Layne Staley

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Layne Thomas Staley (August 22, 1967 – April 5, 2002) was an American musician who served as the lead singer and co-lyricist of the rock group Alice in Chains, which was formed in Seattle, Washington in 1987 by Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Alice in Chains rose to international fame as part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s. The band became known for its distinct vocal style, which often included the "snarl-to-a-scream" vocals of Staley, as well as the harmonized vocals of Staley and Cantrell.Staley was also a member of the supergroups Mad Season and Class of '99. He struggled throughout his career with severe drug addiction, which eventually led to his death in April 2002.

Early life

Layne Staley was born to Phil Staley and Nancy McCallum in Kirkland, Washington. He was seven years old when his parents divorced, after which he was raised by his mother and stepfather, Jim Elmer. He took his stepfather's name while enrolled in Meadowdale High School and was known for some time as Layne Elmer. In early 2002, shortly before his death, he would describe the experience of witnessing his parents' divorce: "My world became a nightmare, there were just shadows around me. I got a call saying that my dad had died, but my family always knew he was around doing all kind of drugs. Since that call I always was wondering, 'Where is my dad?' I felt so sad for him and I missed him. He dropped out of my life for 15 years." In that same interview he hinted that his parents' break-up and his father's drug use were at least partially responsible for his own drug problems, and also said that he was convinced that if he became a celebrity his dad would return.

Staley began playing drums at age 12; he played in several glam bands in his early teens, but by this point, Staley had aspirations of becoming a singer. In 1985, Staley formed a band called Sleze, which also featured future Second Coming members Johnny Bacolas and James Bergstrom.With the addition of guitarist Nick Pollock in 1986, Sleze morphed into Alice N' Chains, a band which Staley said "dressed in drag and played speed metal." The new band performed around the Seattle area playing Slayer and Armored Saint covers. Staley met guitarist Jerry Cantrell while working at Music Bank rehearsal studios, where the two struggling musicians became roommates, and lived in a rehearsal space they shared. Alice N' Chains soon disbanded and Staley joined a funk band who at the time also required a guitarist. He asked Cantrell to join as a sideman. Cantrell agreed on condition that Staley join Cantrell's band Diamond Lie, which at the time included drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr. Eventually the funk project broke up and in 1987 Staley joined Cantrell on a full time basis. Diamond Lie played in clubs around the Pacific Northwest, often stretching 15 minutes of material into a 45-minute set. The band eventually took the name of Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains released their debut album Facelift on August 21, 1990. The second single, "Man in the Box", with lyrics written by Staley, became a huge hit. "Man in the Box" is widely recognized for its distinctive "wordless opening melody, where Layne Staley's peculiar, tensed-throat vocals are matched in unison with an effects-laden guitar" followed by "portentous lines like: 'Jesus Christ/Deny your maker' and 'He who tries/Will be wasted' with Cantrell's drier, and less-urgent voice." Facelift has since been certified double platinum by the RIAA for sales of two million copies in the United States. The band toured in support of the album for two years before releasing the acoustic EP Sap in early 1992. In September 1992, Alice in Chains released Dirt. The critically-acclaimed album, also the band's most successful, debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, and was certified quadruple platinum. The band did not tour in support of Dirt for very long, due to Staley's drug addiction. While touring, Starr left the band due to personal reasons and was replaced by Mike Inez.

Although Cantrell wrote or co-wrote along with the other instrumentalists almost all of the music for Alice in Chains, Staley wrote more and more lyrics as time went on, eventually receiving credit for about half the lyrics from their entire catalog prior to the release of Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009. He also wrote the music as well as the lyrics to "Hate to Feel", "Angry Chair" and "Head Creeps". Staley's lyrics are largely viewed as having often dealt with his struggle against heroin addiction, God, and other personal troubles. The album Dirt showcased the former in songs like "Sickman", "Junkhead", "God Smack" and "Angry Chair", the only single thus far written entirely by someone other than Cantrell.

1994 saw the release of Alice in Chains' second acoustic EP, Jar of Flies. It debuted at number one, making it the first Alice in Chains release—and the first-ever EP—to do so. The other members of Alice in Chains, seeing Staley's deteriorating condition, opted not to tour in support of Jar of Flies.Following its release, Staley entered a rehabilitation clinic and began to work on a side project with several Seattle musicians, including Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees. The band worked on material for several months and eventually scheduled a show at the Crocodile Cafe under the name The Gacy Bunch. Within a few weeks, the band changed its name to Mad Season. In January 1995, Mad Season performed two songs on Pearl Jam's Self-Pollution satellite radio broadcast, "Lifeless Dead" and "I Don't Know Anything".The band completed an album, titled Above, which was released in March 1995. The first single, "River of Deceit", became a modest success on alternative radio, and "I Don't Know Anything" still receives occasional airplay. A live performance filmed at the Moore Theatre in Seattle was released in August 1995 as a home video, Live at the Moore.

During Alice in Chains' hiatus, reports of Staley's addiction began to gain widespread circulation in fan and media communities, in part from changes to his physical condition brought on by prolonged heroin abuse. He struggled tremendously. Referencing Staley's guest-singing appearance with Tool on the song "Opiate", the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, "At KISW-FM's 'Rockstock' concert at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Bremerton in May 1994—just a month after the death of Kurt Cobain—Staley made a surprise appearance. He looked sickly and wore a wool ski mask to hide his face." Some of the more persistent and unsubstantiated rumors, ranging from gangrene to missing fingers,surfaced during this period. Mark Arm of Mudhoney is quoted as saying: "I remember seeing him in '95… he turned up and was totally green, and my stomach turned at that point—watching somebody on a track that they couldn't get off."

Alice in Chains regrouped to record Alice in Chains, sometimes referred to as "Tripod" (largely due to the image of Jerry Cantrell's three-legged dog, Sunshine, featured on the cover), which was released late in 1995. The self–titled album debuted at the top of the U.S. charts, and has since been awarded—along with Facelift and Jar of Flies—double platinum status. With the exceptions of "Grind", "Heaven Beside You", and "Over Now", the lyrics are all written by Staley, making this album his greatest lyrical contribution to the band's catalogue. To accompany the album, the band released a home video, The Nona Tapes, in which they poked fun at the rumors of Staley's addiction, but the band lapsed again, failing to complete tours planned in support of the album. When asked about the frustration of not touring to support the record, Cantrell provided some insight into how Staley's addictions led to repercussive tensions within the band: "Very frustrating, but we stuck it out. We rode the good times together, and we stuck together through the hard times. We never stabbed each other in the back and spilled our guts and do that kind of bullshit that you see happen a lot.

During the band's appearance on MTV Unplugged, Staley was visibly weak and emaciated, but still able to deliver a strong performance. He made his last performance on July 3, 1996, in Kansas City, Missouri, while Alice in Chains were touring with Kiss after their Unplugged appearance.In October 1996, Staley's ex-fiancée, Demri Lara Parrott, died from secondary complications caused by drug use (bacterial endocarditis)."Drugs worked for me for years," Staley told Rolling Stone in 1996, "and now they're turning against me, now I'm walking through hell."

Final years: 1997–2002

Staley remained out of the spotlight until February 26, 1997, when he and the other members of Alice in Chains attended the Grammy Awards after "Again" (from the self-titled album) was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. In September 1998, Staley re-emerged to help record two tracks ("Get Born Again" and "Died") with Alice in Chains, which were released on the Music Bank box set in 1999. Additional reports of Staley's deteriorating condition persisted in the midst of the sessions. Dirt producer Dave Jerden—who was originally chosen by the band for the production—said, "Staley weighed 80 pounds…and was white as a ghost." Cantrell refused to comment on the singer's appearance, simply replying "I'd rather not comment on that…", and band manager Susan Silver said she hadn't seen the singer since "last year". Staley was thought to have left behind his "self-imposed rock & roll exile when in November 1998 he laid down additional vocal tracks as part of a supergroup called Class of '99, featuring members of Rage Against the Machine, Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros. The group recorded parts one and two of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" for the soundtrack to Robert Rodriguez's 1998 horror/sci-fi film, The Faculty, with a music video filmed for part two. While the other members of the band were filmed specifically for the video, Staley's appearance consisted of footage pulled from Mad Season's 1995 Live at the Moore video. On July 19, 1999, syndicated radio program Rockline was hosting Cantrell, Inez, and (via telephone) Kinney for a discussion on the release of Nothing Safe: Best of the Box, when, unexpectedly, Staley called in to participate in the discussion.

Charles R. Cross would later say that they had Staley's obituary on stand-by at The Rocket in the late 1990s. Upon the retirement of Alice in Chains' manager, Susan Silver, in 1998, The Rocket published an article asking the question "But who's to wipe and clean Alice in Chains now?", supposedly a jab at the rumors of Staley's addiction. Joe Ehrbar, the editor of The Rocket at that time, said, "A few days later, we received a package containing a jar of piss and a bag of shit, with a note attached saying, 'Wipe and change this, motherfuckers!' It had to be from Layne. What a classic response.'"

From 1999 to 2002, Staley became more reclusive; little is known about the details of his life during this period. Staley's mother owns the last known photo of Staley, taken in November 2001, which features him holding his new-born nephew, Oscar. This photo has never been released to the public, and may never be, due to Staley's sickly physical appearance. Other than this rare incident, Staley was not seen often by family or friends. In his last interview, Staley stated, "Don't try to contact any AIC (Alice in Chains) members. They are not my friends."Kinney has commented on Staley's final years and isolation period:

"I kept trying to make contact...Three times a week, like clockwork, I'd call him, but he'd never answer. Every time I was in the area, I was up in front of his place yelling for him...Even if you could get in his building, he wasn't going to open the door. You'd phone and he wouldn't answer. You couldn't just kick the door in and grab him, though there were so many times I thought about doing that. But if someone won't help themselves, what, really, can anyone else do?"

In his last interview, given in early 2002 months before his death, Staley admitted, "I know I'm near death, I did crack and heroin for years. I never wanted to end my life this way."Staley's physical appearance had become even worse than before: he had lost several teeth, his skin was sickly pale, and he was severely gaunt.In the same interview Staley spoke of the damage caused by his heroin addiction:

"I'm not using drugs to get high like many people think. I know I made a big mistake when I started using this shit. It's a very difficult thing to explain. My liver is not functioning, and I'm throwing up all the time and shitting my pants. The pain is more than you can handle. It's the worst pain in the world. Dope sick hurts the entire body."

As far as published reports are concerned, such as Blender's "We Left Him Alone", close friends such as Matt Fox have said, "If no one heard from him for weeks, it wasn’t unusual." Further in the article, reporter Pat Kearny provides a glimpse into Staley's daily life and public routine:

"It appears that Staley’s last few weeks were typically empty. According to an employee of the Rainbow, a neighborhood bar close to Staley’s condo, the singer was a frequent patron, stopping by at least once a week. 'He minded his own business,' said the employee, who wished to remain anonymous. Staley would never buy anything to drink, the employee said, but would simply sit at a small table in the back corner of the bar and 'nod off. We just left him alone'."

Staley's close friend Mark Lanegan had much of the same to say with respect to Staley's isolation: "He didn't speak to anybody as of late… It's been a few months since I talked to him. But for us to not talk for a few months is par for the course."

On April 19, 2002, Layne's mother placed a call with 911 to say "she hadn't heard from… [staley] in about two weeks." Staley was found dead in his home after his mother and stepfather went to his condo with the police.As reported by Rick Anderson of the Seattle Weekly, his body was surrounded by various drug possessions and paraphernalia: "When police kicked in the door to Layne Staley's University District apartment on April 20, there, on a couch, lit by a flickering TV, next to several spray-paint cans on the floor, not far from a small stash of cocaine, near two crack pipes on the coffee table, reposed the remains of the rock musician." The article also stated that the 6'1" Staley weighed just 86 pounds when his body was discovered. The autopsy report later concluded that Staley had died after injecting a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a "speedball".

Post-death

An informal memorial was held for Staley on the night of April 20 at the Seattle Center which was attended by at least 1000 fans and friends, including Cantrell, Starr, Inez, Kinney and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell.Cantrell dedicated his 2002 solo album, Degradation Trip, released two months after Staley's death, to his memory. Following Staley's death, Alice in Chains officially disbanded. For the next several years, the band refused to perform together out of respect for Staley. In 2005, the remaining members reunited for a benefit concert for victims of the December 26, 2004 tsunami, with several vocalists filling in for Staley, including Patrick Lachman from Damageplan, Phil Anselmo of Pantera and Down fame, Wes Scantlin from Puddle of Mudd, Maynard James Keenan from Tool (a friend of Staley's), and Ann Wilson from Heart, who had previously worked with Alice in Chains when she sang on the Sap EP (performing backing vocals on the songs "Brother" and "Am I Inside"). Following positive response, the band decided to reunite formally in 2006.

In an interview with MTV News, Kinney noted that the band would use the reunion concerts to pay tribute to the songs and to Staley. William DuVall, a member of Cantrell's solo touring band (who often sang Staley's parts on the Alice in Chains songs that Cantrell performed), was announced to sing Staley's part for the reunion shows. In the same interview, Kinney noted the reunion didn't necessarily foretell a future for Alice in Chains:

"If we found some other dude, I'd love to move on, write some cool tunes and change the name and go on like that. I don't see continuing as Alice and replacing somebody… We're not trying to replace Layne. We want to play these songs one more time, and if it seems like the right thing to do, it'll happen. I don't know how long it will go or where it will take us. It's kind of a tribute to Layne and our fans, the people who love these songs."

The reformed Alice in Chains (with Duvall) are also known to have an intermission to include a five-minute filmed tribute in between sets to Staley. The title track to Alice in Chains' 2009 album, Black Gives Way to Blue, was written as a tribute to Staley.

Legacy

Cold's song "The Day Seattle Died" (from the 2003 album, Year of the Spider) was an ode to Staley, as well as Kurt Cobain, who were both figureheads of the grunge rock movement. In addition, Staind featured a song called "Layne" in memory to the singer on the 2003 album, 14 Shades of Grey. Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, also recorded a song eulogizing Staley, titled "4/20/02" (the day Vedder heard the news and subsequently wrote the song) The song featured only Vedder singing and playing the guitar in a ukulele-inspired tuning, and was released as a hidden track on Pearl Jam's 2003 B-sides and rarities album, Lost Dogs. Zakk Wylde also wrote a song about Staley called "Layne" on Black Label Society's 2004 album, Hangover Music Vol. VI.A further tribute entitled "Layne to Rest" was recorded by former Babes in Toyland frontwoman Kat Bjelland with her band Katastrophy Wife for the 2004 album, All Kneel. Tyler Connolly of Theory of a Deadman stated that their song "Shadow" (an outtake from the 2008 album, Scars & Souvenirs) was written about Staley.

Staley's influence has likewise been felt in other genres. Two books have been written about him, both authored by Adriana Rubio—Layne Staley: Angry Chair and the more recent, Layne Staley: Get Born Again, which was described as "a 'brand new book' that has been revised and updated with the inclusion of two new chapters: 'Hate to Feel' and 'Get Born Again' as a revival of the acclaimed Angry Chair book."On September 28, 2006, Blabbermouth.net reported on a movie project related to Rubio's most recent book on Staley: "According to a press release from ARTS Publications, Argentinean journalist/author Adriana Rubio has been contacted by writer/director Eric Moyer from Philadelphia about turning her biography of late Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley, titled Layne Staley: Get Born Again, into a movie."Music Historian Maxim W. Furek released the comprehensive The Death Proclamation of Generation X: A Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Goth, Grunge and Heroin, i-Universe. ISBN 978-0-595-46319-0, that revisited the tragic deaths of numerous grunge artists.

Staley ranked #27 on Hit Parader magazine's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" (published in the November 2006 issue). Staley was an inspiration for the title of Metallica's 2008 album, Death Magnetic. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett brought a photograph of Staley to the studio where Metallica was recording. "That picture was there for a long time," said Hammett, "I think it pervaded James' psyche."

Layne Staley Fund

In 2002, Staley's mother, Nancy McCallum, and Jamie Richards, a drug and alcohol counselor, formed the Layne Staley Fund, a non-profit organization that raises money for drug treatment and works with the Seattle music community. It holds a yearly tribute in August, on or around Staley's birthday. The next benefit concert is to be held sometime around Staley's birthday this year.

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