Right Turn - Alice in Chains
Songs of Recovery Reflections
A series exploring healing through music — personal reflections on songs and recovery.
Right Turn — Alice in Chains
The song “Right Turn” by Alice in Chains from their EP Sap is so unique for many reasons. It’s a one-time collaboration between Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell, Chris Cornell, and Mark Arm, four incredible artists from different bands, which is part of what makes it so special to me. It carries a deeply melancholy tone that reminds me of addiction and relapse. To me, the song captures the feeling of standing on the cusp of change: not quite ready to take the necessary steps toward recovery, but beginning to realize the possibility of making that “right turn” toward something different.
If you think of the separate voices in the song as the different parts of one human mind, it becomes an anthem of the inner war our brains wage in that place of wanting to change but still being unsure of ourselves, or of where to start. It’s a hopeless, chaotic, and desperate kind of feeling.
The first verse, sung by Jerry Cantrell, carries the tone of someone just becoming aware that the way they’re living isn’t working. The line “I’d leave but I can’t forget, still I wonder why it ain’t right” feels like an acknowledgment that this path is destructive, yet the pull of it remains too strong to let go. It’s the sound of helplessness and resignation, just how it feels when you’ve reached the end of your rope.
The second verse, led by Layne Staley, reminds me of our self-destructive patterns in active addiction. His voice brings a cynical edge, echoing that part of the brain that justifies destructive behavior. It’s the loud inner voice that insists we can’t change, grow, or evolve, that we’re stuck in our patterns.
Verse three, delivered by Mark Arm of Mudhoney, feels like the voice of reason trying to break through, though it’s still laced with self-doubt. It’s the sound of wanting to change, yet not fully believing in yourself or your ability to.
Finally, the last verse brings all four singers together, with Chris Cornell’s haunting voice leading the charge. This climax feels like a full-blown internal battle, the desperate push and pull between wanting something different and believing you’ll never escape. The line “It’s all up to you so you gamble, flat on your face and into the fire” captures that moment when addiction has lost its illusion of being an answer. It’s no longer fun, no longer a solution, just a destructive cycle.
Though the song doesn’t resolve with a happy ending, it resonates with the earliest steps of healing: that painful awareness and inner clash we must face before we can move forward. Right Turn is hauntingly beautiful, and for me, it will always stand out as one of the most powerful songs of its era.
-written by Staff