After singer Bruce Dickinson decided to leave Iron Maiden in the early 1990s, he experimented a lot in his solo career, trying to distance himself from the kind of music he had been making with the Heavy Metal band during the previous decade. He has always been interested in what was happening in the Rock and Metal scenes. He was quite aware of the rise of Grunge back then, which, interestingly, posed a threat especially to older Heavy Metal musicians. Throughout his career, Dickinson talked about many bands from that era, including Alice in Chains and their late, highly praised singer Layne Staley. What is Bruce Dickinson's opinion on Alice In Chains Alice in Chains is one of Bruce's favorite bands from the Grunge movement and he praised Layne Staley's vocals and the melodic sound they had. "What I loved about Alice was the way they treated the vocals, the atmospherics in the vocals. They weren't scared to be really melodic at a time when a lot of other bands were trying the muddiest guitar sound they could possibly find out", he said on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock (2000). More recently, in 2025, during an interview with Loudwire, he was asked which bands he was listening to in the 1990s and of course, he mentioned the Seattle group. "Oh my God. Well, I've got to say, I was a massive Chris Cornell and Soundgarden fan — massive. Alice in Chains as well. I mean, just great songs. So Alice in Chains and Soundgarden in particular. Soundgarden, to me, they were like a modern-day Led Zeppelin, updated and his voice was just the finest voice of his generation," Bruce Dickinson said. The Iron Maiden vocalist also likes the band's current line-up with the vocalist William DuVall. When the band released in 2009 "Black Gives Way to Blue", their first album with the new singer, they went to Bruce's radio show on BBC. The guitarist Jerry Cantrell recalled in an interview with The Quietus in 2013, that the musician praised the record. "Bruce actually interviewed us when 'Black Gives Way To Blue' came out. He said one of the greatest things about it. He said: 'Black Gives Way To Blue: Have a listen! If you haven’t, you’re just stupid!' (laughs)". Alice in Chains inspired the Bruce Dickinson album "Skunkworks" The band's final studio album with Layne Staley was released in 1995, one year before Bruce recorded his "Grunge" album "Skunkworks". Originally he intended this to be the first record of a band of the same name he would form, but ended up being one of his most different albums. Influenced by the music from the Seattle bands from the 1990s, Dickinson wanted to make an album that didn't sound like the previous ones from solo career which still had a sound that resonated with Iron Maiden. To do that he contacted the producer Jack Endino, who had worked with bands like Soundgarden, Nirvana and Mudhoney. As he recalled in his book "What Does This Button Do?" (2017), Alice in Chains' music was a big influence. "Taking inspiration from the aeronautical genius Clarence ‘Kelly’ Johnson, I decided to name the next album Skunkworks. Also to develop a band of the same name. The record company were horrified. They’d hoped to trade on the Bruce Dickinson name with its Iron Maiden, traditional heavy-metal connotations. They wanted to worship the statue; I wanted to blow it up." He continued: "Thanks to our Sarajevo experience I thought the band had been blooded sufficiently to make a plan. I pulled out my favourite Soundgarden and Alice in Chains albums and made contact with legendary Seattle producer Jack Endino. I got back in touch with Storm Thorgerson. ‘Storm, I want to do an album cover based around a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and the design philosophy of Kelly Johnson’s Skunkworks.’ How could he possibly refuse? It was exactly the sort of project Storm loved," Bruce Dickinson said in his book. In 2021, Endino talked with Daniel S about working with Dickinson on that album. The producer mentioned Alice in Chains as one of the bands the musician liked at the time. ”He (Bruce) liked some of it (Grunge). He liked Soundgarden, he loved the ‘Bleach’ (Nirvana) album coming out. Because I mean, that stuff made a pretty big impact in the UK. But in particular he liked Soundgarden, he liked Nirvana. I’m sure he knew about Alice In Chains. His band members as well were very in touch. They liked Jane’s Addiction and King’s X,” Jack Endino said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Jerry Cantrell's favorite Iron Maiden album has Bruce Dickinson on vocals Alice in Chains guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell is a big fan of Iron Maiden. In an interview with The Quietus listed "Number of The Beast" (1982) as one of his favorite albums of all time. The musician said that although he loved the first two albums with Paul Di'Anno, this was his favorite one and praised Bruce. "Another of my favourite bands, and they also went through a key singer change. It also features two personal heroes of mine, Dave Murray and Adrian Smith, who go through a change and continue to make great music. I was a fan of Paul Di’Anno too, but that particular record where Bruce comes in, that’s another one I’d say is perfect, from top to bottom." "There’s always that myth… that darker element, I guess, to rock & roll. I don’t necessarily see it as dark. I’d say it’s more human. In context of a more rigid, uptight society, rock n’ roll has always been about pushing the boundaries of… Maybe what’s just a little bit more natural to human beings…(laughs)" "A band I really f*cking dug, and emulated quite a bit for a good chunk of time when I was learning how to play guitar. Like I said I was always into dual guitar bands and Maiden were great for that," Jerry Cantrell said. Curiously, the musician already revealed that because of bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy he originally intended Alice in Chains to be a guitar duo band. It was before an Iron Maiden show when Cantrell saw Axl Rose threw away the Alice in Chains demo tape https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAqZb52sgpU&list=RDTAqZb52sgpU&start_radio=1 When the guitarist went to see Iron Maiden playing in Seattle in 1988, he already had a demo of AIC. The opening act that night was Guns N' Roses, and when he had the chance to hand a copy of the demo to Axl Rose, he saw the singer promptly throw it into the nearest garbage can. Cantrell recalled that story when he was paying tribute to Slash at the Sunset Strip Music Festival in 2010. He said: "We were just getting Alice in Chains together. I actually went and saw Guns N' Roses at the Seattle Center. I brought a demo tape to give the band. (Then) I met Axl after the show actually. (I) gave it to him and as he was walking away I saw him throwing away (laughs)," Jerry Cantrell said. Although that happened there was no bad blood between the bands and he is a good friend of the musicians. During the same speech he noted that Guns N' Roses was a band that inspired them a lot.The post Bruce Dickinson’s opinion on Alice In Chains appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.