Our Rock on the Range 2013 interview with Sean Kinney of Alice in Chains got off to a rocky start, with the first few questions not really heading in the direction we expected. After that, we asked Sean how he would address the fans of Alice in Chains that bash them online for continuing after the tragic passing of Layne Staley. What followed was an emotional and thoughtful conversation about the band's past and present that Sean admitted he had never spoken about at such lengths.

"I always have the chance to address those people, I mean, it's personal choice. They don't have to like it. We're not designed for everybody. We never [begged] anybody to follow this or dig it. We do it because we like it. I get the passion that they have about our friends that are no longer here and that they've made a connection through music to that and I respect that, you know? I think it's great that they care so much. But it can be off putting, you know? We don't really look at that stuff. There's always this [white noise] about things for the most part it seems like a minority mind set.

"The fact is, like everybody here, they're going to run up to the fact that people you love and care about and yourself won't be here and what do you do then? This was never a solo project this is always a band. This is real to us. Those are really our friends, those are all my best friends. Nobody knows better of what do and how to handle this than us and were not doing it for the 'money' � [the music industry] is dead. There's not a lot of money, especially in rock and roll. So, I mean, we don't need the money. We do this for the same reason we always did and more than half the reason I ever did this at all was bringing that that we did together � that was so important to us and that had a life of its own � to be able to bring them with us and the music and that's important.

"If people wanna close their minds to those things, these things will happen to them. It's just not on a public forum where people have to deal with it. When your mom dies not everybody starts telling you, 'you gotta change your name' and 'how dare you go on living' and 'you can't be you and do things, you need to change your job and everything you spent your life doing� your career.' It's just not well thought out, but it's based behind passion and caring.

"I have those same hopes too, you know? Trust me, nobody wished� nobody wanted it to be like this. It truly only affects � every single day � our friends, families and us in a real way. So we live with that and try to move on and how do we honor the past and honor who we are now � and it's our past � and do that as men and that's what we do.

"I'm talking more than I know I have about this, I guess. When those guys were alive right? Mike [Starr] is on a TV show and everybody is talking sh*t about him for the most part, right? And when Layne was alive and we were doing this, we were very open about the lifestyles we lived and those lifestyles will end your life� and they have. Jerry [Cantrell] and I are just fortunate that it didn't end ours either. It's not like it was one guy doing things. We all lived a pretty toxic lives and that's not rare to music. We're not an exception to the rule, but the horrible facts are [that] these are the outcomes of those things.

"Some of these people, back then, spent all their time chastising these people and trying to vilify us for what we were doing then and then when they're no longer here, which I find is really nice, they come to accept that and hold them in a different regard. So I think that's great, but it can be a little misguided sometimes.