Music and lyrics Dirt (Alice in Chains album)

with songs written on road, material has overall darker feel facelift. did lot of soul searching on album. there s lot of intense feelings. cantrell said, deal our daily demons through music. of poison builds during day cleanse when play . drug use front , center lyrical theme on album. 3 tracks (sickman, junkhead & god smack) reference heroin use , effects.

staley later expressed regret lyrical content of songs on dirt, explaining, wrote drugs, , didn t think being unsafe or careless writing them ... didn t want fans think heroin cool. ve had fans come me , give me thumbs up, telling me re high. s didn t want happen.

cantrell said in 2013: darkness part of band, wasn’t that. there optimism, in darkest shit wrote. dirt, it’s not saying ‘oh yeah, thing.’ more of warning else, rather ‘hey, come , check out, it’s great!’ talking going on @ time, within there survivor element – kind of triumph on darker elements of being human being. still think have of intact, maybe percentage has shifted.

cantrell told rip magazine in 1993 not of lyrics have drug reference:

i think sickman not bad. thought of hassle come junkhead , godsmack . songs put in sequence on second side 5 songs junkhead angry chair reason: because tells story. starts out young naive attitude junkhead , drugs great, sex great, rock n roll, yeah! then, progresses, there s little bit of growing , little bit of realization of s about, , ain t s about. ve been using phrase lot, makes lot of sense: s easy die; s hard live. takes lot of guts live. doesn t take lot of guts die. 5 , sickman ones talking type of mentality [drugs]. rest of stuff not @ all. rain when die song girl. there s lot of stuff on it. portion of story, , s meant way. s kind of overwhelming , unpleasant @ times, unsettling maybe, s why songs together. if s disturbing, s not else needs worry or way else needs live life.

on liner notes of 1999 s music bank box set collection, cantrell cited junkhead , god smack openly honest songs drug use.

cantrell said wrote them bones mortality, 1 of these days ll end pile of bones. told rip magazine in 1993: them bones pretty cut , dried. s little sarcastic, s pretty dealing mortality , life. s going die someday. instead of being afraid of it, s way is: enjoy time ve got. live as can, have fun possible. face fear , live. had family members die @ age; ve had kind of phobia it. death freaks me out. think freaks lot of people out. s end of life, depending on views. s pretty scary thing. them bones trying put thought rest. use have left, , use well.

cantrell inspired write dam river after fight had sean kinney, in kinney broke coffee table on head.

rain when die song girl, according cantrell. sickman came after staley asked cantrell write him sickest tune, sickest, darkest, fucked , heaviest thing [cantrell] write.

rooster written cantrell father, served in vietnam war. nickname rooster . cantrell described song start of healing process between dad , damage vietnam caused.

discussing title track dirt , cantrell stated words layne put heavy, ve never given him , not thought gonna bad-assed thing going hear.

the 43-second iron gland developed out of guitar riff cantrell play annoyed other band members, created song (adding in reference black sabbath s iron man ) , promised never play guitar riff again, although track played intro music in concert. features tom araya of thrash metal band slayer on vocals, layne staley. hate feel , angry chair both composed solely staley, , cantrell has expressed pride in seeing staley grow songwriter , guitarist.

down in hole written cantrell long-time girlfriend. cantrell explained song on liner notes of 1999 s music bank box set: [ down in hole ] s in top three, personally. s long-time love. s reality of life, path ve chosen , in weird way kind of foretold right now. s hard both understand...that life not conducive success long-term relationships.

the album s final track, would? , written cantrell , concerns late lead singer of mother love bone, andrew wood. cantrell said song directed towards people pass judgments.