Alice in Chains
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
50 free Alice in Chains trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Alice in Chains came out of the same rainy corner of America as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, but they never sounded like anyone else. Heavy riffs sat next to hushed acoustic records, and two voices in close harmony carried lyrics darker than most of rock radio would touch. This Alice in Chains quiz covers the whole story: the early club days, the breakthrough albums of the 1990s, the long silence that followed, and the comeback with a new line-up. You will meet the hit songs and the tales behind them, the guest stars, the film and TV appearances, the tours, and the people in the studio and the office who helped along the way. It is written for fans who know the records back to front and for anyone who has a few of the choruses stuck in their head. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works as well for a pub quiz round as it does on a phone.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which pop legend plays piano on the title track of Alice in Chains' 2009 comeback album, a tribute to Layne Staley?
Elton John
Elton John was the first act Layne Staley ever saw in concert. Jerry Cantrell invited him to play on the song, which closes the album Black Gives Way to Blue.
Q 02What appears on the cover of Alice in Chains' 1995 self-titled album, an idea from drummer Sean Kinney's childhood?
A three-legged dog
A three-legged dog like the one on the cover used to chase Sean Kinney on his rounds as a paperboy. Fans nicknamed the record Tripod, the title Kinney had wanted.
Q 03Which Alice in Chains song about Jerry Cantrell's father in Vietnam is titled after his childhood nickname?
Rooster
Rooster was what the family called Jerry Cantrell Sr. as a boy, because his hair stuck up like a cockerel's comb. He appears in the song's video, talking about the war.
Q 04Who was the last straw among the terrible singers Alice in Chains auditioned to push Layne Staley into joining?
A male stripper
A male stripper turned up to audition, and Layne Staley finally took the hint and joined. His future bandmates had been trying out hopeless singers in front of him on purpose.
Q 05Layne Staley of Alice in Chains died on April 5, eight years to the day after which other Seattle singer?
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain died on April 5, 1994, and Layne Staley on the same date in 2002. Staley had been dead for two weeks before he was found in his Seattle condominium.
Q 06Which act's hit on a car radio inspired the talk box effect on Alice in Chains' 'Man in the Box'?
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi's 'Livin' on a Prayer' came on while the album's producer was driving to the studio, so he suggested the gadget. Jerry Cantrell plays it on the finished track.
Q 07Alice in Chains launched their 2018 album with an acoustic set 500 feet up inside which Seattle landmark?
Space Needle
Space Needle visitors had only just gained the Loupe, a revolving glass floor, and Alice in Chains were the first band to play on it. They debuted the song 'Fly' there.
Q 08Which Massachusetts hard rock band shares its name with a song on Alice in Chains' 1992 album Dirt?
Godsmack
Godsmack share their name with 'God Smack', a track on Dirt. Singer Sully Erna credits Layne Staley with getting him to sing, though he has traced the band name to a taunt about a cold sore.
Q 09The title of Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies recalls what from Jerry Cantrell's third-grade year?
A science experiment
A science experiment had young Jerry Cantrell keep two jars of flies, one overfed and one underfed. The overfed flies bred fast, then died of overcrowding, while the hungry ones lasted the year.
Q 10Layne Staley's final concerts with Alice in Chains came in 1996 as the opening act for which reunited band?
Kiss
Kiss were touring with their original line-up again, and Alice in Chains opened four of the shows. Staley's last was in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 3, 1996.
Q 11In which Cameron Crowe film about Seattle twentysomethings do Alice in Chains appear as a bar band?
Singles
Singles shows the band playing 'It Ain't Like That' in a club, and its soundtrack introduced 'Would?'. That song's video won an MTV award for Best Video from a Film.
Q 12Alice in Chains' 'Got Me Wrong' became a belated radio hit after featuring in which 1994 comedy?
Clerks
Clerks plays the song as the character Randal makes his entrance. It had first appeared on the EP Sap, and the film sent it to number seven on rock radio.
Q 13Which supergroup did Layne Staley front in 1995 alongside Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready?
Mad Season
Q 21Jerry Cantrell wrote a 1992 Alice in Chains hit in memory of Andrew Wood, the late singer of which Seattle band?
Mother Love Bone
Mother Love Bone lost Andrew Wood to a heroin overdose in 1990. Jerry Cantrell had been thinking about his friend a great deal, and the result was the song 'Would?'.
Q 22Which Jar of Flies track gave Alice in Chains a first number one on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart in 1994?
No Excuses
No Excuses opens with a syncopated rhythm that Sean Kinney stumbled on while improvising with the sides of his sticks. The EP it comes from was written and recorded in about a week.
Q 23Which sombre ballad opened Alice in Chains' MTV Unplugged set in 1996, the band's first concert in over two years?
Nutshell
Mad Season made just one album, Above, and Layne Staley created its artwork as well as singing on it. Its 'River of Deceit' reached number two on rock radio.
Q 14Bassist Mike Inez joined Alice in Chains in 1993 after four years in which heavy metal singer's band?
Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne took Alice in Chains out as support on his No More Tours trek in 1992, which is how Mike Inez met his future bandmates. He played his first show with them in London.
Q 15Which singer and guitarist joined Alice in Chains in 2006 to share lead vocals with Jerry Cantrell?
William DuVall
William DuVall had backed Jerry Cantrell on a solo tour with his own band, Comes with the Fall. Cantrell says a single audition was enough to settle it.
Q 16Which travelling festival did Alice in Chains join in summer 1993, their last major tour with Layne Staley?
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza ended with the band coming home to Seattle to find they had been evicted for unpaid rent. They moved into a recording studio and made Jar of Flies there.
Q 17Alice in Chains recorded their 2009 comeback album at Studio 606, the private studio of which rock band?
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters own the room, and Alice in Chains had no label at the time, so Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney paid for the sessions themselves. Recording wrapped on Cantrell's 43rd birthday.
Q 18Alice in Chains' surviving members first reunited on stage at a Seattle benefit for victims of which disaster?
Indian Ocean tsunami
Indian Ocean tsunami relief was Sean Kinney's idea, and the response surprised him. It was the first time he, Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez had performed together in nine years.
Q 19Alice in Chains named their 2018 album, recorded partly back home in Seattle, after which Washington volcano?
Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier gave the record its name, and Jerry Cantrell called the title track a homage to the scene the band came from. Sessions began in the room where they made their 1995 album.
Q 20Which band's singer says he invited Alice in Chains on tour after seeing the 'Man in the Box' video on MTV?
Van Halen
Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar tells the story, and Alice in Chains did open for his band in 1991. Daytime airplay of the same clip turned their slow-selling debut into a hit.
Nutshell began a show that Jerry Cantrell played through food poisoning. He said adrenaline carried him while the cameras rolled, and he felt ill again the moment it ended.
Q 24Which Dirt power ballad did Jerry Cantrell nearly keep from Alice in Chains, fearing it was too soft?
Down in a Hole
Down in a Hole was written for his girlfriend at the time, Courtney Clarke. His bandmates liked it, and as the album's fifth single it reached the rock radio top ten.
Q 25Which major label signed Alice in Chains in 1989 on the strength of a demo called The Treehouse Tapes?
Columbia
Columbia made the newcomers a top priority and released their records for the next 15 years, until its parent company ended the contract in 2004.
Q 26Alice in Chains' 2009 hit 'Check My Brain' pokes fun at Jerry Cantrell's move from Seattle to which city?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles became Jerry Cantrell's home in 2003, and he saw the joke in a former addict from rainy Seattle settling there. The song was the band's first to reach the Billboard Hot 100.
Q 27Which technique brings a doomed circus to life in the music video for Alice in Chains' 'I Stay Away'?
Stop-motion animation
Stop-motion animation turned the band into puppets, and the figures later went on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the clip, a boy looses a jar of flies on the big top.
Q 28Jerry Cantrell first saw Layne Staley sing at a little theatre in which Washington city, the guitarist's birthplace?
Tacoma
Tacoma is where Jerry Cantrell was born in 1966, and a few months after that gig he met Layne Staley at a party. Cantrell had nowhere to live, so Staley took him in.
Q 29Lifelong fan Jerry Cantrell led Alice in Chains through a 2015 playoff halftime show for which Seattle team?
Seahawks
Seahawks supporters saw the band at halftime of the NFC Championship Game against Green Bay. Alice in Chains had also played a halftime set for the team in 2008, backed by a symphony orchestra.
Q 30Which instrument did Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley play in teenage glam bands before he turned to singing?
Drums
Drums were Layne Staley's start at the age of 12. He was so keen on Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee that he legally changed his middle name to Thomas.