The tour was officially announced on April 29, 2010,[2] after a series of cryptic videos[3] were posted on
YouTube and a countdown was posted on the recently launched blackdiamondskye.com site a week prior to the announcement.[4] Manager
David Benveniste from Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group said about the strategy, "Rather than launch with a traditional tour announcement, we wanted to engage the fans first. We gave them a cryptic clip featuring video snippets of each band and they lit up the internet. Now there's an entire online community talking about the tour and speculating about the bands involved. It's thrilling to see them communicate and respond so positively to this exciting tour."[4] More dates were announced on June 14, 2010.[5]
On August 31, 2010,
MTV launched a contest asking the fans of
Alice in Chains to create a custom trailer for the tour.[6] The winning submissions were chosen by the band and the grand prize winner received a personalized Black Gives Way To Blue gold record, VIP tickets to any date on the tour, a meet-and-greet with the band and an autographed poster.[7][8]
The tour kicked off on September 16 in
Chicago[2] and wrapped up on October 16 in
Paradise, Nevada. The tour lasted for 19 shows over the course of one month and featured shows at both outdoor
arena and
amphitheatres and indoor venues.[9]
Alice in Chains' concert at the
KeyArena in
Seattle on October 8, 2010 was filmed in 3D for a future release. The concert was helmed by director Tim Cronenweth and director of photography Jeff Cronenweth.[10]
The basic riff for the Alice in Chains' song "
Hollow" came to
Jerry Cantrell while he was in his dressing room in
Las Vegas warming up for the last concert of the tour. He started playing the riff and recorded it to use it later. Producer
Nick Raskulinecz and Cantrell's managers were at that show and praised the riff when they heard Cantrell playing it. The song was featured on the band's fifth studio album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, released in May 2013.[11]