"Stone" | ||||
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Single by Alice in Chains | ||||
from the album The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here | ||||
Released | March 26, 2013 | |||
Genre | Sludge metal | |||
Length | 4:24 | |||
Label | Virgin/EMI | |||
Songwriter(s) | Jerry Cantrell | |||
Producer(s) | Nick Raskulinecz, Alice in Chains | |||
Alice in Chains singles chronology | ||||
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"Stone" is the second single by American rock band Alice in Chains from their 2013 album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. The song reached No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and stayed on the chart for 20 weeks. A music video has been released for the song. According to Graham Hartmann writing for Loudwire, "the new single [...] has its fair share of sludge [...], further delving into a dark and unnerving side of alternative rock and atmospheric metal."
"Stone" video was shot in Lucerne Valley, California and directed by Robert Schober (aka Roboshobo), who directed their previous music video, "Hollow". The video features the band playing on a rocky hill. Separately, three individuals are alone trying to transport stones that get heavier or larger, using a basket, a cart, and one rolling a boulder uphill. Once they are unable to proceed, they stop and become stones.
Singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell came up with the song's riff whilst recovering from surgery to repair his damaged shoulder cartilage. He told Ultimate-Guitar.com: "My arm was f--ked up and I couldn't play guitar so I just hummed that riff into a phone and that's how that song came to be. When I could play a little bit and we were going through riffs, I remember doing some riffs with Paul Figueroa, our engineer. I'm like, 'Wait a minute, I got a good one, man. Check this out.' I started f--kin' playing it to him and it was me singing into the f--kin' phone. I'm like, 'Dude, this riff is killer. Give me a guitar and I'll f--kin' work it out.' So that song I actually came up with just off a voice message on a phone. I didn't even have a guitar; I just f--kin' hummed it into the phone." Cantrell showed the original voice mail of him humming Stone's riff during an interview with Team Rock Radio.
The brooding song includes the lyric: "What makes you want to carve your initials in me?... Find me distant, outwardly rough obscene." Singer William DuVall explained to The Los Angeles Times: "It seems to be about confronting outside misperceptions. You think you know me? You don't."