This past Tuesday, chart-topping pop star and outspoken metal, hardcore and grunge fan Post Malone guested on The Howard Stern Show, where he delivered a spare, striking acoustic rendition of Alice in Chains' Dirt opener "Them Bones." Watch the performance above.
"Hey, Howard, hopefully I don't fuck these lyrics up," Post intro'd his take on the song, which found him tackling both Layne Staley's tortured yowls and Jerry Cantrell's sinister guitar work. The acoustic instrumentation, plus the backing choir, added a countrified, gospel-tinged element to the AIC anthem, which is, of course, particularly gnarly and metallic in its original form.
Finishing with an a cappella "Ah!," Post remarked to Stern: "Fucked it up there, didn't I?"
This isn't the first time Post Malone has covered a grunge classic. In 2022, also on Stern, he did his best Eddie Vedder, taking on Pearl Jam's "Better Man," a performance you can view below. Two years before, Post livestreamed a tribute concert in which he played only Nirvana songs, raising some $500,000 for coronavirus relief.
