Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell's iconic guitar, used to record the band's hallowed works, stolen

A whodunnit is underway in the Grunge world, as a quest to find a guitar owned by Alice In Chain’s guitarist and solo musician in his own right Jerry Cantrell. The original G&L Blue Dress Rampage guitar, which was used to record the majority of Alice In Chain’s works, had been stolen over the weekend.

A post on Facebook over the weekend revealed that the guitar had been stolen either out of Cantrell’s car in either Los Angeles or the San Bernadino/Highland, with an original post by Alice In Chain’s bassist Mike Inez stating: “If ANY one gets that guitar back to us, we’ll make it worth your while. No questions asked. We just need it to come back home where it belongs.”

The guitar was bought by Cantrell in 1985 from a music store in Dallas where he had been working, and in an interview with MoPoP the guitarist revealed “That guitar has been on everything I've ever recorded, pretty much. 98.9% of every song you’ve ever heard [from me] that guitar is on there somewhere.”

The design of the guitar features a circle/square pattern that was inspired by Eddie Van Halen's paint job. Cantrell wanted a similarly identifiable design for his guitar. The front of the guitar is adorned with "Rock" stickers that were obtained from a local radio station. 

This station had been a big supporter of Alice in Chains long before the band became as famous as they are today. Additionally, the guitar features a pin-up girl in a blue dress, which gave it the nickname "Blue Dress Rampage". The sticker of the girl was taken from an old pornographic magazine.

The guitar also had a role in the 1992 grunge-adjacent romantic comedy “Singles,” where Cantrell played himself opposite Matt Dillon in Cameron Crowe’s film about love in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest during the heyday of the area’s “grunge” movement. 

Who is Jerry Cantrell?

Jerry Cantrell, born on March 18, 1966, in Tacoma, Washington, is an American musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and main songwriter for the rock band Alice in Chains. The band emerged as a part of the grunge movement in Seattle in the early 1990s, alongside groups like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, though Alice in Chains' sound also incorporates heavy metal elements.

Cantrell's music career began in the late 1980s when he met Layne Staley, Alice in Chains' original lead vocalist, and the pair formed the band in 1987. Alice in Chains released their debut album, "Facelift," in 1990, which featured the hit single "Man in the Box." The band gained critical and commercial success with subsequent releases such as "Dirt" (1992), "Jar of Flies" (1994), and "Alice in Chains" (1995). Cantrell's guitar work and songwriting, characterized by its dark, moody tones and harmonized vocals with Staley, became a signature part of the band's sound.

Following Staley's death in 2002, Alice in Chains went on hiatus, during which Cantrell pursued a solo career. He released two solo albums, "Boggy Depot" (1998) and "Degradation Trip" (2002), the latter being a double album. These works showcased Cantrell's range as a musician, featuring a mix of hard rock, acoustic, and heavy metal songs that further cemented his status as a skilled guitarist and songwriter.

In 2005, Cantrell reunited Alice in Chains with new vocalist William DuVall, and the band released "Black Gives Way to Blue" in 2009, their first studio album in 14 years. This marked a successful comeback, with the album receiving positive reviews and spawning several singles. Alice in Chains has since continued to record and tour, releasing additional albums like "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" (2013) and "Rainier Fog" (2018), both of which have contributed to the band's legacy in the rock and metal genres