Alice in Chains' seminal album, Dirt, is as much a product of its time as it is a defining work of the grunge era. The band's creative process was shaped not just by internal struggles but also by the external chaos of the Rodney King riots that swept through Los Angeles in 1992. In a revealing episode of Gibson TV's Icons, guitarist Jerry Cantrell recounts the harrowing experience that became intertwined with the album's genesis.
Recording sessions for Dirt began during a particularly volatile moment in LA's history. "We came to LA to record Dirt, and we moved into Jordan's studio," Cantrell explains (as transcribed by Sonic Perspectives). "That was right about the time that the cops were on trial for the beating of Rodney King." The band followed the trial closely, anticipating the verdict's potential fallout. "If these guys got off, it was going to be apocalyptic, you know?" Cantrell reflects. "That's what we were all talking about and thinking about."
When the verdict was announced and the officers were acquitted, Los Angeles erupted almost instantly. "Sure as [hell], man, when that verdict came down and those cops got off, within minutes the town started erupting. We started seeing fires, and we started seeing people get pulled out of cars—like on TV." This wasn't a distant spectacle for the band; it was unfolding in real-time, right outside their door. "This was the first load-in day, or like, the first or second day right at the very beginning of the recording process. And we were like, man, we got to get the [hell] out of here."
The band's escape from LA was fraught with danger. "Basically, getting from North Hollywood to Venice, to the Oak Woods to get our clothes, some money, and some stuff, and trying to get out of town was a battle," Cantrell recounts. Streets were ablaze, and the air was thick with tension. "I remember the streets being full of people running around, buildings on fire. We stopped for gas, and people were just coming in and taking stuff. People were going into stores, taking stuff, glass being broken, fights starting."
Eventually, the band decided to flee to the relative calm of Joshua Tree. "I remember us making that conscious call, and we were hanging out with Tom Araya (Slayer's frontman), and we were like, what do we do? I think somebody came up with the idea: Let's go out to Joshua Tree in the desert until things cool down. We picked a place to meet, and I think we rented a couple of Volvos or whatever," Cantrell recalls.
The change in scenery offered a strange but needed reprieve. Amidst the stark desert landscape, the band continued to write and refine the music that would become Dirt. "But that's how that record started. And then we went out to Joshua Tree and dropped acid. I think Tom had a couple of dry peyote tabs he brought out there. We hung out for like four or five days. But that was the beginning of Dirt."
The chaos they escaped was mirrored in the intensity of the music they created. Cantrell describes Dirt as a record that reflects both the heavy and the beautiful. "The material that we were writing at that time was pretty gnarly, you know? That's a hard record. It's really pretty too, and it's a good mix of both. And I think that's kind of the equation of the band, it was a mix of the harder, heavier, uglier stuff with the pretty, beautiful sound."
