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Originally Posted by atsonicpark
I'm not a big Alice in Chains expert, but for some reason I always thought ROOSTER was about war.
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It is indeed about war. According to Jerry Cantrell, "Rooster" was inspired by the hard times his father spent in the Vietnam war. It shows a lot of empathy for him, even though they had a pretty tough relationship for a while. Allegedly, he was really mean, abusive and violent once he got back, but according to Jerry, he has since realized that was a consequence of the traumas that being in war had caused to him.
Jerry's parents divorced when he was seven and Jerry lived in poverty with his mother for a while, he has said the only thing they ate for some time when he was a child, were tomatoes that her mom cultivated in their house's backyard. It was until he was an adult that he made peace with his father, around the time of the filming of the video for "Rooster". Mark Pellington, who directed the video, interviewed Jerry Cantrell Sr. and supposedly took his anecdotes in consideration, so the visual counterpart of the song is also inspired partially in his ugly adventures (the video depicts scenes of war, mainly taken from the movie "Platoon", by Oliver Stone). While being in Alice In Chains and putting the excess attributed to stardom in practice led some to a grim life (and death), in the case of Jerry, writing "Rooster" apparently was useful for him to renew affective links and communication with his father and his family. Locations for the "Rooster" video included Jerry's grandparent's property in Oklahoma, which many years later appeared in an episode of MTV Cribs, i remember Jerry opened the freezer and there was only lots of beer and meat in there. He was kind of doing good in life, while Layne Staley had just recently passed away due to the lots of years of drug-abuse. I think at the time, Jerry was promoting "Degradation Trip", which i consider to be highly superior to the lame shit he's involved in these days and would have liked if he'd kept on going that route.
By the way, do you remember the line "Gloria sends me pictures of my boy" on "Rooster"? Well, Jerry Cantrell's mother's name was Gloria. She died of cancer in the late '80s. The songs "Psychotic Break" and "Mother's Spinning In Her Grave" off of "Degradation Trip", are reflections again, such as "Rooster", of the consequences war had in his parents.
I used to know a lot about Alice In Chains and Jerry Cantrell. I was a huge fan years ago, but right now i just look at my book shelves and for the life of me, i cannot longer remember where the hell i read all of this shit. I just hope my memory ain't so messed up, or that my mind isn't playing tricks on me.
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Originally Posted by Bytor_Peltor
Me too - more specifically, another name for helicopters with machine guns on them......or a name for that specific flight division?
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True. Supposedly, Jerry Cantrell's father was nicknamed "the rooster" while on the army as well.