An acoustic version performed on Alice in Chains' MTV Unplugged in 1996 was released in a live album and DVD.

[7] In the liner notes of 1999's Music Bank box set collection, Cantrell said of the song: ["Down in a Hole"]'s in my top three, personally.

Ned Raggett of AllMusic said that "Staley's...half-strangled but still amazingly evocative performance...is heartfelt and almost yearning" and that "the end result feels like a ruined man looking for some sort of comfort.

Staley's pained howl guides the song, but its power derives from Cantrell's terrific harmonies, which give the piece heft and also a sense of unease.

Alice in Chains performed the song live for the first time on October 5, 1992, at the Coca-Cola Starplex in Dallas, Texas.

[19] On his low-key 2007 tour—in support of his album Easy Tiger, Ryan Adams covered the song live with his band, The Cardinals.

[22] The Christian metal band Demon Hunter perform an acoustic version of the song on the deluxe edition of their 2011 album The World Is a Thorn.

[24] American hardcore punk band Code Orange covered the song on their live album Under the Skin in 2020.