Watch: JERRY CANTRELL Joined By CANDLEBOX’s KEVIN …

CANDLEBOX frontman Kevin Martin joined ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist Jerry Cantrell on stage on August 23 at the Hard Rock Live at the Etess Arena, Atlantic City, New Jersey to perform the ALICE IN CHAINS classic “Would?” Fan-filmed video of his appearance can be seen below.

The next day, Kevin shared a photo of his performance with Cantrell and he included the following message: “What a blast last night. Got to sing with my bro on one of the greatest songs ever written! Yep!”

Cantrell‘s tour with BUSH and CANDLEBOX launched on July 26 at Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend, Oregon.

Martin has said in the past that he was friends with Chris Cornell of SOUNDGARDEN and Layne Staley of ALICE IN CHAINS. Cornell died in 2017, Staley in 2002 from a drug overdose. Martin said he met Cornell because he worked with Cornell‘s wife at the time, Susan Silver, at a Seattle shoe store where she printed SOUNDGARDEN‘s flyers to post on telephone poles and walls in the city about upcoming shows.

In a 2019 interview with Grungery, Martin talked about his friendship with Cornell and Andy Wood (MALFUNKSHUN, MOTHER LOVE BONE). Asked if he got any tips from them, Kevin responded: “Just from Andy. I mean, Chris was an interesting person. Eddie [Vedder] and I only met briefly when he first moved to Seattle when they were just starting the TEMPLE OF THE DOG record. I don’t really have a gauge on Eddie but I know Jeff [Ament] and Stone [Gossard] very, very well. Chris just happened to become a friend because I was working with his wife Susan at a shoe store… She managed a shoe store called [John] Fluevog, Susan did. Plus, she also had a management company called Susan Silver Management. So, her office was out of the back and through the shoe store. So, on First Avenue there’s also a hotel there called Inn At The Market, with apartments you can rent out or hotel rooms, and Fluevog was like on the corner. Susan had one of the apartments there as her office so she’d walk through the back and get the flyers for whoever was playing that day. So, that’s how I met Chris. That’s how I met Andy. That’s how I met Layne. It’s how I met Jerry [Cantrell], and I was sixteen years old working in a shoe store. It was really amazing for me to meet guys that I admired musically and at the same time I was playing drums in a band. I never thought it would turn into friendship because I was so much younger… I mean, what 21-year-old guy wants to hang out with a sixteen-year-old kid? So, we were just basically acquaintances through the store and then as the years progressed and CANDLEBOX became what it did, Chris and I became relatively good friends. We were able to have conversations about things. Layne and I became really good friends just through parties and stuff. We rehearsed next door to them at the Music Bank. He and I would sit and shoot the shit all the time about singers and rock and roll. Andy was the one who would come into the shop and would love to talk about music when he did come in. I mean, I was a huge MALFUNKSHUN fan and Andy inspired the shit out of me. I’ve probably stolen I don’t know how many phrasings from him just the way he sings, the way he moved through music lyrically and melodically was what I was most attracted to as a singer. More so than Chris, I mean. Chris was just powerful. Andy was just able to move through shit so brilliantly as a singer and he was always making music, constantly. I think I just connected with him on a visceral level musically and we would talk about all kinds of band shit and stupid stuff.”

CANDLEBOX is currently in the middle of a farewell tour, following the release of the band’s final album, “The Long Goodbye”, which came out in August 2023 via Round Hill Records.

CANDLEBOX released “A Little Longer Goodbye (Tour Edition)”, the digital deluxe version of the album “The Long Goodbye”, on all DSPs on July 12 via Round Hill Records. The digital release features the 12 tracks on the record plus two bonus live songs, “Elegante” and “Cellphone Jesus” (recorded at Club Amanda in Santiago, Chile on October 27, 2023),as well as the official launch of the single “Washed Up”.

“A Little Longer Goodbye (Tour Edition)” follows CANDLEBOX‘s eighth studio album, which was quite a swan song for the veteran band. “The Long Goodbye” was praised by critics for its hard-hitting, groove-infested beats and mature, soul-searching themes of love, loss, redemption, and the journey in between.