10 Rock Music Guitarists Who Outshone Frontmen

Much of the challenge that comes with being a guitar player is that you don't have a mic in front of you.

Even though you get the opportunity to have some sort of mystique, it's not going to matter if you have someone out front calling their own shots. What you do has to be more than musical, so Jerry Cantrell decided to get a crack behind the mic as well.

Along with being the main songwriter in the early days of Alice in Chains, Cantrell's attention to detail with the vocals is what made him such a dynamic presence next to Layne Staley.

While he could have easily combined different guitar sounds together, Jerry knew the power that came when he and Layne sang together, with wild harmony parts that made it almost impossible to tell who was singing which part.

It got to the point where even Layne started to encourage Jerry to branch out a little bit more, which led to him taking the lead on some songs like Don't Follow and Brother. Of course, this also came in handy when Layne's health stated to deteriorate due to his drug intake.

Still, since we don't have Layne fronting the band anymore, the entire reason that Alice in Chains even exists comes from the fact that Jerry built it back up.