Alice In Chains released "We Die Young" in 1990 on their promo only EP, released on Vinyl and Cassette. This song is also available on the band's first full length album
Facelift
which was released later that same year.
Alice In Chains late frontman, Layne Staley, said, "We Die Young is about gang violence. That was something that was happening in Seattle, something that kinda opened our eyes. It just seemed like things were getting out of hand. Incidents where kids were getting shot, and getting their tennis shoes ripped off their dead bodies. It just seems like these kids are dying at younger and younger ages and getting involved in gang activity."
Alice In Chains guitarist and songwriter, Jerry Cantrell said that while he was on a bus to a rehearsal he got the idea for the song, "On the bus, there were all of these 10, 11, 12 year-olds with beepers dealing drugs," he said. "The sight of a young kid with drugs just scared me, which equaled We Die Young to me."
Alice In Chains "We Die Young" 1990