The album was titled Boggy Depot—a reference to the area of Oklahoma where Jerry’s father grew up. Rocky Schenck, Mary Mauer, and a crew traveled to Atoka, Oklahoma, on September 7, 1997, to shoot photos for the album. “Great trip, although all of us almost got arrested for smuggling liquor into a local restaurant in a dry county,” Schenck wrote. The cover shows Jerry covered in mud standing waist-deep in a branch of the Boggy River. Jerry made several trips to Oklahoma as he was writing the album and would drive his truck to the edge of the river at the location where the cover was shot.9
Jerry sent Rex Brown a tape with eleven songs he wanted him to play on. Brown agreed to do it, seeing it as an opportunity to expand his horizons and also to get away from some of the issues in Pantera. He went to Sausalito, California, to record his parts. According to Brown’s memoir, he was butting heads with Toby Wright during the making of the album. He also noted Jerry was dealing with his own addiction. He wrote, “Let’s just say I would go past his place from time to time and see his dog chained up with no food in the bowl for three fucking days, and that indicated to me that maybe something was seriously wrong.”10
By the time the album was finished, Wright said, “A lot of anxiety was pent up during the recording, about its outcome, its success rate, expectations, all that kind of stuff. And I think once it was done, mixed, [Jerry] approved everything, I think it was a great relief to him.” The album, originally scheduled for an October 1997 release, was delayed to the following spring.11
Boggy Depot was released April 7, 1998, reaching number 28 on the Billboard chart its first week.12 After the album’s release, Jerry made it clear that Alice in Chains was his priority, but would not give a definitive answer on the status of the band at the time. “It’s something I never really wanted to do, but the way things have played out, it’s like, why not?” he told Guitar World of his decision to do a solo album. “To be honest, I’d just be happy being the lead guitarist and singer for Alice in Chains. It’s always been my first love, and always will be, but the situation being what it is … we’ve been together for a long time, and right now it’s kinda played out. It’s time to let it be.” Asked if the band had broken up, he said, “We haven’t gone public and said that we’ve broken up, because how do you call something like that over? You never want to shut that door. I love those guys, and hopefully we’ll be able to do something again, but it won’t be for a while.” He declined to answer questions about Layne’s health.13
Rocky Schenck directed the music video for “My Song,” which was shot on location in Los Angeles on June 6 and 7, 1998. “I can remember the record company being very upset with me about the concept, telling me that it ‘would never play on MTV,’” Schenck wrote. Jerry supported Schenck throughout the project, and it was filmed as planned. There is a second version of the video, which is “a bit racier” than the edited version that aired on MTV.14
To support the album, Jerry put together a live band consisting of Sean; former Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo; Old Lady Litterbug bassist Nick Rhinehart; and the former Fishbone keyboardist Chris Dowd. The group landed an opening slot for Metallica’s U.S. tour, which ran from June through September 1998.15 Jerry would often close shows with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse,” the last two songs on The Dark Side of the Moon.16
In August 1998, Dave Jerden, Bryan Carlstrom, and Annette Cisneros were working on the Offspring’s Americana album at Jerden’s El Dorado studio. Jerden got a calclass="underline" Alice in Chains wanted to record two new songs with Layne for Music Bank, their upcoming box set. With the exception of Mike Inez, it would be a reunion of the band and production team that made Dirt six years earlier.
Because the Offspring had booked studio time and had all their gear set up, the only time Alice in Chains could come in was the weekend of August 22–23. The Offspring agreed to let Alice in Chains use the studio. The fact both bands were signed to Columbia Records probably helped make that happen. For Jerden, it was a no-brainer. “We gotta do this,” he told his engineer, Bryan Carlstrom. Carlstrom was tired from working long hours and initially did not want to do it, until Jerden convinced him otherwise. “I basically told him, ‘You have to do it.’ It’s the only time in my life where I ever said that to Bryan.”
Jerden was under the impression the band was going to be there the entire weekend, based on what he heard from his manager, who had talked to Susan. His plan was to record a song a day—basic tracks, overdubs, and mixing. Because Carlstrom was burned out, Jerden was prepared to mix the songs himself.
Early in the morning of Saturday, August 22, Cisneros, the assistant engineer, and Elan Trujillo, the runner and studio assistant, came in and thoroughly documented all the levels and settings on the Offspring’s gear and the control-room equipment before they could take everything down and set up for Alice in Chains. Trujillo was excited. He had moved back to Los Angeles specifically to work with Dave Jerden, in large part because of Jerden’s work with Jane’s Addiction and Alice in Chains. Two years later, he had the opportunity to work with Alice in Chains. “I had to contain myself as best I could, because I was, like, freaking out. For me, this young kid, and, like, one of my favorite bands of all time is gonna come in. Like, I’m gonna be able to work with these guys? This is it! This was the culmination of the whole deal,” Trujillo said, the enthusiasm still evident in his voice years later.
The production team was ready to work by ten o’clock in the morning. Sean’s drum tech, Jimmy Shoaf, and Jerry’s guitar tech, Darrell Peters, were the first to arrive, and they set up all the gear. That day also happened to be Layne’s thirty-first birthday. When Trujillo found out, he told Cisneros they should get him a cake. She agreed and gave him money to buy a cake and candles.
Jerry, Sean, and Mike arrived in the late morning or early afternoon. Sean got all his parts down in about four takes, Shoaf recalled. Mike recorded his bass parts, and then Jerry recorded his rhythm-guitar parts and some overdubs. Cisneros had her camera and took several photos during the session.
There was a sense of excitement before Layne arrived. Accounts vary as to the exact time he got there, but it was late—possibly as late as 3:00 A.M., according to Jerden. When he finally arrived, the change in his physical appearance was striking even from his final live performances two years earlier, let alone from 1992, when Jerden, Carlstrom, and Cisneros had last seen him. He had grown his hair down past his shoulders, in its natural brownish-blond color. He was wearing a white cap and eyeglasses. He had a dark gray shirt and a blue Dallas Cowboys jacket. He was wearing a necklace or chain that had what appeared to be a pipe hanging from the end. He was also carrying a black leather satchel.17
“Layne showed up at the studio, and I didn’t recognize him. He looked like an eighty-year-old man. He didn’t have any teeth. I was shocked, to say the least,” Carlstrom recalled.
Trujillo had a similar reaction. “When Layne came in, we were all really shocked because Layne definitely didn’t look like how he used to look. He had obviously been really affected by his substance abuse at that point, because he had atrophy in his legs. He looked like an old man. He had no teeth. It was really sad; I was really heartbroken.” Although Layne was “obviously high,” Jimmy Shoaf said there were flashes of the Layne of old. “I think the first thing he did was grab my ass. Layne was still inside that shell. The humor and his wit were in there.”