Alice in Chains established themselves as the first band out of Seattle’s “grunge” movement to have a gold record. Addiction and infighting led to the band stop touring in any major capacity by 1993. Frontman Layne Staley’s addiction to heroin would be the group’s achilles heel and it wasn’t something that the singer really hid.
Layne Staley’s Struggle with Addiction
A lot of songs from the album Dirt captured Layne’s struggle as did their self-titled record. The band’s last major appearance on the road would be in 1996. It was obvious from Layne’s changing physical appearance that he was struggling with addiction.
Following that summer, Alice in Chains’ camp lay dormant and Layne was hit with devastating news. He learned that his ex-fiance Demri Parrot had died. It was said by those close to him that he never fully recovered from her death.
In October of 1997, the band’s manager Susan Silver appeared at the North By Northwest Music and Media Conference and the Seattle Times reported that, “She hinted with a sigh that Alice is about to self-destruct.”
Jerry Cantrell Focus on Solo Projects
A few months later, guitarist Jerry Cantrell turned his attention to putting out a solo record. As Cantrell started doing press for his solo effort, the question of Alice in Chains’ inactivity continually came up, as well as questions about Layne’s health.
He was asked about the band’s inactivity in February of 1998, telling MTV, “Well, there’s really nothing up with Alice in Chains. We’ve been together for 11 years now, and we’ve done a lot of great music together and accomplished a lot of things and that’s very special to me. There also comes a point in the life of any band, I think, that it’s time to change, and time to try new things.”
According to MTV News, Columbia Records took out ads in Billboard Magazine touting a new box set titled, Men in the Box. The band, however, denied that anything new was on the horizon and called the ad “premature”.
In August of 1998, producer David Jerden, who produced Facelift and Dirt, got a call that Alice in Chains wanted some studio time to record a few new songs for an upcoming box set, the Music Bank.
Jerden was working in his El Dorado studio with The Offspring. The Offspring allowed Alice to use the studio. Due to the tight scheduling, the guys in Alice in Chains could only come in for one weekend on August 22 & 23.
Based on Jerden’s conversations with Alice’s manager, each of the two days in the studio would be used to record, overdub and mix one song. Things didn’t exactly go to plan.
While Jerry, Sean and Mike from Alice showed up in the morning of August 22nd and recorded their parts fairly quickly, Layne didn’t show up until sometime after midnight.
“He looked like an eighty year old man.” – Bryan Carlstrom
Engineer Bryan Carlstrom was shocked at Layne Staley’s appearance, recalling in the book Alice in Chains: The Untold Story, “Layne showed up at the studio and I didn’t recognize him. He looked like an eighty year old man. He didn’t have any teeth. I was shocked, to say the least.”
A studio runner and assistant engineer named Elan Trujillo shared a similar sentiment, recalling in the same book, “When Layne came in, we were all shocked because Layne definitely didn’t look how he used to. He had obviously been really affected by his substance abuse at that point…it was really sad, I was really heartbroken.”
Despite Layne’s change in appearance, his humour and wit were still there, according to those who took part of the recording session. Layne spent time in and out of the bathroom, nodding off on the couch.
At 5:00 in the morning, Layne wanted to continue to work, but the studio staff and the band were exhausted and wanted to come back the following day. Layne claimed he had to go back home to Seattle for his sister’s wedding.
David De Sola, author of Alice in Chains: The Untold Story, checked for Layne’s sister’s marriage certificate and found that Layne’s sister got married earlier in the year and Layne was not present at the ceremony. Jerden suspected that Layne wanted to go back to Seattle to score.
De Sola wrote in his book what happened next between Jerry and Layne. Jerry yelled Layne’s name in an exasperated tone of voice.
“…Layne acted like he was afraid, terrified of Jerry.” – David De Sola
De Sola wrote, “Layne turned into this little kid that had been reprimanded severely by his parents. It was one of the strangest things I ever saw. How Jerry wasn’t putting up with Layne’s bs anymore and Layne, who had such a strong personality, completely turned into nothing. He wasn’t crying but he looked like he was about to cry. Layne acted like he was afraid, terrified of Jerry.”
The studio sessions were suspended with no vocals being recorded. The tension in the studio soon leaked to Rolling Stone Magazine, who wrote an article on September 4, 1998 titled “Malice in Chains”.
“I’ve never f-ing used your lyrics and I’m not about to.” – Layne Staley
The article, mostly citing Jerden, created some bad blood between the producer and Alice’s camp. According to Jerden, Layne Staley told Jerry Cantrell, “I’ve never f-ing used your lyrics and I’m not about to.”
The guitarist shot back against these accusations and Jerden’s recollection, telling the magazine, “If you look at any of our discs, I mean, Layne sang a lot of my lyrics… and I sang a lot of his. It’s not like one guy’s writing all this s—.”
“He should be ashamed — his lack of respect is disgraceful.” – Susan Silver
In the same article, the band’s manager Susan Silver slammed Jerden for leaking details of the session to the magazine, stating, “I’m sickened by the fact that Dave would try and lay blame on everyone around him for something that he was so clearly responsible for. All this from a professional who has received many benefits from his previous association with Alice in Chains. He should be ashamed — his lack of respect is disgraceful.”
Layne finished his vocal tracks with producer Tobi Wright. Due to the tensions between Jerry and Layne at the time, they had to be in the studio at different times. Wright recalled to David De Sola, “Those two songs required a lot of pro tool editing because Layne would do something, he’d go home, Jerry would come in and hear what he did and he’d change it again. So it was a lot of digital manipulation.”
The two resulting songs were “Get Born Again” and “Died”, which were the final two songs Layne recorded with the band. Both songs were included as part of the Alice in Chains Music Bank Box Set with “Get Born Again” being released as a single.
The video for “Get Born Again” wouldn’t use any current footage of the band due to Layne’s appearance and instead used a compilation of their old videos. The single peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts and Layne revealed to Rockline that the song was about religious hypocrisy.
“Died”, meanwhile, was written about Layne’s former fiance, Demri.
“It’s more ‘Alice in a jam room’. – Jerry Cantrell
In the liner notes of the Music Bank box set, Jerry wrote, “I wish we’d have got a bit more time to work on that one. It’s more ‘Alice in a jam room’. It’s not as finished as “Born Again”. It’s vicious, it’s got teeth, it doesn’t have many overdubs and it’s maybe a purer, rawer form of what Alice is. It isn’t pretty and that’s not a bad thing at all,” he’d write.
Layne Staley continued to be in seclusion in the years that followed. He passed away in April of 2002 due to a drug overdose. He was only 34 years old.
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