What in life can be sadder then the premature loss of life?
It happens everyday, countless millions suffer the loss of
a loved one or freind. But sometimes death effects much more
then just the people in ones everyday life. Layne Staley's
passing is one of these ocations. I know I am not alone in saying
that i have lost I person dear to me even though I have never meet
the man. Through his music, Layne has had a huge infuance in my life.
As a musicain myself, Alice in Chains was one of the bands that made
me want to pick up the guitar and strive for greatness. And on a more
personal note, I can think of countless dark hours in my life when
AIC has been my soul componey & counsler in times of need. Hearing
songs such as 'Down in a Hole' or 'Over Now' has helped my cope with
depresion more times then I care to remember. True, the lyrics my not
have always been written by Layne, but the way he brought those words
to life with his pain filled yet hountingly beuitaful voise would always
fill me with hope when I couldn't find it elsewhere. The emotion he
putforth reminded me that I wasn't anlone in my pain. For this he will
always live on in my heart. M.T.Moon
The goal I have for this site is for everyone sharing in this loss that
sees this page to sign the gestbook. Once I have at least 25 entrys I will send
it to The offical AIC site in hopes of it reaching a remaining member.
Even if that never happens, it would still be a great way for us to remember
this great man and to let others know what he ment to us. May Layne have
finaly found peace.
You should also pay a vist to Alice in Chains.com for more info & updates.
The following is taken from the MTV site. That is where roumor became
sad fact for me, & hundreds of others I'd bet.
Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains' Layne Staley was found dead in his Seattle home on Friday evening.
The King County Medical Examiner positively identified Staley's body on Saturday (April 20), following an autopsy. Exact time and cause of death are pending, as laboratory results could take several weeks, a spokesperson said. Staley was 34.
Police responded to a call to check on Staley's well-being that was placed by a family member who claimed to have not spoken to Staley for two weeks. They arrived at Staley's address with the family member in Seattle's University District at 5:41 p.m. PT on Friday, according to the police report. Upon discovering his body on the couch surrounded by intravenous drug paraphernalia, according to the Associated Press, officers called investigators from the medical examiner's office, who arrived on the scene at approximately 7:30-8:00 p.m., a spokesperson said. Authorities said he'd been dead for several days, so the body wasn't immediately identifiable as that of Staley, whose longtime battle with drug dependency was a central component of his band's music — a dark and bombastic sound that continues to influence artists some 15 years after the group first formed.
With Staley as their scowling, tortured frontman, Alice in Chains claimed a spot as the darkest and hardest band of the early '90s grunge movement, bringing a healthy dose of metal to the new movement. Born in Kirkland, Washington, in 1967, Staley formed Alice in Chains while still a high school student in the mid-'80s. The singer soon formed a friendship with guitarist Jerry Cantrell, who joined the band in 1987 and provided the other half of the group's creative core. Drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr (replaced in 1992 by Mike Inez) soon followed, and the band landed a deal with Columbia Records in 1989.
The band's 1990 debut, Facelift, found a home at both college rock and classic rock radio outlets, chiefly on the strength of the single "Man in the Box." The album soon went gold, and the band followed it with an appearance on the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's Seattle love letter, "Singles." With anticipation high, the band delivered Dirt in 1992, pushing AIC to triple platinum status with caustic tracks such as "Angry Chair," "Rooster" and "Them Bones." A prime spot on Lollapalooza soon followed, but the trek would be the band's last major tour and Alice in Chains would be hard pressed to maintain their momentum.
Alice in Chains released the EP Jar of Flies in 1994 and a self-titled album in 1995, but they did not tour to support either offering. During this relatively quiet time, Staley provided vocals for the 1995 debut album from Mad Season, which also featured Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and the Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin. While rumors swirled about Staley's declining health and drug dependency, the group surfaced in 1996 to perform on MTV's "Unplugged" series. Save for a series of compilations cobbled together by Columbia, it would be the last music Alice in Chains would release.
Cantrell pursued a solo career, releasing Boggy Depot (which also featured AIC's Inez and Kinney) in 1998, further fueling rumors that Staley was in ill health. The singer did little to quiet the rumors with his one-off appearance alongside Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins and Porno for Pyros bassist Martyn LeNoble on a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" that appeared on the soundtrack of 1998's "The Faculty."
While Staley's output had greatly diminished in recent years, his influence hasn't. Traces of the frontman's distinct vocal style and Alice in Chains' thick-as-a-brick sound can be heard in the work of Godsmack, Creed, Staind, Puddle of Mudd, Adema and a host of others.
Here is a follow up report I beleive taken on the 22nd from the same source.
With the passing of Layne Staley, those who knew him best remember him as deeply troubled yet immensely talented. Described as a caring person, he made great strides to elevate an underground genre to the mainstream. In the early '90s, Alice in Chains, along with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, were directly behind Nirvana on the grunge wave that began in Seattle and cascaded throughout the country.
The singer's Alice in Chains bandmates — guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez, drummer Sean Kinney and former bassist Mike Starr — their manager and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell gathered Saturday (April 20), a day after police discovered Staley's body in his home to pay tribute to their friend and fellow musician with a candlelight vigil at the Seattle Center, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. There, at the same location used to eulogize Kurt Cobain eight years ago this month, they shared feelings with friends and family members.
On Sunday, Alice in Chains issued a statement to express their loss. "It's good to be with friends and family as we struggle to deal with this immense loss ... and try to celebrate this immense life," the collective sentiment read. "We are looking for all the usual things: comfort, purpose, answers, something to hold on to, a way to let him go in peace.
"Mostly, we are feeling heartbroken over the death of our beautiful friend. He was a sweet man with a keen sense of humor and a deep sense of humanity. He was an amazing musician, an inspiration, and a comfort to so many. He made great music and gifted it to the world. We are proud to have known him, to be his friend, and to create music with him.
"For the past decade, Layne struggled greatly — we can only hope that he has at last found some peace.
We love you, Layne. Dearly. And we will miss you ... endlessly."
Colleagues, peers, young bands and fans alike were shocked and saddened by the passing of a friend, idol and influence.
Tom Morello, who met Staley nine years ago and collaborated with him on a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" in 1999 for the soundtrack to "The Faculty," remembered testing his metal mettle with the good-humored singer after his band, Rage Against the Machine, shared a Lollapalooza stage with Alice in Chains.
"Layne and I became good friends on the 1993 Lollapalooza tour," he said in a statement. "I will always remember him as the bright, funny, and amazingly talented singer who got up there every hot summer day in a gorgeous suit and sang like an angry angel. We would laugh until we split our sides arguing about who was 'more metal.' I hope now he is at peace."
Although he never collaborated with Staley, the late singer had a fan in Billy Corgan, whose Smashing Pumpkins enjoyed similar mainstream recognition at roughly the same time as Alice in Chains.
"Layne had an amazing voice that had such a beautiful, sad, haunting quality about it," Corgan's statement read. "He was different because his heaviness was in that voice. I saw Alice in Chains at one of their final performances, opening for Kiss at Tiger Stadium. They played outside in the sunshine, and they were awesome. I think that's a good way to remember someone who has and will be missed."
"Everybody in the band got teary-eyed when we heard," Adema guitarist Mike Ransom said in a statement. "Layne was what got me started in rock music. He's one of the greatest singers ever. It's so sad to hear about someone with such a beautiful voice suffer such a horrible tragedy. We've started playing 'Nutshell' [from 1994's Jar Of Flies EP] in tribute."
"Part of my teenage years just passed away in the form of a rock icon, a man who inspired me to start a band and who influenced its sound," wrote 24-year-old Drew in MTVNews.com's "You Tell Us". "I was so crushed to learn of Layne's death. I had deluded myself with the idea that he would grow healthy, overcome drugs, and do what he did best, sing. No man deserves to die alone at the hands of his own vice, especially when that man is a special part of one boy's artistic shaping and childhood. I miss you greatly, Layne. May they celebrate your life the way all legends deserve to be celebrated."
Not everyone's memories were as rose-colored. To many who knew Staley, thinking of him meant also lamenting over his longtime problem with heroin abuse. In the years after Alice in Chains' final album, 1995's eponymous LP, Staley was something of a recluse and hadn't been seen around Seattle's closely knit music scene in years. According to some residents, Seattle took a subdued, accepting approach to news of another seminal son gone before his time. While saddened, the collective mood seemed unfazed, considering the downward spiral that resulted from Staley's failed attempts at getting clean.
"He was never going to kick it, so in some respects, he's in a better place," said one Seattle music-industry professional.
"Layne wore his soul on the outside," wrote Heart's Ann Wilson, who contributed backing vocals to 1992's Sap EP. "He was luminous ... too tender for this world. We are all very sad to lose him, but happy that he's not sick anymore. He's free on his own journey."
Others chose not to guise their memories of his problem so poetically. Fellow Seattleite Mark Arm of Mudhoney hung with Staley in the early '90s, though he said the two hadn't kept company in six years or so. The last time he did see Layne, the picture wasn't pretty.
"I remember seeing him in '95 ... he turned up and was totally green, and my stomach turned at that point — watching somebody on a track that they couldn't get off. At that point I was dealing with my own sh--, so I was trying to put distance between myself and other people who kept indulging in a lifestyle that I was no longer comfortable dealing with.
"The thing that seems really weird to me," he continued, "is that these people were not complete idiots. They knew what they were doing and kept going. I don't know if you can even really call it a tragedy, because it wasn't out of the blue. The news isn't all that surprising, unfortunately.
"He was really into what he did and his heart was in the right place in terms of that. He had a fairly solid idea of who he was; [he] came from a cheesy metal background and totally transcended that. He just lost the plot somewhere along the way."
Staley's family asked fans and the media to honor their privacy as they mourn their loss. Contributions can be made in Layne's name to Eastside Recovery Center; 1412 140th Place NE; Bellevue, WA 98007.
—
Here are some ironic words from Jerry about a month before the end. Also taken from MTV's site.
"I never say die, man. It's not even anywhere near that. I've been working on my own thing for quite some time and I plan on continuing for many years. At the same time, who knows what will happen? We're all still around, so it's possible we could all do something someday, and I fully hope someday we will. It's just not gonna happen soon."
Saddly, the album I've been hopping for over the last 6 or 7 years could now never happen.
Layne Staley, Alice In Chains Singer, Dead At 34
04.20.2002
Joe D'Angelo, with additional reporting by Jennifer Vineyard
