Dominic Salerno from Azcentral.com conducted a Q&A; with ALICE IN CHAINS bassist Mike Inez about the unlikely chain of events that culminated in a hot-selling album, Black Gives Way To Blue, a Grammy nomination and a second shot at being a 21st-century Alice in Chains. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Azcentral.com: Did you do much socializing after Layne's (Staley) death, or was it painful to see each other?

Inez: "It wasn't like we hated each other or anybody was sleeping with anybody's wife. We just couldn't function the way we were functioning before."

Azcentral.com: Was there always an idea that you would at some point get Alice in Chains back together?

Inez: "Oh, we never ever thought we would come back together in any capacity. If you would've asked us two years ago if we were ever gonna do another record, the answer would've probably been no, even after the world tour. But gradually, over time, the four of us started coming up with riffs. We even financed the record ourselves before we went to a record label because if we didn't feel this album sounded good or felt right we could just pull the plug on it and not be contractually obligated to put something out."

Azcentral.com: You didn't want to be contractually obligated to suck, basically.

Inez: "Yeah, we didn't want to do that or tarnish our legacy at all. So we took real small steps, one after another. After the tsunami benefit, we did some club shows. After that, we wrote songs. After that we asked ourselves, Do we want to record it? Do we want spend the money to fix it and master it? Do we want to release it? And thank God the answer was yes because that's when we started to talk to record labels. We partnered up with Virgin EMI, and ever since then it's been like being shot out of a cannon."

Read the entire interview at Azcentral.com.