Cantrell Speaks Out About Staley's Death

DETROIT (Alice In Chains Fans) - Given his druthers, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell would be joyously preparing for next month's release of his second solo album, Degradation Trip. The tour and album are proceeding as planned, but Cantrell is now mourning the death of his band's frontman, Layne Staley, who was found dead April 19 from a lethal heroin-cocaine overdose that is thought to have occurred two weeks prior.

Cantrell - who earlier this year had expressed hope that Alice in Chains would work together again - tells that Staley's death has cast a pall over everything he's doing these days. "I don't really feel happy about doing much. All you can really do is continue on. That's a really hard thing to do. I just lost one of my best friends a couple of weeks ago--my creative partner and my band all in one fell swoop. So, ya' know, I'm dealing with it by moving on, and I don't know how I'm gonna do that, but I'll get through it," he says.

Cantrell and his band kick off a summer tour with Nickelback on May 13 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.