Stone (Alice in Chains song)
"Stone" is a song by American rock band Alice in Chains. It was released on March 25, 2013, as the second single from the band's fifth studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. The song reached No. 1 on Billboards Mainstream Rock chart, and stayed on the chart for 20 weeks.
Origin and recording
Singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell came up with the song's riff whilst recovering from surgery to repair his damaged shoulder cartilage in 2011. He told Ultimate Guitar: "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."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 Los Angeles Times: "It seems to be about confronting outside misperceptions. You think you know me? You don't."
Release and reception
"Stone" was released to radio stations on March 25, 2013.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."
In 2019, the riff to "Stone" - that Cantrell hummed into his phone while recovering from a shoulder surgery - was ranked No. 16 on Guitar Worlds list of the 20 best guitar riffs of the decade.