Songfacts®:

• Alice in Chains singer William DuVall told Drowned in Sound the story of the song: "'Phantom Limb' was a musical demo that was sent to me, which I immediately reacted to, and within a day or so had written all the words for it," he said. "Within the first few minutes, I had a couple of lines for it, and over the next day or so, I refined it. All that stuff happened pretty quickly."
  
  "Basically within 48 hours of them sending the musical demo, I sent them back a fully formed vocal track, pretty much what you here on the record," Duvall continued. "The actual recording was reproducing what I did at home. It never had a solo, so at one point where we were at Hanson, deep into recording, [Jerry] Cantrell asked me, 'Do you wanna play the solo on that, 'Cause I don't have anything.'"
• Asked by Guitar Player magazine how he would characterize his guitar role in Alice in Chains, DuVall replied: "It's everything from writing riffs to providing counterpoint to what Cantrell is doing to doubling what he's doing to playing solos. I do the solo on 'Phantom Limb' on this new album. So, it's really everything that you would expect from a two-guitar band."
  
  "My being in the group also gives the band another guitar player who can write things, and we've also turned into a bit more of a jamming outfit when we rehearse," he added. "I'm told they didn't really do a whole lot of that before. But that's sort of where I come from: a jamming background. I'll start up something and see where it goes in rehearsal. That's a different way of interacting, which is cool."