Sean Kinney

Sean Howard Kinney (born May 27, 1966) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band Alice in Chains.

Kinney also founded the short-lived supergroup Spys4Darwin, and has collaborated with other artists such as Johnny Cash and Metallica.

Sean Howard Kinney was born in Renton, Washington, on May 27, 1966.

His father was a police officer and his mother was a city official.

Kinney's interest in music was developed at an early age.

He got his first drum kit when he was 5 years old.

By the age of 9, he was the drummer for his grandfather's band, The Cross Cats, and was traveling the Northwest playing small venues.

Kinney grew up in Renton, where he attended Liberty Senior High School in the Issaquah School District.

Kinney met singer Layne Staley around 1985, when Staley's band Sleze was playing at Alki Beach.

Kinney revealed to Guitar Legends magazine that in their first meeting he told Staley that he was cool but his band sucked, and that he should get a different drummer, so Kinney suggested himself.

Kinney did not have a phone at the time, so he gave Staley a piece of paper with his girlfriend's number.

Kinney met up with Alice in Chains in 1987, when guitarist Jerry Cantrell wanted to form a new band after his band Diamond Lie broke up, so his roommate Layne Staley gave him the phone number of Kinney's girlfriend, Melinda Starr, so that Cantrell could talk to Kinney and set up a meeting.

Kinney and his girlfriend went to the Music Bank in Seattle where Cantrell was living and listened to his demos.

Cantrell mentioned that they needed a bass player to jam with them, and he already had someone in mind: Mike Starr, with whom Cantrell had played in a band in Burien called Gypsy Rose.

Kinney then mentioned that his girlfriend was actually Starr's sister, and that he had been playing in bands together with Starr since they were kids.

Kinney called Starr and a few days later he started jamming with him and Cantrell at the Music Bank, but they didn't have a singer.

Cantrell, Starr and Kinney wanted Staley to be their lead singer, so they started auditioning terrible lead singers in front of Staley to send a hint.

The last straw for Staley was when they auditioned a male stripper – he decided to join the band after that.

Kinney was featured in the 1992 movie Singles, along with the other members of Alice in Chains performing the songs "It Ain't Like That" and "Would?".

Starr was replaced by former Ozzy Osbourne bassist Mike Inez in 1993.

Kinney almost didn't play on Alice in Chains' debut album, Facelift.

He had broken his hand and the band started rehearsing with Greg Gilmore, the drummer from Mother Love Bone.

In 1996, Kinney joined singer Johnny Cash, guitarist Kim Thayil of Soundgarden, and bassist Krist Novoselic of Nirvana for a cover of Willie Nelson's "Time of the Preacher", featured on the tribute album Twisted Willie, which also had Kinney playing drums for Jerry Cantrell's cover of "I've Seen All This World I Care to See".

In the same year, Kinney played drums for Cantrell's first original solo song, "Leave Me Alone", featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 film The Cable Guy.

He played drums for his Alice in Chains bandmate, Jerry Cantrell's first solo album, Boggy Depot (1998).

Since 2009, Kinney has been co-owner of The Crocodile club in Seattle.

Kinney explained in the 2009 book Grunge is Dead:

I almost didn't play on the record – they started rehearsing with the drummer from Mother Love Bone, Greg Gilmore.

I was sitting there playing with one hand, guiding him through it.

Dave Jerden came in and they started to try to do it.

He was like, 'Screw it – pull the plug.

This is not going to be the same.' Luckily, we took a tiny bit of time off.

I had that cast on for a while, and was like, 'I can't miss this.' I cut my cast off in the studio and kept a bucket of ice by the drum set.

Kept my hand iced down and played with a broken hand.

I tried not to do that again – your first big break, and you fuck it up.

Since the band's inception, Kinney has been the only drummer.

He also played piano and sang chorus vocals through a megaphone on the hidden song from Sap entitled "Love Song".

The album was named after a dream Kinney had about the band recording some light acoustic songs for an album they name Sap, because it's "sappy.".

He was a guest drummer on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers in September 2018.

Kinney has earned nine Grammy Award nominations as a member of Alice in Chains.