Boggy Depot - Touring and Promotion

Touring and Promotion

The promotion of Boggy Depot led to Jerry Cantrell's first concert experiences as a band frontman which he considered "intimidating." On June 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida, Cantrell began touring for the album with Days of the New and headlining act Metallica on their Poor Re-Touring Me Tour. For his lineup, Cantrell enlisted former Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo, Old Lady Litterbug bassist Nick Reinhardt, former Fishbone keyboardist Chris Dowd, and Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney. The band also opened for Van Halen on their 1998 summer tour. Naturally, Cantrell's concert set featured songs by Alice in Chains, and he often closed with Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage/Eclipse."

Despite Cantrell's uneasiness towards performing as frontman, concerts were quickly met with praise by critics from the Los Angeles Times, Variety, and other major publications. The broad approval led Cantrell to schedule a headlining tour starting October 1 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Flight 16 filled the slot as his opening band.

"Cut You In" served as Boggy Depot's lead single and video which charted well and remained one of the album's best known songs. The track is unusual for Cantrell's style considering its use of horns. It was the #1 most added track at Rock and Alternative radio with more than 1,000 spins and an audience of more than nine million in its first five days. The second single, "My Song" was on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for over a dozen weeks. Its controversial music video was directed by Rocky Schenck and features performance artist Ann Magnuson. A third and final single, "Dickeye," also managed to chart albeit briefly.

On July 19, 1998, Cantrell was interviewed for the MTV program 120 Minutes which also aired the videos for "Cut You In" and "My Song."