“I asked them, ‘What’s it like to be famous?’ and they all said, ‘We hate it’”: The story of the landmark grunge album that paved the way for Nirvana’s Nevermind but set the band that made it on the path to darkness

Alice In Chains posing for a photograph in 1990.

The first time Dave Jerden heard Alice In Chains, he thought they were a mess. It was 1988, and Dave, who had just produced Jane’s Addiction’s groundbreaking Nothing’s Shocking album had been given the band’s demo tape by an A&R friend at Sony.

Despite the growing buzz surrounding their hometown of Seattle, the band’s music was all over the place, and no producer wanted to touch them. But there was one song in which he heard the sound of the future.