Jerry Cantrell, Alice in Chains founder and longtime friend of WMMR, will be at the Xcite Center at Parx Casino for a solo show this weekend. Here’s five things we learned from Pierre Robert‘s interview with the guitar legend.

• The album art for 'Brighten' was inspired by fireflies.

  Jerry’s latest solo LP, Brighten, features the luminescent insect in the cover art. He explains: “One insect creates a little tiny light, but if you get a bunch of them in a field, it’s pretty magical. There’s some connection and ‘two is greater than one’ kind of vibe with that, too… It’s a pretty interesting thing, bioluminescence.”

• He gets apprehensive when road testing new material.

  How does Jerry feel when it’s time to debut new songs on tour? “When you actually stand up and start playing that stuff… not only (compared to) itself, but also compared to more familiar work that the audience knows you by… Do they stand up to those songs that are really beloved? And thankfully the answer was yes (for Brighten). It was really fun playing them, people reacted to them. It’s always great when you put something out, and it’s also a little scary to see if people are gonna connect with it in a way that they have in the past. It’s always a bit of a gamble, but it came up seven, when we rolled the dice.”

  Jerry goes on to say that he tries to “serve all eras” of his musical catalog at his live shows, so you’ll hear a mix of solo songs and Alice in Chains classics at his show on Saturday.

• "Prism of Doubt" is one of Jerry's favorite tracks on the new LP.

  When Pierre asked about track 3 on the album, “Prism of Doubt,” Jerry said: “That’s one of my favorites on that record. (It’s) a comment on prospective change. Maybe the glasses that you used 10 years ago don’t work for you anymore. Maybe it’s time to put on a new set of glasses. It’s often interesting to me that sometimes it’s a little shift in perception that changes your view either way… I think that song touches on that concept.”

• Elton John was featured in an Alice in Chains song.

  Around the 11:30 mark in the interview below, Jerry told Pierre the story of asking Sir Elton to lay down a piano track for the song “Black Gives Way to Blue.” He calls it “one of the goosebump moments of my life… seeing his piano all mic’ed up in the studio, and my music on the stand there, was pretty amazing, like holy hell! That stuff gives me chills.”

• The show this weekend is on Jerry's birthday!

  The show in Bensalem is on Saturday, March 18th, which happens to be Jerry Cantrell’s birthday. Get your tickets here, which Jerry a happy Pisces season and check back next week for the concert gallery.

• Listen to the interview:

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