Rest in Peace Layne. Alice in Chains was my favorite band growing up and still is today. There music helped inspire the grunge scene in the 90's and still influences music today. I will miss him and Alice in Chains. I hope Jerry Cantrell can carry on the legacy of that great band.
Good post, Otto. I agree...while it was certainly his choice to experiment with these things in the beginning (the wrong choice in my opinion), I am very sorry that he felt he needed to fill his life with drugs. A life has been lost...I'm not much of an Alice In Chains fan...but this guy probably had people who loved him very much..and people whose lives are affected right now about his death.
Damn...I always kind of held out hope that Cantrell would get back together with the other guys and make some more great AIC music... RIP
Yeah I know, I did to, it sucks. I always held hope that one day I would be able to see them in concert. Well its not like any new Alice in Chains music was immenent, but they will be missed.
slamd balla is right, if he killed himself then i feel absolutly no pity or sorrow about it. if he wanted some attention then good job at getting it.
Bury me softly in this womb I give this part of me for you Sand rains down and here I sit Holding rare flowers In a tomb...in bloom Down in a hole and I don't know if I can be saved See my heart I decorate it like a grave You don't understand who they Thought I was supposed to be Look at me now a man Who won't let himself be Down in a hole, losin' my soul Down in a hole, losin' control I'd like to fly, But my wings have been so denied Down in a hole and they've put all The stones in their place I've eaten the sun so my tongue Has been burned of the taste I have been guilty Of kicking myself in the teeth I will speak no more of my feelings beneath Oh I want to be inside of you Down in a hole, losin' my soul Down in a hole, feelin' so small Down in a hole, losin' my soul Down in a hole, out of control I'd like to fly but my Wings have been so denied
I heard on the buzz that someone is trying to organize a vigil for around 6:30 tomorrow at the water wall.
Coroner: Alice in Chains Singer OD'd The autopsy results are in and the worst suspicions confirmed: Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley died of a drug overdose. According to the King County, Washington, Medical Examiner's Office, Staley succumbed to a fatal cocktail of heroin and cocaine. The 34-year-old rocker apparently injected the lethal concoction--known as a speedball or a "Belushi" (after actor John Belushi, who died of a speedball overdose in 1982)--on April 5 and died shortly thereafter, the coroner says. His badly decomposed body wasn't discovered until two full weeks later, found slumped on a couch in his Seattle apartment next to what police described as a heroin kit. Staley's substance abuse problems were no secret. He documented his drug use in his band's lyrics and discussed his heroin habit in interviews. Alice in Chains disintegrated in 1996, and Staley largely withdrew from public life soon after amid whispers of a worsening addiction. In a statement following the discovery of his body, his bandmates said, "For the past decade, Layne struggled greatly--we can only hope that he has at last found some peace." Staley's death is the latest in a string of heroin-related rock 'n' roll demises. He watched fellow Seattle scenester and Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain deteriorate and eventually kill himself after failing to kick his habit; Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon and Sublime's Bradley Nowell also fatally overdosed in the mid-'90s. Staley vowed to stay sober and not wind up like his contemporaries, but he couldn't manage to keep clean. The singer's family has asked that donations be made to Eastside Recovery Center in Bellevue, Washington. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=799&e=1&cid=795&u=/eo/20020508/en_music_eo/9918
It's amazing to me he lived as long as he did. I remember reading an offhand comment in either GuitarWorld or Rolling Stone back in 1996; it said that some members of the Seattle press had Staley at the top of the "most likely to O.D." list and were taking bets as to when he'd finally die. Kind of macabre and probably apocryphal, but if nothing else, it indicates how much of a foregone conclusion this was to a lot of people as far back as 1996. I'm not surprised he's dead, but in some ways I am surprised his body held out this long.
