What the Hell Have I is a song by Alice in Chains, released on June 7, 1993. It was originally featured on the soundtrack to the 1993 John McTiernan film Last Action Hero starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The song was released as a single and peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It was included on the compilation album Nothing Safe: Best of the Box (1999). A remixed version of the song was included on the compilation albums Music Bank (1999) and The Essential Alice in Chains (2006).
Tracklist:
- What the Hell Have I
- A Little Bitter
The music video for What the Hell Have I was released in 1993 and was directed by Rocky Schenck, who had previously directed the We Die Young and Them Bones music videos for the band, and who would later direct the music video for Grind. In the music video, singer Layne Staley‘s face is projected on him with different expressions, while guitarist Jerry Cantrell is seen with the same contact lenses with a smiley face that was worn by Mr. Benedict (played by Charles Dance) in Last Action Hero. The video is available on the home video release Music Bank: The Videos.
What the Hell Have I by Alice In Chains Lyrics
The face before me flies
Laughs at me inside
Masks are made to hide the glow
Shining eyes
Distance ‘tween us grows
Feeding lies
It’s hard to start things over
You can feel the fire around us
All the time
Yeah
Something I should say
It takes you every day
What you give is not alive
Today
Your soul served on a plate
Throw it away
It’s hard to start things over
You can feel the fire around us
All the time
Yeah
It’s hard to start things over
Oh yeah
You can feel the fire around us
All the time
Yeah
It’s hard to start things over
Oh yeah
You can feel the fire around us
All the time
Yeah
All the time
What the hell have I?
Little pride
Songwriters: Jerry Cantrell
Alice in Chains
Layne Staley: lead vocals
Jerry Cantrell: guitar, vocals
Mike Inez: bass
Sean Kinney: drums, percussion
Layne Staley (August 22, 1967 – April 5, 2002)
