Happy heavenly birthday to Layne Staley of Alice in Chains.
The Seattle rock legend would have been 59 today (Aug. 22), had he not died from a drug overdose in 2002.
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Layne Staley was born on Aug. 22, 1967, and went on to fame fronting the Seattle grunge band Alice in Chains but along with success came a drug habit that ultimately cost him his life. He was found dead from a mixture of heroin and cocaine at his home on April 5, 2002.
In an eerie coincidence, Staley’s body was found eight years to the day after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died from a self-inflicted gunshot on April 5, 1994, after he too battled drug addiction and struggled to come to terms with his newfound fame. Cobain’s body was found at his Seattle home three days later.
Singer Staley, guitarist Jerry Cantrell, bassist Mike Starr, and drummer Sean Kinney, formed Alice in Chains in early 1987. Two years later, the band was signed to Columbia Records.
Alice in Chains gained notice with the release of two EPs and their debut album, Facelift, in the early ‘90s, but the band really began to take off after a few of their songs were included in films. The track “Would?” turned up in Cameron Crowe’s 1992 film Singles, which chronicled the love lives of a group of twentysomethings using the Seattle music scene as a backdrop. AIC also had two songs featured on the soundtrack to The Last Action Hero in 1993.
That set the stage for Jar of Flies, which became the first EP to top The Billboard 200 when it debuted at No. 1 the week of Feb. 12, 1994, knocking Mariah Carey’s Music Box from the top spot.
Alice in Chains hit the top spot again a year later with their self-titled album. Before he recorded that album with his main band, Staley experimented with the side project Mad Season, featuring Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, the Screaming Trees’ Barrett Martin and John Baker Saunders.
“Layne had pretty much creatively cleared himself with Mad Season, but that was ultimately good for this record,” Cantrell said in an interview for The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. “When you put yourself in the situation where you don’t know what the f–k you are going to do, you come up with some of your best work off the top of your head and off the cuff. Other than ‘Grind’ and ‘Over Now,’ the rest of the stuff was all just music and riffs that we pieced together in the studio.”
The strategy worked, giving Alice in Chains their second title to enter at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 the week of Nov. 25, 1995.
Sadly, the band could not continue that success, and Staley eventually succumbed to his drug addiction. However, Alice in Chains regrouped in 2006 with new frontman William Duvall and remains active to this day.