10 Cover Songs That Shouldn't Have Worked (But Did)
8. I've Seen All This World I've Cared To See - Jerry Cantrell
By all intents and purposes, metal has never been a genre for the sensitive side of rock and roll. If you were to even entertain the idea of taking things down a notch for a Slayer, chances are you would either get laughed out of the room or bludgeoned to death before you could finish your next sentence. Then again, sometimes the musical gods work in mysterious ways with Jerry Cantrell.
During the interim period when Alice in Chains were on their indefinite hiatus, Cantrell managed to squeeze in a cover of Willie Nelson's song I've Seen All This World I've Cared to See for a tribute album, which went over a lot better than you might expect. While the very idea of someone from Alice in Chains going country makes as much sense as Slayer doing disco, it's not that far off the mark when you realize the artist you're working with.
Throughout his tenure, Cantrell has always been a fan of all kinds of music, from Elton John to the Beatles to Anthrax, so this kind of left field turn might not have been all that strange. As far as the song is concerned too, this is one of Willie's more dour compositions, which works perfectly off of Cantrell's melancholy croon. Despite Nelson himself being shocked by the inclusion, you can't argue when the results actually sound like this.