Alice in Chains Singer Dead
by Josh Grossberg
Apr 20, 2002, 5:55 PM PT
Layne Staley, whose dark, soulful voice defined pioneering Seattle grunge-metal band Alice in Chains , was found dead on Friday in his apartment in the city's University District. He was 34.
Staley had apparently been dead for several days when police officers called to his address found a corpse so badly decomposed that it took a full day before authorities confirmed the identity.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the official cause of death. Seattle Police Department spokesman Duane Fish tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "It was natural or an overdose--that's the way it was determined by our investigators."
Staley had a history of drug abuse, including a nasty heroin habit that he chronicled in the harsh, often morbid lyrics that made Alice in Chains nearly as successful as their Seattle scene contemporaries Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and that ultimately sidetracked his music career.
Born on August 22,1967, in Kirkland, Washington, Staley became interested in music at an early age, learning to play the drums when he was 12, according to one fan Website, before fronting glam bands in his teens.
Staley had formed a band called Alice N Chains while he was in high school in the mid-'80s. It wasn't until he met guitarist Jerry Cantrell at a party in 1987 that the final lineup was solidified--with bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney--and the name changed to Alice in Chains.
The band signed to Columbia Records just before the grunge-fueled feeding frenz. Alice in Chains showcased its hard-edged garage-metal sound on the three-song EP We Die Young in 1990. The band's first full-length release, Facelift, followed a few months later and spawned the single "Man in the Box." But it was 1992's multiplatinum-selling Dirt, with the hits "Would?" and "Rooster," that catapulted Alice in Chains to superstardom.
Staley's heroin use increased as the band became more popular. In a 1996 interview with Rolling Stone, the rocker revealed how his addiction inspired many of the tracks on Dirt.
"I wrote about drugs, and I didn't think I was being unsafe or careless by writing about them," Staley told the magazine. "Here's how my thinking pattern went: When I tried drugs, they were [expletive] great, and they worked for me for years, and now they're turning against me--and now I'm walking through hell, and this sucks."
Staley said after seeing the heroin-addled Kurt Cobain kill himself in 1994, he was motivated to kick the habit.
"I saw all the suffering that Kurt Cobain went through," he told the magazine. "I didn't know him real well, but I just saw this real vibrant person turn into a real shy, timid, withdrawn, introverted person who could hardly get a hello out...At the end of the day or at the end of the party, when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself."
His sobriety was short-lived. After releasing the five-song EP Jar of Flies in 1994 (which became the first EP to top the album charts), Staley fell off the wagon, forcing Alice in Chains to cancel its anticipated tour with Metallica.
The band split up after its 1996 Unplugged release, and Staley dropped out of sight, only surfacing briefly to contribute a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" to the soundtrack of the 1998 teen horror flick The Faculty. (After the band's split, Columbia released three more Alice albums, 1999's Nothing Safe: The Best of the Box , 2000's Live and 2001's Greatest Hits.)
In addition to his work with Alice in Chains, Staley recorded one album, 1995's Above, with Mad Season--a Seattle supergroup made up of members of Pearl Jam and the Screaming Trees.
"I'm gonna be here for a long time," Staley once told Rolling Stone. "I'm scared of death, especially death by my own hand. I'm scared of where I would go. Not that I ever consider that, because I don't."
source: Unsure(would appreciate anyones help with this)
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