"I just sat on my couch staring at the TV and getting drunk every day. "[H]e's like, 'You were dead for 11 minutes, Mike. In 1996,Rolling Stonedid a powerfulinterview with Cantrell and Layne Staley (Alice in Chains' heroin-addicted frontman, who eventually overdosed and died in 2002)where Cantrellsaid, "My dad was trained to be a f*@!ing killer After that, you can't just come back home and say, 'OK, everything's cool. Jerry Cantrell Sr. In 1994, they were set to tour with Metallica, but they ended up canceling just before the first dates. The term rooster had several meanings. Staley had recently gone torehab, but soon afterwards, he showed up in a band rehearsal under influence. 77 on its list of "100 Greatest Guitar Solos" in 2008. Club tells us, the people close to the singer appear to think that a very specific point in time marked the start of his darkness. Both musicians eventually succumbed to their addictions, with Staley passing away in 2002 and Starr in 2011. This was all my perception of his experiences out there. Cantrell revealed the song seemed to heal a rift that had been created between himself and his father during his childhood. Cantrell wrote this song to honor his father by telling a little story about his service in the Vietnam War. Alice in Chains and Starr parted ways in 1993. Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. "They were a big, established band, and the vibe was different," he said. His general sentiment was that a Rooster was a bad a$$. How do I get Cantrell-1111 to be for my gedcom ancestor? The song is about the strength of a soldierwho headed to Vietnam, leaving behind his wife and kids, and saw his buddy die. Jerden lost it, Who the f are you? 4. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. And I remember when we played it, he was back by the soundboard, and I could see him. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. He said (like 1 out of 100 comments previous) that Rooster was nickname for the M-60 gunner of a platoon. Mike Starr was booted from Alice in Chains for drugs and then OD'd after his final show with the band In fact, those who knew him said that he "more or less died in spirit"when Parrott perished. Part of Audacy. Check out Van Halens Disastrous Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Induction. They come to kill the Rooster, but he wont die. Jerry Cantrell Sr. served two combat tours in Vietnam, and also appears in the music video. Photo credit dreamstime This form needs Javascript to display, which your browser doesn't support. Staley's place was full of various drugs and paraphernalia, and he was still clutching a syringe filled with the next intended dose of heroin. But when it comes to the bands that make up the Big Four of grunge, none ever unleashed an album as monolithic and downright harrowing as Alice in Chains' 1992 masterpiece, Dirt. Cantrell's father, Jerry Sr., is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. Joe,still alive ! After passing out, he recalled, "I wake up and [Layne] had me in the shower and everything. The first time I ever heard him talk about it was when we made the video and he did a 45-minute interview I was amazed he did it. They can, however, live for up to 8 years or even longer, depending on some factors or circumstances. And he was crying the whole time. Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr. (born March 18, 1966) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. "He just made that up on the spot," Carlstrom recalled. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. The song was written by Alice in Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell for his father, Jerry Cantrell Sr., who served with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Over time, this less than healthy lifestyle started taking a toll on the singer, who kept on keeping on down his dark path despite the numerous attempts his bandmates made to lure him back in the land of the living. Susan was managing Alice In Chains at the time. It is also often mistakenly attributed to the 101st Airborne Division - in which Cantrell's father served - who wore shoulder sleeve insignia on their arms featuring a bald eagle. The music video featured real Vietnam War documentary/news footage as well as some very realistic/graphic re-enacted combat scenes. Layne told me that he didn't like being famous. i have posted a recent photo of Jerry Fulton Cantrell Sr, 6889. he was not born on july 9 1941, he did not die on feb 19 2009, nor serve in the US Navy, he is the subject of the song "The Rooster" written about experiences Jerry Sr had while serving in the us Army, Airborne, Vietnam. Hey Jerry Dale, Have never forgotten about you brotherI went to Vietnam in Army as a homage to you. No Replies Log in to reply 0. Can you work on a startup while employed? These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. In the liner notes of 1999s Music Bank box set collection, Jerry Cantrell said of the song: It was the start of the healing process between my Dad and I from all that damage that Vietnam caused. Starr's life proved to be a hard one, as he found it difficult to shake his addiction. What did I do?' When it came to shooting the band's performance, however, director Mark Pellington ran into a problem. Staley was so out of it that he had to wear sunglasses when they shot the music video for "Rooster" so viewers wouldn't realize how high he was, while Starr's drug problems became so bad that the band had to ultimately fire him. Overall, the band took a lighthearted approach to the incident, even printing up an official tour shirt emblazoned with an X-ray of Staley's broken foot under the band's logo. They are one of the most poignant and tragically true lyrics to come from the 90s grunge scene. It would not be until the age of 17 that he began seriously playing an electric guitar. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Alice in Chains was given money to record the song Would? for the soundtrack to the film Singles. We left him. In 2009, the new lineup released the fourth AiC studio album,Black Gives Way to Blue,and they've kept busy ever since. Have visited you at the WALL in D.C. Will always remember you as a good looking young man with a good heart and a wild side that drew we young men to you. i have posted a recent photo of Jerry Fulton Cantrell Sr, 6889. he was not born on july 9 1941, he did not die on feb 19 2009, nor serve in the US Navy, he is the subject of the song "The Rooster" written about experiences Jerry Sr had while serving in the us Army, Airborne, Vietnam. One night on tour, he and his bandmates literally were. No its not about M60 gunners being cocky. Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney's tenure with the band has been comparatively tragedy free, though as Jon Wiederhorn of Rolling Stone tells us, Kinney did have his own struggles with alcohol abuse during the Layne Staley years. He also contributed to the soundtrack of The Cable Guy , John Wick: Chapter 2 and Dark Nights: Metal , and has made cameos in films such as Jerry Maguire , Rock Slyde and Deadwood: The Movie. Take the cases of the worlds oldest chicken. he ruled supreme over his little empire, and thought no one could touch him. Layne Staley was a charismatic frontman with a golden voice, but according to the A.V. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. This is what would prompt little Jerry to write the AIC classic "Rooster". But the turbulence captured on the album would soon overtake Alice in Chains. Cantrell was born in Tacoma, Washington, on March 18, 1966, to Gloria Jean Krumpos and Jerry Fulton Cantrell. He was there when they toured with giants like Van Halen and Iggy Pop but sadly, so was his drug addiction. As a very minor silver lining,his mother's insurance policy left him enough money to buy some music gear and "exist for a while.". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The couple was already separated at that point, and while Staley had plenty of rock star money to finance his habits, Parrott's lower funds forced her to ultimately sell her body in order to finance her drug use. the rooster is about a man who thought he was the best in the business, but he was really just another dumb-ass, put in a position of power by some one he did a huge favor for. After Staley's death in 2002, Cantrell took the role of Alice in Chains' lead singer on most of the songs from the band's post-Staley albums, Black Gives Way to Blue , The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here and Rainier Fog , with DuVall harmonizing with him in the new songs and singing Staley's vocals in the old songs in live concerts. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Bald eagles arent native to Vietnam so they would sometimes refer to the 101st Airborne soldiers as Chicken Men or Roosters. Layne Staley improvised one of Dirt's most memorable moments Dear Private First Class Cantrell ~ You Are Not Forgotten! This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. /* TFP - lyricinterpretations.com - Above */ Jerry Cantrell's father may still wake up sometimes thinking about Vietnam. A real work of art may have a very specific meaning, but appeal to different schools of thought/interpretation in a more universal sense. The very first vocal sounds heard on Dirt are the series of "Ahh!" What is the difference between platform and station? Later, he became something of a mainstay inreality shows of the Celebrity Rehab and Sober House variety. Rooster was released as the fourth single from Dirt in February of 1993. But Layne Staley beat them to it by decades. Given how dark and often depressing Dirt's music and lyrics could be, it was only natural that when Alice in Chains appeared on MTV's HeadbangersBall to promote the album in 1993, show host Riki Rachtman took them to a waterpark. "Layne was pretty high," he recalled in Mark Yarm's Everybody Loves Our Town. Pellington revealed in the book, Everybody Loves Our Town by Mark Yarm, Layne was pretty high. POSTED ON 1.18.2017 POSTED BY: Junior Wynn Inspiration Hey Jerry Dale, Have never forgotten about you brother.I went to Vietnam in Army as a homage to you. It does make sense, however sadly, it is not what happened. When Alice in Chains' first album went gold, Cantrell sent both teachers a gold record. In his senior year, Cantrell became choir president, and the quartet sang the national anthem at basketball games and won competitions with the highest marks achievable. 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. Soldiers from Vietnam were dragged to a foreign land to kill or be killed in a fight that turned out to be based on something that was far less noble an endeavor than WWII. Ok the rooster nickname for M60 gunners is true but the reasoning is more than the gunners being "cocky" it is given because when firing especially at night the tracer bullets ark in the air, closely resemble the long arched feathers of a rooster tail. Per Billboard, the last two surviving original Alice in Chains members, Sean Kinney and Jerry Cantrell, said in a statement that they were in mourning, requesting privacy for both themselves and Starr's family. Lack of evidence for the LNAB and parents of Catherine (Heath) Cantrell, My family is from morgan county ky..and morehead ky. My great grandfather was henry Cantrell, here for the full-sized version (1080 x 2160). "Rooster" was the name that he went by in Vietnam. He said they were cocky and had a strut to them (you needed to be cocky as an M-60 threw out heavy fire, but would take heavy fire as well). We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Jerry . "The Rooster." Here's the son back in 1992 talking about the one and only time his father saw his band, Alice in Chains, play the song they wrote about him. The "Rooster" character was based on AIC guitarist Jerry Cantrell's father (Jerry Cantrell Sr.) whose life long nickname was "Rooster". Jerry Cantrell's own words I understand that you hope the world and people worked as logically as you say. It was also a very unpopular war so the lyrics "They spit on me in my home land" could refer to the treatment he received by anti-war citizens of the US. We were driving down Hollywood Boulevard, so I pointed to one called the Tropicana." He was back there with his big gray Stetson and his cowboy boots he's a total Oklahoma man and at the end, he took his hat off and just held it in the air. I asked him about it once and he said, Thats dead, son, let it lie. When I wrote it, I was getting this vibe, thinking about him and what hes lived through two tours of duty in Vietnam, hes been a prison guard. Cantrell would later name his music publishing company as Rooster's Son Publishing. The reason? He watches his friend die, and does his best to stay alive. So the next time you need to rock, crank up this grungeanthem from 1993. He would later cite guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix,Ace Frehley, Tony Iommi, Angus Young, Jimmy Page, Glenn Tipton, K.K. 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