''The Nona Tapes'' is a 1995

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

by the American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Alice in Chains Alice in Chains (often abbreviated as AIC) is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1987 by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney, who later recruited bassist Mike Starr and lead vocalist Layne ...

directed by

Rocky Schenck Rocky Schenck (born April 18, 1955) is an American photographer and music video director. Schenck has photographed several album covers and has written and directed numerous music videos and short films. He has shot fashion, editorial and portr ...

to promote the band's self-titled album. Released on VHS on December 12, 1995, it features journalist Nona Weisbaum (played by

Jerry Cantrell Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr. (born March 18, 1966) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the founder, lead guitarist, co-lead vocalist, and main songwriter of the rock band Alice in Chains. The band rose to internation ...

) interviewing the band in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and also includes the music video for the album's lead single, "

Grind A blade's grind is its cross-sectional shape in a plane normal to the edge. Grind differs from blade profile, which is the blade's cross-sectional shape in the plane containing the blade's edge and the centre contour of the blade's back ( ...

", and outtake footage overdubbed with the second single, "

Heaven Beside You "Heaven Beside You" is a song by American rock band Alice in Chains and the second single from their third studio album, ''Alice in Chains'' (1995). It was written by guitarist and vocalist Jerry Cantrell about his relationship with his then-gi ...

". ''The Nona Tapes'' became a cult hit despite Columbia Records not liking it at first. It peaked at No. 23 on Billboard's ''Top Video Sales'' and at No. 25 on the ''Top Music Videos'' chart. Because it is no longer for sale, original copies of the VHS are considered a rarity. However, in 2006, Best Buy offered a DVD version for free for a limited time with purchases of the compilation ''

The Essential Alice in Chains ''The Essential Alice in Chains'' is a two-disc compilation album by the rock band Alice in Chains, and part of Sony BMG's ''The Essential'' series. Originally scheduled to be released on March 30, 2004, it was delayed until September 5, 2006. T ...

''. On June 19, 2017, Alice in Chains' official

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...

channel uploaded the video on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

Plot

''The Nona Tapes'' follows aspiring journalist Nona Weisbaum (played by guitarist

) on her quest to "find some

rock stars" for a breakthrough story. Throughout the video, Weisbaum scours the streets of Seattle and eventually finds and interviews all members of Alice in Chains (besides Cantrell). Entwined between Nona's segments are interviews revealing the lives of the band members, and interview footage regarding the self-titled album.

Cast

as himself / Nona Weisbaum *

Layne Staley Layne Thomas Staley (born Layne Rutherford Staley; August 22, 1967 – April 5, 2002) was an American musician, songwriter and the original lead singer of the rock band Alice in Chains, which rose to international fame in the early 1990s as part ...

as himself *

Sean Kinney Sean Howard Kinney (born May 27, 1966) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band Alice in Chains. Kinney also founded the short-lived supergroup Spys4Darwin, and has collaborated with other artists such ...

as himself * Mike Inez as himself *

as himself * Katherine Shaw as interviewer

Music listing

# "Brush Away" Excerpt 1 # "Brush Away" Excerpt 2 # " Over Now" Excerpt 1 # "Over Now" Excerpt 2 # "

" Excerpt # "Over Now" Excerpt 3 # "Head Creeps" Excerpt # "

" Excerpt # "

" (Music Video) # "Heaven Beside You" (Outtake footage)

Production

To help promote their self-titled album, Columbia Records asked Alice in Chains to do an EPK (

Electronic Press Kit A press kit, often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials that provide information about a person, company, organization or cause and which is distributed to members of the media for p ...

), a common marketing tool in the '90s in which they should talk about themselves, but they did not want to do that. The band took the money from the label and made the

''The Nona Tapes'' instead. Directed by

, it features Jerry Cantrell disguised as a female journalist, Nona Weisbaum, interviewing his bandmates playing fictionalized versions of themselves during a car ride in Seattle. The music video for "Grind" is also featured at the end. Columbia did not like ''The Nona Tapes'' at first and told the band they had wasted their money doing it. However, it became a cult hit and Columbia decided to sell it, but the band was against it. The video was eventually released on VHS in December 1995. In 2006, ''The Nona Tapes'' was released on DVD and came as a bonus with the compilation ''

''. Nona Weisbaum made a special appearance for Alice In Chains' tribute at MoPOP's Founders Award on December 1, 2020.

Chart positions

References

External links

* *
''Alice in Chains: The Nona Tapes''
on

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nona Tapes, The Alice in Chains Alice in Chains video albums 1990s English-language films 1995 video albums American mockumentary films