Hollow is a song by Alice in Chains and the first single from their fifth studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, released on May 28, 2013. The band debuted the song on YouTube with a fan-made lyric video on December 18, 2012. The lyric video contains static images submitted by fans via Instagram. The song was made available for digital download on January 8, 2013. Hollow reached number one on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks (their fourth song to do so) and stayed on the chart for 20 weeks.
Asked by Music Radar if he worked out the phrasing over time or if it was immediate, Jerry Cantrell said of the riff:
“That one was pretty immediate. It came about on the last night of the Black Diamond Skye tour we did (in 2010), our headlining run with the Deftones and Mastodon. It was the very last show, we were in Vegas and I was sick as hell – I was about a click above pneumonia. But I was warming up in my dressing room, and I started playing that riff. Right away, I knew it was a good one to store away for later, so I recorded it. Nick Raskulinecz happened to be at that show, and so were my managers. Everybody perked up when they heard me playing it. ‘What’s that? That’s pretty good!’ (Laughs) I was like, ‘Yeah, it is.’ So I tucked it away. It was pretty immediate the way it came to me.”
An official music video was made for the song by director Robert Schober (aka Roboshobo), premiered on the band’s official website on January 10, 2013. The video depicts the daily routine of an astronaut (played by Ian Mackay) orbiting around earth whilst performing various floral experiments on the ship. He is shown often chatting to his significant other (played by Eli Jane) on Earth via video calling.
As the video progresses, and his tenure in orbit turns from months into years, the astronaut slowly but steadily tires of his mundane routine, leading to emotional conflict with his significant other and suffering a mental breakdown. Near the end of the video, having completely lost his mind, and a visible tumor on his neck, the astronaut takes a flamethrower and destroys the experiments on board, which leads to the entire ship catching fire and crumbling with him inside.
Alice in Chains
Jerry Cantrell: lead vocals, lead guitar
William DuVall: backing vocals, rhythm guitar
Mike Inez: bass
Sean Kinney: drums
