Layne Staley

Staley in 1992

Layne Thomas Staley (born August 22, 1967 in Kirkland , Washington , USA , † April 5, 2002 in Seattle , Washington, USA) was an American musician. He was the front man of the groups Alice in Chains and Mad Season , for whose songs he often wrote the lyrics.

Life

Family environment

Layne Staley's parents were Phil and Nancy Staley (née McCallum). He had two sisters. In the early 1970s, the family lived in Bellevue , a city east of Seattle in Washington State. When Layne Staley was seven years old, the drug addict father left the family, according to other sources he was cast out due to his addiction. Staley's parents then divorced. Staley stayed with his mother, who remarried. Layne Staley temporarily took his stepfather's name and called himself Layne Elmer throughout school. Only when he began a career as a rock musician did he use the name Layne Staley again.

His birth father, whom he did not see for years, remained a central figure in Staley's life. At the age of 16 he tried unsuccessfully to find his father. One day his family got a phone call saying their father was dead, but it turned out to be a mistake. It wasn't until the late 1980s, when Staley became famous for the success of Alice in Chains , that his father got in touch with him again. Staley took him in temporarily.

From 1990 onwards, Staley lived with Demri Parrott, who was two years his junior. The song Love, Hate, Love on the album Facelift , the first album by Staley's band Alice in Chains (1990), was dedicated to her. Staley and Parrot were intermittently engaged . The relationship broke up in 1993 or 1994, but Staley remained very close to Parrot. Parrott died in October 1996 at the age of 27 from complications from heroin addiction. According to some reports, Staley was at risk of suicide after Parrot's death; he was temporarily under surveillance.

Drug addiction

Staley was addicted to narcotics for almost all of his time as an artist. The addiction was allegedly initiated or promoted by his father. Staley's addiction to heroin began in 1991. From 1993 it affected his everyday life so much that the band's work suffered. Concerts and tours were at risk and had to be canceled more and more often. Staley began several withdrawal therapies; but none of them led to success. Even the death of Kurt Cobain in April 1994, which can be traced back to drug abuse and which shocked Staley for a short time, did not result in any permanent change in his consumption behavior. By 1995 at the latest, the singer's dependency could also be seen externally. After the death of his former partner Demri Parrott in the fall of 1996, Staley finally withdrew almost completely from the public and gave up the resistance to addiction. The music magazine Rolling Stone wrote of Staley's "self-imposed exile". In November 1998 he appeared in public for the last time, according to general perception in a recognizable poor general condition.

Staley was open about his narcotics addiction. He addressed drugs and addiction in many of his songs. In a February 1996 Rolling Stone interview titled Damage Done , Staley stated:

Drugs worked for me for years, and now they're turning against me - and now I'm walking through hell, and this sucks .

“ Drugs have helped me for years, now they're turning against me. I'm going through hell And that pisses me off . "

In an interview that Staley allegedly gave to the Argentine journalist Adriana Rubio in December 2001 - four months before his death - and which forms the basis of a biography published in 2003, Staley expresses himself in a seriously ill condition about severe pain, organ failure and his impending death. These submissions are used in numerous recent articles on Staley. Staley's family deny the authenticity of the interview, claiming the author neither saw nor spoke to Staley.

Music career

The beginnings

Already in childhood, Staley was interested in music and began to play the trumpet , later he played drums . As a teenager , Staley formed his first garage band, which he called Sleze . Sleze was stylistically based on glam rock . Here he worked as a singer for the first time. After Sleze broke up in 1986, Staley formed the band Alice N 'Chainz with Nick Pollock, Johnny Bacolas and James Bergstrom . While rehearsing in a music studio, Staley met guitarist Jerry Cantrell , who led his own rock band called Diamond Lie . It included bassist Mike Starr and drummer Bobby Nesbitt, who was later replaced by Sean Kinney . Diamond Lie was a local celebrity in Seattle. In 1987, Staley joined the band Diamond Lie as a singer , which shortly thereafter changed its name to Alice in Chains .

Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains

In 1989 Alice in Chains signed a record deal with Columbia , and a year later, Facelift, the band's first album was released. This was followed by a two-year phase of almost uninterrupted touring: After the band had already opened the US part of the Clash-of-the-Titans tour with Slayer , Anthrax and Megadeth in early 1991 , they toured Europe as the opening act for Megadeth and accompanied them also Extreme , Van Halen , Poison and Iggy Pop as opening act. At the end of that year, the facelift had achieved gold status. Staley was very stressed by the rigors of the touring.

After the album Dirt , Staley was at the height of his career. The EP Jar of Flies was number 1 on the American album charts in 1994, while the singer's addiction worsened massively. Staley fell deeper and deeper into his drug problem, making it harder and harder for Alice in Chains to record. At the end of 1994 the band members separated temporarily; Staley was running its own project at the time, called Mad Season.

1995 Alice got back together in Chains. The band produced another album which they called Alice in Chains . A tour did not take place again because neither Staley nor the alcoholic drummer Sean Kinney were able to do so. However, Alice in Chains returned once more in 1996 when she played her " Unplugged " gig on April 10th . Three months later, Staley gave his last concert with Alice in Chains in Kansas City . In October 1998, the band recorded two songs with Staley as the singer, which should appear on a best-of album.

Mad Season

Mad Season was a so-called super band founded in October 1994, in which different musicians played together who were primarily engaged in other bands. Mad Season included Staley Mike McCready (guitar) from Pearl Jam , Barrett Martin (drums) from Screaming Trees and John "Baker" Saunders (bass) from Walkabouts . The band emerged from a jam session. Mad Season only played one album ( Above ), for which Staley wrote all the lyrics. Above achieved Gold status in the US .

Class of '99

The Superband Class of '99 was Staley's last musical project. The band included Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine , Stephen Perkins , Martyn LeNoble , Matt Serletic and Layne Staley himself. With this group Staley recorded his last song in 1998, a cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall (Parts 1 & 2). The song was recorded for the soundtrack of Robert Rodriguez's film The Faculty . A music video was also shot for Part 1 .

Staley's songs

About half of the songs Staley wrote for Alice in Chains and Mad Season were about drug problems. Titles like God Smack or Junkhead made explicit references to drugs or addiction, and in Junkhead Staley wrote:

What's my drug of choice? Well what have you got?

“ What is the drug of my choice? Well what do you have on offer? "

The 1992 album Dirt was described by the press as a "diary of drug pain".

Meaning of staleys

Staley was one of the best protagonists of grunge for The Guardian newspaper .

Jerry Cantrell appreciated Staley's voice among other things:

It sounded like it came out of a 350-pound biker rather than skinny little Layne. I considered his voice to be my voice?

“ His voice sounded like it came from a 350-pound biker and not from the skinny little Layne. To me his voice was my voice. "

Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready, who played with Staley on Mad Season in 1994, admired the singer:

He was funny and lucid, and without a doubt he was not reluctant to be a star .

" He was funny and bright, and no doubt he had no problem being a star ."

Death and aftermath

Staley died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine (so-called speedball ). The exact date of death is not known. Staley's body was found in his Seattle apartment on April 19, 2002, after Staley had not been seen for about two weeks. The date of death was retrospectively set to April 5, 2002, exactly eight years after the death of Kurt Cobain.

To commemorate Layne Staley, a benefit concert is held in Seattle every August . An aid fund was also set up in 2002 that bears his name ( Layne Staley Fund ). He supports local drug therapy facilities and drug advice centers .

Discography

Alice in Chains

• 1990: We Die Young (EP)
• 1991: facelift
• 1992: Sap (EP)
• 1992: Dirt
• 1994: Jar of Flies (EP)
• 1995: Alice in Chains
• 1996: MTV Unplugged (Live)
• 2000: Live! (Live)

Mad Season

• 1995: Above

literature

• Adriana Rubio: Layne Staley, Angry Chair: A Look Inside the Heart & Soul of an Incredible Musician . Xanadu Enterprises, 2003, ISBN 978-0-933638-13-6 (English).
• Adriana Rubio: Layne Staley: Get Born Again . ARTS Publications, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9766590-1-3 (English).
• Jon Wiederhorn: Damage Done: Alice in Chains' Layne Staley. Interview with Layne Staley in: Rolling Stone, February 8, 1996.
• Nick Talevski: Rock Obituaries - Knocking On Heaven's Door , Omnibus Press 2010, ISBN 978-0-85712-117-2 .
• Jake Brown: Alice in Chains: In the Studio . SCB Distributors, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9834716-4-6 .
• Charles R. Cross: The last days of Layne Staley . Rolling Stone dated June 1, 2002.

Web links

Commons : Layne Staley  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Alice in Chains singer's legacy lives on through music (English)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Late Alice In Chains singer Layne Staley's Last Interview Revealed In New Book (English)
3. ↑ Alice in Chains - Topic: Love, Hate, Love (Live at Glasgow Barrowland, Glasgow, UK March 1993). January 25, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Private website about Demri Parrot ( memento of the original from October 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 24, 2014). 
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Charles R. Cross: The last days of Layne Staley . Rolling Stone dated June 1, 2002.
6. ↑ At the Unplugged concert recorded in April 1996, Staley wore gloves to hide puncture scars on the back of his hand. S. on Wiederhorn: Damage Done: Alice in Chains' Layne Staley. Interview with Layne Staley in: Rolling Stone, February 8, 1996.
7. ↑ Demri Parrott Murphy (English)
8. ↑ Michael Christopher: Layne Staley: Angry Chair. PopMatters, March 19, 2003, accessed January 30, 2009 . 
9. ^ Rolling Stone, November 25, 1998
10. ↑ ^{a b} Jon Wiederhorn: Damage Done: Alice in Chains' Layne Staley. Interview with Layne Staley in: Rolling Stone, February 8, 1996.
11. ↑ Admission of Staley's sister Liz to Rubio's biography ( memento of the original from April 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 24, 2014). 
12. ↑ Jake Brown: Alice in Chains: In the Studio . SCB Distributors, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9834716-4-6 .
13. ↑ www.allmusic.com: Band biography Alice in Chains by Stephen Thomas Erlewine and Greg Prato
14. ↑ Rock singer lay dead for two weeks
15. ↑ Alice in Chains: singer Layne Staley dies
16. ↑ Layne Staley Last 3 Recorded Songs Before His Death - #ErikTomrenWrites . In: #ErikTomrenWrites . July 26, 2015 ( eriktomrenwrites.com [accessed November 15, 2018]).
17. ↑ Greatest Un-Hits: Class of '99's “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” (1998) . In: Popdose . July 20, 2011 ( popdose.com [accessed November 18, 2018]).
18. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/apr/22/guardianobituaries.davesimpson Obituaries of the Guardian on Layne Staley of April 22, 2002.
19. ↑ Grunge star Layne Staley has died