“Heaven Beside You” is a song by American rock band Alice in Chains and the second single from their third studio album, Alice in Chains (1995). It was written by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell about his relationship with his then-girlfriend, Courtney Clarke.[3] Cantrell sings lead vocals, with Layne Staley doing harmonies during the chorus. The song spent 26 weeks on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and peaked at No. 3.[4] An acoustic version performed on Alice in Chains’ MTV Unplugged in 1996 was released in a live album and DVD. “Heaven Beside You” was included on the compilation albums Music Bank (1999), Greatest Hits (2001), and The Essential Alice in Chains (2006).
“Heaven Beside You” was written by Jerry Cantrell after the break-up with his girlfriend of seven years,[5] Courtney Clarke.[3] Cantrell was unable to remain faithful to the woman who he described as “the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life,” and added, “I still love her, but I’m too much of a fucking wolf—kill, attack, move on…It’s so tough when you’re so used to being hard. You can’t tell an oak tree to be a pine.”[5]
In the liner notes of 1999’s Music Bank box set collection, Jerry Cantrell said of the song:
Another attempt to reconcile the fact that my life and paths are tearing me apart from the person I love. All the things I write about her are a way for me to maybe speak to her, express things I could never express.[3]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Heaven Beside You, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
