Alice in Chains (AiC) is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1987 by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, who later recruited bassist Mike Starr and lead vocalist Layne Staley. Starr was replaced by Mike Inez in 1993. William DuVall joined the band in 2006 as co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist, replacing Staley, who had died in 2002. The band took its name from Staley's previous group, the glam metal band Alice N' Chains.
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Courtney Clarke, Jerry Cantrell’s girlfriend of seven years. Their tormented relationship inspired Jerry to write some of Alice In Chains’ most successful songs, such as Down in a Hole, Rain When I Die, Heaven Beside You and some others released on his solo records, such as Angel Eyes, She Was My Girl, Settling Down, Siren Song. It is said that they met at a Guns ‘n Roses concert in 1989, he recalled in an interview that “she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen”. Their relationship allegedly lasted until 1997 circa because of Jerry’s problems with monogamy. She then went on with her life marrying another man and having a daughter while Jerry never married, even though he had other - mostly brief - relationships as well in the last 20 years.
The pictures are taken from The Nona Tapes, you can see her at minute 22.35, she was probably being recorded by Jerry himself.
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A Jerry Cantrell post!? I never thought I'd see the day!
I noticed most posts are about Layne or just the band in general lol
Is that ray manzarek on the last picture
No, his name is Gary Brooks.
His name is Robert Paulson.
His name is Tyler Durden.
His name is Gerry Caldwell
His name is Robert Paulson
His name is Dieter. He hosted a German talk show called Sprockets in the 90s.
"How do you answer to the rumours that you are a silly bitch?"
I embrace them.
I listened to Siren Song the other day… I can’t imagine living with this, pining for someone for decades, she has a 25yo old daughter. Must be painful. Not that I know about what goes on in Jerry’s mind but if he’s writing like that, i think ‘pining’ is the right word
Not saying there’s no pining, but it’s also possible that he’s had lyrics about her around for decades that get worked into new songs. I’ve heard/read him talk about riffs he’s had lying around for years (which I assume is fairly common among musicians in general).
Women will do that to you.
I thought that song was about his mother :O
Heaven beside you, hell within is beautiful ☺️
How do people know Courtney Clarke was his/the girlfriend? There are no pics of them together and I think he never named her?
Isn’t it a bit weird there aren’t pics of them together?
She’s included in the “Thank you”s for Jar of Flies, Tripod, Boggy Depot and Degradation Trip. I’ve also heard him mention her by name in a couple Brighten era interviews (in reference to meeting her at a GNR concert)
Interesting. I've never seen him mention her when talking about Brighten. Care to send a link? It is fairly obvious Siren Song is about her though.
Same. The interview I saw had him talking about the siren being more general than a specific person. People have said this before but never post the interview where it supposedly happened
I just spent like an hour looking for this lmao but here’s a clip https://youtu.be/xE6T4Mkx1tI?si=rwfIR8ufuBh8HVZn
I believe the GNR show he met her at was on June 1st, 1988 at the Seattle Center Coliseum
Thank you for taking the time.
Ha! Thank you
Are you serious? Jerry gave out her full name and background in interviews, albums liner notes and songs, people just put 2 and 2 together. And the reason why there's no photos of them together is because she's not an attention-seeker stuck in the past posting photos of her ex-boyfriend from 30 years ago like the "grunge groupies" who have nothing else to offer normally do.
Sure, but AIC were very famous when Courtney Clarke and Jerry were together so someone else somewhere could’ve just taken a picture of them together going about their business, at gigs/dinner/going places/travelling, whatever. Doesn’t have to be a case of her being a groupie or not, and Jerry not being discreet about his personal life, or not
Just because you haven't seen a picture, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If she wanted any private picture of them together out there, we would have seen it already. No one knew how Demri looked like until Layne died and she was turned into a saint with fanpages dedicated to her and "best friends" and relatives coming out of woodwork to share old photos and talk about how amazing she was, always using Layne's name to bring attention to themselves, obviously. By this time it's pretty clear that Courtney and her friends/family aren't like that.
True, they always say Demri was perfect and blah blah but we all know she did some shady things
That’s fair enough. The Demri fandom is weird, I agree.
Eh. The pressure was just never as interested in Jerry as they were in Layne and he probably took advantage of it.
So, after this post, I’m looking like mad for interviews where he mentions her name and I can’t find anything? He does mention a break up because apparently he’s “too used to being hard” (this is the rolling stone with the terrible cover/headline) amongst other mentions of a relationship/a very special woman, but I’m still intrigued.
Other than that’s definitely her on Nona Tapes🤦🏻♀️
How does that prove she was Jerry's girlfriend?
Yeah tbh neither prove she was Jerry’s girlfriend - the Brighten interview would if he says so, of course, but haven’t watched/heard those
She looks like a female version of Sean.
this absolutely took. me. out.
Dude she does😭😭😭
Dude she does😭😭😭
No disrespect intended.
🤣 that’s the truth
I had completely forgotten about this. Thank you!!
She reminds me a little of Xana de Fuente.
I just hope he will not put more songs about her again on his new solo album that he said he is working on... Enough is enough Jerry 😜
At this point he could put a love song about ANY of his girlfriends and the community would make it about Courtney just because she's the one they know about.
She did inspire some great songs
The rumour is that Mike Starr was fired because he slept with Courtney.
That's not true. Jerry had more than one girlfriend in the 90s and Courtney was never named in this rumor that was made up by a guy who is friends with that crazy woman who made up the "last interview with Layne" that never happened. Starr was fired for stealing backstage passes and because his drug use and habit of messing with underage girls were causing trouble to the band.
Wow. I didn’t know that. I thought Starr was fired over drugs (pretty hypocritical considering what was going on with the band). I didn’t know he was messing with underage girls. Yuck.
It's dumb how he ruined his career like that...