Layne Staley was the lead singer of pioneering grunge band Alice in Chains. He was found dead at his Seattle home on Friday. He was 34 years of age.
Alice in Chains was the first grunge band to be recognized nationally. The group’s 1990 EP, “We Die Young”, featured dark lyrics about death, addiction, and despair set to minor-key guitar riffs.
layne staley Jerry Cantrell was the main writer of most of the band’s material, but Mr. Staley wrote the lyrics to many songs. The band’s first single, ‘We Die Young’, released in 1990, featured the lyrics: ‘Feed me eyes, can they be closed?/Jesus Christ. Deny your maker.
Layne Staley: 1992 saw the release of “Dirt.” About Heroin, Mr. Staley Sings
The band’s second album, “Dirt”, was released in 1992. Mr. Staley sang about heroin addiction in songs such as “God Smack” and “Junkman,” with the chorus, “What’s your drug of choice/Well what have you got?”
Duane Fish, a spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department said that officers entered Mr. Staley’s apartment near the University of Washington campus when they were called to inspect him on Friday.
Mr. Staley and layne staley was found dead in his bed on a couch showing ”obvious signs” of drug abuse, Mr. Fish stated that Mr. Staley was found dead on a couch with ”obvious signs of drug use,” Mr. Although the cause of death has not been determined by the King County medical examiner, he said yesterday that
Mr. Staley was dead for several days. Mr. Fish stated that he had determined it to be either drug use or natural causes. Our investigators found no evidence of foul play.
Mr. Staley was a Kirkland native
Mr. Staley was a Kirkland native. He started playing drums at the age of 12 thanks to a Black Sabbath record he had inherited from his parents. He decided to be a singer a few years later and traded his drum set for a microphone.
At a party, he met Mr. Cantrell and founded Alice in Chains in 1987 with him. They quickly moved from playing glam metal to a early form of grunge and were signed to Columbia Records in 1989. The band released the EP “We Die Young” and their first album, “Facelift”, in 1990.
The group was featured as a bar band for Cameron Crowe’s movie “Singles” and toured the country as Facelift, which sold two million copies. In 1991, the group released a second EP called ‘Sap’.
It was followed by ‘Dirt’ in 1992, which has been reissued four million times. Alice in Chains headlined the 1993 Lollapalooza Tour and released their third EP, “Jar of Flies” in 1994.
The band was on the brink of a 1994 summer tour when Mr. Staley began to struggle with heroin addiction. Mr. Staley was a singer on Mad Season with Mike McCready (a guitarist in Pearl Jam). Alice in Chains was reunited in 1995 for an album entitled “Alice in Chains”, which sold two millions copies.
In a 1996 interview, Rolling Stone magazine found that Mr. Staley had needle marks all over his body and was openly discussing drug abuse.
“I didn’t want my fans to believe heroin was cool. I have had people approach me and give me thumbs up telling me that they are high. This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen.
Alice in Chains recorded an episode of MTV Unplugged in 1996. The subsequent album sold one-million copies. Columbia also released more material from the band as the 1990’s came to an end. They released a boxed set and a live album, along with a greatest-hits compilation. However, Mr. Staley was gone.
