A quarter of a century on, Alice In Chains’ MTV Unplugged appearance (and subsequent live album) are considered iconic and bittersweet. The former because of its perfect meeting of band and format, given the grunge legends’ proclivity for acoustic tracks and adeptness with melodies; the latter because it was one of the final live shows from Layne Staley, who would succumb to his heroin addiction in 2002. Back then however, things weren’t quite what they seemed on either front. Just ask Jerry Cantrell. Despite Alice In Chains being perfectly suited to the Unplugged treatment, at the time the only people who weren’t so sure were the band themselves, their scepticism not simply because they hadn’t played live in two-and-a-half years at that point. “We were thinking: ‘No disrespect, but...
