<P> Although never officially disbanding, Alice in Chains was plagued by extended inactivity from 1996 onwards due to Staley's substance abuse, which resulted in his death in 2002 . The band reunited in 2005 for a live benefit show, performing with a number of guest vocalists . They toured in 2006, with William DuVall taking over as lead vocalist full - time . The new line - up released the band's fourth studio album, Black Gives Way to Blue, in 2009, which received gold certification by the RIAA and two Grammy nominations . Their fifth studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, was released in 2013 . The band toured extensively and released several videos in support of these albums . </P> <P> Alice in Chains is currently working on their sixth studio album, tentatively set for release in early 2018 . </P> <P> Before the formation of Alice in Chains, then - drummer Layne Staley landed his first gig as a vocalist when he auditioned to sing for a local glam metal band known as Sleze after receiving some encouragement from his stepbrother Ken Elmer . Other members of this group at that time were guitarists Johnny Bacolas and Zoli Semanate, drummer James Bergstrom, and bassist Byron Hansen . This band went through several lineup changes culminating with Nick Pollock as their sole guitarist and Bacolas switching to bass before discussions arose about changing their name to Alice in Chains . This was prompted by a conversation that Bacolas had with Russ Klatt, the lead singer of Slaughter Haus 5, about backstage passes . One of the passes said "Welcome to Wonderland", and they started talking about that being a reference to Alice in Wonderland, until Klatt said, "What about Alice in Chains? Put her in bondage and stuff like that ." Bacolas thought the name "Alice in Chains" was cool and brought it up to his Sleze bandmates and everyone liked it, so they decided to change the name of the band . Due to concerns over the reference to female bondage, the group ultimately chose to spell it differently as Alice N' Chains to allay any parental concerns, though Staley's mother Nancy McCallum has said she was still not happy with this name at first . According to Bacolas, the decision to use the apostrophe - N combination in their name had nothing to do with the Los Angeles band Guns N' Roses . The name change happened in 1986, well before Guns N' Roses became a household name with their first album Appetite for Destruction, released in July 1987 . </P> <P> Staley met guitarist Jerry Cantrell at a party in Seattle around August 1987 . A few months before that, Cantrell had watched a concert of Staley's then - band, Alice N' Chains, in his hometown at the Tacoma Little Theatre and was impressed by his voice . Cantrell was homeless after being kicked out of his family's house, so Staley invited Cantrell to live with him at the rehearsal studio Music Bank, and the two struggling musicians became roommates . </P>

Who is alice and why is she in chains
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