- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLayne Thomas Staley
- Nickname
- Alice
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Layne was born August 22, 1967 in Kirkland, WA. When Layne was seven, his parents divorced. He started playing drums around the age of 12.
Layne always wanted to sing when he played his drums, so his groupies told him that he should sing instead. So, Layne traded in his drum set for a microphone and delay.
While at a party in Seattle in 1987, he met Jerry Cantrell who suggested the two start a band. Jerry then introduced Layne to Mike Starr, who introduced him to Sean Kinney. Layne was known to be dark and mysterious, but he actually had a thirst for knowledge and was a chatterbox. He was also an artist. Layne did the artwork both for Mad Season's album and in sleeve of Alice in Chains' "Dirt" album. His best known artwork is probably the Alice In Chains Sun Logo.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Kari Johnson <kari_j@alloymail.com> - Layne Staley was born in Kirkland, Washington in 1967. In the mid-1980s, he fronted the glam metal band Sleze, then formed Alice in Chains (then called Alice n' Chains, ala Guns 'N' Roses) with guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Starr & drummer Sean Kinney.
Their debut album Facelift was a hit, and featured the now-classic "Man in the Box." Their newfound fame led to a cameo in the movie _Singles(1992)_ and their follow up album, Dirt, going multi-platinum. After changing bassists to Mike Inez, the group, led by Staley, released two EPs, Sap and Jar of Flies, and an eponymous LP. They toured little, however, as rumors of Staley's struggle with heroin addiction ran wild. Staley and the band appeared on _Alice in Chains: MTV Unplugged (1996) (V)_ in 1996. This would be their final television appearance. The band played just four more shows together, opening for KISS on June 28, 30, July 2 and 3, 1996. After the death of his girlfriend and former fiance, Demri Parrott, in October 1996, Staley was said to have basically given up in his battle with drug addiction. This, however, did not stop him from working with Mad Season and recording vocals for "Another Brick in the Wall" for the soundtrack to The Faculty (1998). Unable to get Staley into the studio to record, Jerry Cantrell released Boggy Depot in March 1997. Aside from recording the songs "Died" and "Get Born Again" in October 1998, Layne Staley remained elusive, with only sporadic 'reported' sightings of him around Seattle surfacing from time-to-time.
On 20 April 2002, Seattle Police were summoned to the home of Layne Staley after friends and family members were unable to contact him. Inside, Staley's decomposing body was found lifeless, the victim of an apparent drug overdose. Layne Staley was 34 years old.- IMDb Mini Biography By: -
- ChildrenNo Children
- Parents
- Frequently wore sunglasses
- Raw edged vocals
- Skinny frame
- It's believed he died on April 5, 2002. The autopsy report from the May 7, 2002, from the King County Medical Examiner's Office confirms that Staley died after injecting a "speedball", a mixture of heroin and cocaine. He had been dead for about two weeks when his body was discovered on April 19, and was surrounded by drug paraphernalia. His body was so decomposed when found that it was only identified as that of Layne Staley after a check of the dental records.
- Wrote about his struggles with heroin addiction in such songs as "Angry Chair", "Junkhead", "God Smack", "Hate To Feel" and "Nutshell".
- He became extremely angry when people made fun or light of his drug addiction. When The Rocket, a now-defunct Seattle-area music magazine, wrote an article on the retirement of Alice in Chains' longtime manager that included the words "But who's to wipe and change Alice in Chains now?", Layne evidently took great umbrage to this and sent them a jar of urine and a bag of human feces with an attached note that read "Wipe and change this, motherfuckers!".
- In high school, Layne sang in a glam-rock band called "Alice N Chains." Upon the formation of the rejuvenated Alice in 1987 with Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney and Mike Starr, the group re-spelled it's name to Alice in Chains and adopted a heavier, metal-influenced sound.
- He was a huge video game fan. He once boasted that when he got his first credit card, he maxed it out at a Toys R' Us buying video games. One of the very last photos taken of him had him wearing a Metal Gear Solid t-shirt and the condo that he bought some time before his death also apparently had a massive TV that he used almost exclusively for gaming, and at his final recording session (the one that produced "Get Born Again" and "Died"), he spent a good deal of time talking to the runner about certain PlayStation games and giving him tips on how to get ahead or beat certain parts that he was having problems with upon noticing a console that was hooked up in the studio.
- [Rolling Stone - February 8, 1996] People have a right to ask questions and dig deep when you're hurting people and things around you. But when I haven't talked to anybody in years, and every article I see is dope this, junkie that, whiskey this - that ain't my title. Like 'Hi, I'm Layne, nail biter,' you know? My bad habits aren't my title. My strengths and my talent are my title.
- The only pressure this band will ever feel is living up to our own expectations.
- [on the near-death experiences that he claimed forced him to re-evaluate his lifestyle two and a half years before this interview - Rolling Stone - February 8, 1996] I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of where I was going to go if I did follow through with it. That makes me sad for my friends who have taken their own lives, because I know that if your time is not finished here, and you end it yourself, then you gotta finish it somewhere else. There was a time when things seemed desperate, and I thought taking my life might be a way out. I made a couple of really weak attempts, mostly to see if I could do it, and I couldn't.
- [on if he were writing his autobiography, what would he want people to know about him - Pandemonium, Vol#29 - April 1995: "Layne Staley Unchained"] I've always looked for the perfect life to step into. I've done all the work, taken all the paths to get where I wanted. But no matter where I go, I still come home to me. At home I'm just Layne, a guy who has interests that extend far beyond music. Music is the career I'm lucky enough to get paid for, but I have other desires and passions.
- [Rolling Stone - February 8, 1996] There's no huge, deep message in any of the songs. It was just what was going on in my head right then. We had good times, and we had bad times. We recorded a few months of being human.
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