Alice in Chains

[lefty]

Late frontman of Alice in Chains. Lately I have been obsessing, looking up tributes, AIC videos. Sad he had to die so tragically. I wonder what he could have done with his life, had he gotten off the drugs.

[Alexis Machine]

Even though I was more of a Soundgarden and Nirvana fan, Heaven Beside You is my favorite 90's song.

[monkeypox]

Man, I love Alice in Chains, and Jerry Cantrell solo, too. "Man in the Box," "
Would?" and and "Them Bones" (among others) are all killer songs. I wish he could have gotten off the drugs, because what a waste of life and talent.

[tiller]

It's been about 5 years since he died, hasn't it? I remember I was on vacation in Vancouver when he died, and my hotel picked up some Seattle channels.

Dirt is one of the most depressing, but also most powerful, albums I've ever heard. You can't listen to it and think that things were going to end well for him. AIC really had some great songs.

[luciano]

It's been about 5 years since he died, hasn't it?

Yep, on April 5th [which is also the 13-year anniversary of Cobain's death].

I always thought he [and AIC in general] was underrated. He and Cantrell kicked all sorts of ass with the harmonies. I think the band's Unplugged performance was both powerful and heartbreaking - he looked like he was in really bad shape and that was 6 years before he died.

The last interview that he gave was depressing as all hell, because he basically said that he was just waiting to die.

I always thought that Cornell was the most impressive voice to come out of that scene, but Staley shares the "Favorite Singer" spot with him - he didn't have Cornell's range, but he stirred up more emotions. It's like you could hear in his voice that he knew it was going to end the way it did.

[tacoflavored]

The last interview that he gave was depressing as all hell, because he basically said that he was just waiting to die.

Yeah that's one of the most depressing things I've ever read, talk about an anti-smack PSA...

"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".

There's more here.

His girlfriend died of a drug-related illness in 1996 and it seems like after that he just said "fuck it" to life/sobriety.

[tipsygrrl]

Dirt is one of my very favorite albums; I love every song. That article linked above was right about a lot of inferior bands (Godsmack, Creed) using the Alice in Chains "formula" to be really successful. Staley wasn't posing about his demons, though, and they killed him. It was a terribly sad death.

[GirlyGhoul]

The very saddest of all was that his body wasn't even found until a week or two later! That means no one was checking up on him or missed him for two weeks . He must have been so far removed from his family and friends that they were used to such long absences from him, or else had given up on him all together. Heart breaking! Esp. the bit in the interview about the rest of Alice In Chains not being his friends. That might have just been drug talk on his part- or else he'd REALLY burned his bridges there.

It's beyond sad, because their music was GREAT. He was such a distinctive singer and in the earlier days, it looked like they had a lot of fun. I remember when Head Bangers Ball was still around (yes, I'm old!) they had a whole show where the band hung on in bathrobes and herbal face masks and then went to a water park and slid down the slides in TINY speedos. But it all went very dark, very quickly.

Ironically, as I'm typing this, Godsmack is playing on the radio. Godsmack the band I mean, not the AIC song. Yes, they are AIC wannabes- But I kinda like hearing them just because they DO sound like AIC- and sadly, there's no AIC anymore. The fact that other bands copy them just shows how powerful, innovative and fresh they were back in the day. If only the music had been powerful enough to slay Layne's demons for him.

[esoterica]

That article brought a tear to my eye. What a sad waste. RIP.

[tacoflavored]

It's sad that no one checked up on him for weeks but then again I can understand why even close friends/family would keep their distance from someone as sick as he was, especially seeing as he refused to seek help and probably withdrew from anyone who attempted an intervention.

Ok, on a slightly less morbid note, I was listening to the Sap EP the other night and the hidden track "Love Song" never fails to crack me up. "RAE DAWN CHONG...RAE DAWN CHONG...KISS THE MIDGET...KISS THE MIDGET!!!" Who says they only did depression? ;D