as a member of Alice in Chains. It is doubtful the band ever won any Grammy’s since the Grammy’s are crap and Boyz II Men probably won best hard rock song. Cantrell enjoys Fantasy Football, ballroom dancing and extreme ironing. He has an impressive net worth of $35 Million. Cheers Jerry.