Private Hell

Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell wrote this song, which is often thought to be about the last days of the band's original singer, Layne Staley, who struggled throughout his career with drug addiction, which eventually led to him overdosing and dying in April 2002. Speaking with FaceCulture in 2009, Cantrell said that it is about something completely different. "It's about me breaking up with a girl that I loved a lot, and I wasn't man enough to go through with it." The line, "I excuse myself, I'm used to my little cell," relates to how he wasn't ready to move on to something new. Cantrell points out that his songs can relate to whoever is listening to it in their own personal way.