Nothing Safe: Best of the Box is the first greatest hits album by Alice in Chains. It was released on June 29, 1999 on Columbia Records. The previously unreleased track Get Born Again was released as a single to promote the album and peaked at No. 4 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and at No. 12 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Get Born Again was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2000.
The album is the first of Alice in Chains‘s best-of albums, and also served as a sampler for their Music Bank box set. Nothing Safe contains songs from previous albums Facelift, Sap, Dirt, Jar of Flies, Alice in Chains and Alice in Chains Unplugged, as well as the previously unreleased track Get Born Again, recorded between September and October 1998. Despite the Best of the Box album title, the demo version of We Die Young that appears here is not included on Music Bank and is therefore exclusive to this collection. In addition, Iron Gland is featured with the beginning drum found on the Dirt track Dam That River.
A Best Buy Exclusive issue of the CD included a bonus disc in a cardboard sleeve, with live versions of Angry Chair and Man in the Box. The version of What The Hell Have I that appears here is the original version, not the remixed version that appears on Music Bank.
Tracklist:
- Get Born Again (previously unreleased)
- We Die Young (previously unreleased demo)
- Man in the Box (from Facelift)
- Them Bones (from Dirt)
- Iron Gland (unlisted track from Dirt)
- Angry Chair (from Dirt)
- Down in a Hole (from Dirt)
- Rooster (Live; previously unreleased in North America)
- Got Me Wrong (from MTV Unplugged)
- No Excuses (from Jar of Flies)
- I Stay Away (from Jar of Flies)
- What the Hell Have I (Soundtrack Last Action Hero)
- Grind (from Alice in Chains)
- Again (from Alice in Chains)
- Would? (from Dirt)
Personnel
Jerry Cantrell: Lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on “Grind”, co-lead vocals on “Would?”
Layne Staley: Lead vocals, rhythm guitar on “Angry Chair”
Sean Kinney: Drums
Mike Starr: Bass (tracks 2–8, 15)
Mike Inez: Bass (tracks 1, 9–14)
Tom Araya: vocals on “Iron Gland”
Alice in Chains: Producer
Bryan Carlstrom: engineer
Ronnie S. Champagne: engineer
Alex Coletti: producer
John Harris: engineer
Dave Jerden: producer, engineer, mixing
Stephen Marcussen: mastering
Rick Parashar: producer
Andy Wallace: mixing
Tony Wilson: producer
Toby Wright: producer, engineer, mixing
Tom Nellen: engineer
Peter Fletcher: producer, compilation producer
Mike Walter: engineer
Rocky Schenck: photography
Mary Maurer: art direction, design
Danny Clinch: photography
Marty Temme: photography
Brandy Flower: design
Young Sun Lim: artwork, art direction
Chris McCann: photography
Layne Staley (August 22, 1967 April 5, 2002)
Mike Starr (April 4, 1966 March 8, 2011).
