When William DuVall stepped into the role once held by the iconic Layne Staley, it wasn’t under the harsh lights of a formal audition — it was far more organic. In a recent conversation with Chaz & AJ in the Morning on New Haven’s 99.1 WPLR, DuVall opened up about how he came to front Alice In Chains, the legendary band that helped define the grunge movement of the early ’90s.
“It wasn’t exactly like a formal boardroom proposal,” DuVall explained. “It was more like — at that time, I came in, I did a rehearsal, and, of course, I’d known Cantrell for some years by then, and we had toured together. He knew what was up, and it was just a matter of getting to know Mike Inez and Sean Kinney a bit more.”
The connection quickly clicked into place. “So we all played together, and then afterwards it was kind of, like, ‘Well, we’ve got these shows coming up. Would you do these shows?’ And then I said ‘yes’ to that. And then more shows got booked, and then more shows got booked, and before you know it, we had gone around the world in 2006. So, that’s kind of how it evolved. And here we are, 20 years later.”
That seamless transition wasn’t about imitation — it was more about authenticity. When the hosts noted that the band appreciated how DuVall didn’t try to replicate Staley’s voice, he responded with quiet conviction: “Yeah, exactly. I wouldn’t have done it any other way. And that’s all one can do, really, I think, in the end, is just be yourself and do your thing. And so that’s what happened.”
This approach has served both him and the band well. DuVall has now appeared on three Alice In Chains studio albums: Black Gives Way To Blue (2009), The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (2013), and Rainier Fog (2018). Each project showcases the evolution of the band’s sound with DuVall’s voice contributing to the group’s legacy while still honoring its roots.
Before his time with Alice In Chains, DuVall brought his voice to the punk underground with bands like Awareness Void Of Chaos, Neon Christ, Bl’ast!, and Final Offering. He was also central to Comes With The Fall and had collaborated on Cantrell’s solo material, which laid the groundwork for their eventual musical partnership.
Instead of trying to fill the gap Staley left, DuVall has made his own mark in the band showing fans that change doesn’t mean erasing what came before. After almost 20 years, his journey with Alice In Chains goes on — not by copying the past, but by creating something fresh on the groundwork it provided.
