Coming off the success of “Man in the Box,” Paul Rachman traveled to Seattle to direct Temple of the Dog’s video for “Hunger Strike,” which was shot in the spring of 1991. It was during this period that he met Demri. One night she came up to Rachman and told him, “I’m an actress up here and I’d love to audition or whatever.” On a napkin, she wrote down what Rachman described as “a handwritten head shot” with her name, contact information, and adjectives such as “good-looking,” “short,” “loud,” and “exotic” to describe herself.
Demri told him she was modeling and wanted to do music videos and then movies. “She really needed to move to LA but didn’t—she thought she could get gigs with contacts in LA and fly there to work but that doesn’t really work,” Rachman wrote in an e-mail. Of the note’s significance, he wrote, “That note does give proof of her professional dreams.”22
After the “Hunger Strike” shoot, Rachman went out in downtown Seattle with members of Temple of the Dog, where Rachman ran into Layne, and the two hugged. Rachman remembers Layne looking “a little more worn down” than a few months earlier.
By early June 1991, with “Man in the Box” in heavy rotation, Columbia Records was pushing for a follow-up single to capitalize on their breakout hit. It was also Rachman’s impression that the label wanted another single “in case ‘Man in the Box’ ran out of steam.” He got the nod to direct the video for “Sea of Sorrow,” which he says the label wanted to be “a little more conceptual.”
Columbia wanted to make the video while the band was on the Clash of the Titans tour. Rachman was pushing back, trying to postpone it until the band finished the tour and could travel to Los Angeles or New York, where he had people and resources to make the video properly. But Columbia was adamant, asking Rachman to shoot the video in Salt Lake City on the band’s day off from the tour.
The video was “very high concept” in terms of stage design, with a production budget that was probably double what he had for “Man in the Box.” But according to Rachman, the label’s insistence on shooting the video immediately affected the production. “It was probably one of my most nightmarish shoots. I’d never had so many problems. We shipped the lights there, and we shipped one extra in case something happens, and I needed four minimum, because there was one for each guy in the band. They were going to be each their own color. Of course, two of them get there broken, so we have to find another one. The local crews are really slow, so setting up the stage took forever. We’re hoping to start shooting at like eight in the morning, nine in the morning. We didn’t start shooting until five P.M.”
Rachman said the band members were “more cranky. They were kind of bigger rock stars.” Another difference was they wanted their girlfriends at the time to appear, but Rachman didn’t want to do a “cheesy rock chick” video. Demri did not travel to Salt Lake City for the shoot, although Rachman said other members’ girlfriends did. For the others, they cast local girls from Salt Lake City.
The change in attitude wasn’t just toward Rachman. “They weren’t listening to Susan as much anymore. They all had their own ideas. They were all taking advantage of a little more power and influence. And that affected me indirectly.” Rachman remembered Susan and Jerry arguing about Jerry’s choice of jacket he wore in the video.
“What happens to this video is just tragic,” Rachman said. He was under pressure from the band and the label. “So stupid ideas were coming from the band a little bit, and I’m getting challenged by the label to deliver this high concept in a difficult situation and the shoot was a nightmare.” He didn’t feel good about the shoot when he returned to Los Angeles, but to his surprise, he liked the footage. “It was very dark and moody and kind of trippy. There was a psychedelic tone to it. And if you listen to the song, it has this very psychedelic drone to it.”
By the time Rachman delivered the first cut of the video, “Man in the Box” was peaking in its MTV popularity. The song got another boost after it was nominated for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, scheduled for September. “In retrospect, we never had to go do this ‘Sea of Sorrow’ video in such a rush, because effectively ‘Man in the Box’ outlived and outperformed even the ‘Sea of Sorrow’ single that came after.”
The “Sea of Sorrow” video went through several cuts. Rachman kept arguing with Columbia Records, culminating with an incident in which he was on the phone with a vice president of the company, describing the feedback he was getting as “so ludicrous, and they had no ideas.” Rachman lost his temper, telling the executive to go fuck himself and hanging up the phone. He didn’t work with Columbia Records again until several years later. Rachman’s cut of the video began airing, but the label took some of his footage and provided it to another director, who added new black-and-white material he shot later. Both versions of the video would later surface on the Internet.
With “Man in the Box” as their breakout single and video, Alice in Chains was beginning to reap the rewards of years of hard work. For the rest of 1991, the band members would reach new professional heights, but at the same time, their future was about to take an ominous turn.
Chapter 13
When I took that first hit, for the first time in my life,
I got on my knees, and I thanked God for feeling good.
ALICE IN CHAINS GOT the nod to open for Van Halen’s North American tour from August 1991 to January 1992, with a few breaks scattered throughout. For Mike, it was the culmination of a high school dream. In his senior yearbook, he wrote that his goals were to become a rock star and tour with Van Halen. Seven years later, it was mission accomplished.
Former SATO guitarist Ken Kramer was sitting at home one night when he got a call from Mike, saying, “Dude! I can’t talk very long. I have this girl’s cell phone and I’m in the bathroom. We’re about to open for Van Halen! Man, I love you so much! I wanted to call you. I want you to be here—this is so great! I wanted to share it with you. I’m going to try and call everybody I know before she finds me!”1
Sammy Hagar claimed credit for getting Alice in Chains on the bill. “I picked this band,” he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “I said, ‘Let’s find a new cool band that needs exposure.’ I was watching MTV and saw the [‘Man in the Box’] video. Layne [Staley] is one of the great new singers today.”2
On September 5, both bands were on hand at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles for the MTV Video Music Awards, and both were nominees. Paul Rachman was with the band at the ceremony. He recalls seeing a red-carpet interview with Metallica being broadcast inside the venue. When they were asked who should win, they responded “Man in the Box.” When it was time to announce the winner for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video, Rachman, who was sitting a few rows behind the band, said, “I remember sitting there at the MTV Awards and they come up and it’s like, ‘A…,’ and I thought it was gonna be Alice in Chains, and it was Aerosmith. I was like, ‘Aw, shit.’”3