Alice in Chains was honored with the 2020 Founders Award Tuesday from Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, a.k.a. MoPOP, as part of a star-studded virtual tribute that streamed live on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel. It also lives on demand on the museum’s YouTube channel.
The nearly two-and-a-half-hour event featured performances by Alice in Chains themselves, as well as Metallica, Heart‘s Ann and Nancy Wilson, The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan, Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic, Foo Fighters‘ Taylor Hawkins, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Soundgarden‘s Kim Thayil, Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan, Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney of Jane’s Addiction, and many others.
Throughout the special, Alice in Chains members were shown visiting MoPOP’s various exhibits and discussing the legacy and influence of Jimi Hendrix, the museum’s original inspiration.
Among the event’s many highlights were Metallica performing an acoustic version of “Would?”; Ann Wilson singing “Rooster”; Navarro, Hawkins, Chaney and Slipknot‘s Corey Taylor teaming up for “Man in the Box”; Soundgarden’s surviving members joining forces with McCready and Tad‘s Tad Doyle for a rendition of “Angry Chair”; Thayil playing “Drone” with Novoselic’s current band, Giants in the Trees; and late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell‘s daughter, Lily, performing “Black Gives Way to Blue” with Queensrÿche guitarist Chris Degarmo.
The program also featured tribute messages from Pearl Jam’s McCready, Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament, Sammy Hagar, Stone Temple Pilots, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Morello, Cameron Crowe, Elton John guitarist Davey Johnstone and others.
At the end of the show, Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney was shown presenting Founders Award trophies to the families of late band mates Layne Staley and Mike Starr.
This year’s Founders Award ceremony raised more than $600,000 for MoPOP.
Here’s the full list of performances:
“Your Decision” — Alice in Chains
“Rooster” — Ann Wilson
“Man in the Box” — Dave Navarro, Taylor Hawkins, Corey Taylor, Chris Chaney
“Down in a Hole” — Duff McKagan, Shooter Jennings, Ayron Jones, Martin Feveyear
“Would?” — Korn
“Brother” — Nancy Wilson, Mark Lanegan and Liv Warfield
“Them Bones” — Fishbone
“Rain When I Die” — City and Colour
“Put You Down” — Liv Warfield
“Again” — Mastodon
“It Ain’t Like That” — Kim Thayil with Shaina Shepherd, Bubba Dupree, Bill Herzog, Nathan Yaccino
“Drone” — Kim Thayil with Krist Novoselic, Giants in the Trees
“Black Gives Way to Blue” — Lily Cornell Silver with Queensrÿche’s Chris Degarmo
“Nutshell” — Mark Lanegan, Maggie Bjorklund
“Heaven Beside You” — Aryon Jones
“Angry Chair” — Members of Soundgarden with Tad Doyle, Mike McCready and Meagan Grandall
“Check My Brain” — Billy Corgan
“Would?” (Acoustic) — Metallica
“No Excuses” — Alice in Chains
“Black Gives Way to Blue” — Eric & Encarnación
(Video contains uncensored profanity.)
By Matt Friedlander
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