Jar of Flies

After the Dirt tour and Lollapalooza, the band found themselves evicted from their home and moved into London Bridge Studio. Cantrell had phoned producer Toby Wright from Lollapalooza with a proposal, and Wright booked ten days there. The first session was on 7 September 1993, and recording was done within seven days. Staley said they just wanted to go in with acoustic guitars and see what happened, and Kinney said they went in with no songs written to check the chemistry with Inez. The record was taped on a Neve console, and Staley asked that Pro Tools not be used. Cantrell sings lead on Don't Follow.

The title comes from an experiment Cantrell did in third grade, keeping two jars of flies, one overfed and one underfed. Rocky Schenck photographed the cover in his dining room on 8 September 1993. Jar of Flies sold more than 141,000 copies in its first week and was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1995, for Best Recording Package and, for I Stay Away, Best Hard Rock Performance. Rolling Stone's Paul Evans called it darkly gorgeous.