In 1995, Alice in Chains released their final studio album with frontman Layne Staley.
Alice in Chains: A Wounded Animal
While Dirt served as a warning sign, their self-titled album was a sonic farewell. The album cover was graced by a three-legged dog, which some say represented Alice in Chains, who by this point in time, was a wounded animal.
The album debuted at No. 1 and moved several million copies, despite Alice in Chains only playing 5 live shows to support the record and limited tv appearances.
Alice in Chains nearly imploded in the summer of 1994 following the release of their EP Jar of Flies. The band’s upcoming opening slot for Metallica, was cancelled after Layne Staley returned from rehab, only to show up high to rehearsals. This resulted in in-fighting within the group and drummer Sean Kinney threatened to never play with Layne again.
“We were like four plants trying to grow inside the same pot.” – Jerry Cantrell
Guitarist Jerry Cantrell told Rolling Stone, “We’d been going full force, just running at top speed with our eyes closed. We had been way too close for too long, and we were suffocating. We were like four plants trying to grow inside the same pot.”
In the same interview, Layne Staley added, “When we first got together as a band, we were all brothers. We lived in the same house and partied together and drank as much as each other. But then we started to split apart and went different ways, and we felt like we were betraying each other.”
Layne Staley Joins Side-Project, Mad Season
During the time the members drifted apart, Layne took up the side project Mad Season with Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees and John Baker Saunders of The Walkabouts.
Mad Season enjoyed some success with their album, Above. Meanwhile, Cantrell envisioned doing a solo project working with Scott Rockwell, the drummer for Gruntruck.
Rockwell recalled to author David Desola in the book, Alice in Chains: The Untold Story, “I was playing drums and he was playing guitar and we’d record and then he’d pick up the bass and put down some bass tracks and stuff. So we worked on three songs, I think two of them made the album,” referring to Alice in Chains’ self-titled record.
After 3 songs were written, the pair headed into the studio for pre-production. Jerry’s initial idea was to get Jar of Flies producer Tobi Wright on board and try to coax the other members of the band to come work on some new songs while Layne was off with Mad Season.
Layne Staley Reunites with Alice in Chains
After things with Mad Season slowed down, Layne was invited back to the band to work on new material. Jerry’s idea was that if things didn’t work out with Alice, he would have released the material under a solo record.
The label wasn’t happy with Tobi Wright being chosen as producer. Nick Terzo, who signed Alice in Chains and worked for Sony, thought Wright was an enabler for Layne. Wright defended himself in the same book, saying he had a special relationship with Layne and he could relate, having gone through some of his own personal problems.
In addition to the band’s internal problems, they were also dealing with external problems from their management and record label. According to the book Alice in Chains: The Untold Story, the band made most of the record without their manager, Susan Silver or their record label being in the know.
Layne Staley was mostly working during the nights in the studio while the rest of the band would come in during the days. Since Layne was struggling with addiction, they never really knew when he would show up.
It would take six months to record the album with the band’s previous efforts being done in a third of the time.
“When he was cognizant, he was the sweetest, bright-eyed guy you’d ever want to meet.” – Jerry Cantrell
The problems that plagued the band prior to their breakup were merely shoved under the carpet instead of being addressed. Jerry Cantrell revealed in the book, Grunge is Dead, “It was a really painful session because it took so long. It was horrifying to see Layne in that condition. Yet when he was cognizant, he was the sweetest, bright-eyed guy you’d ever want to meet. To be in a meeting with him and have him fall asleep in front of you was gut-wrenching.”
Drummer Sean Kinney revealed in the book, Everybody Loves Our Town, “A lot of the songs that Jerry and Layne wrote, you can hear what they have to say to each other right there. It’s spelled out in a roundabout way. It’s a way more malicious and brutal album than Dirt was.”
The lyrics weren’t just limited to taking shots at each other as the press and their record label soon became targets as well. Many rumours began floating around about Layne Staley’s health, missing teeth, missing arms, and it resulted in the song “Grind”, which took a shot at the press for speculating.
During the recording of the album, Mad Season’s Above hit Gold. Sony called up Layne in the studio and congratulated him on the feat while also threatening him, telling him he had 9 days to finish up the Alice in Chain’s record. This resulted in the song “Sludge Factory”.
“Layne was going through the depths of his heroin addiction.” – Mike Inez
Bassist Mike Inez had some somber thoughts, looking back at the record. He told author Greg Prato, “That it was a really dark time… Layne was going through the depths of his heroin addiction. It was really tough watching that and that permeated into everything we did.”
Susan Silver, the band’s manager, told Greg Prato in Grunge is Dead, “It took eight or nine months and hours and hours of waiting for Layne to come out of the bathroom. Days of waiting for him to show up in the studio and through all those last years, he and I were very close. I kept telling him, ‘You don’t have to do this. You have enough money to go live a quiet life if that’s what you want. Don’t do this if that’s what’s perpetuating your addiction.'”
Silver went on to reveal that due to Layne’s personal problems, the sessions for the album had to be stopped several times and that it was, “tearing everybody to shreds”.
Sony threatened to pull support for the album and stop paying for studio time if Layne didn’t start showing up regularly to the recording sessions. Eventually, the album got done.
“Alice in Chains” is Finally Released
Released on November 3, 1995, the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Charts but the LA Times wrote an article about the album in 1996. The article discussed how the band’s personal problems were costing them millions of dollars and prevented them from touring extensively.
Jerry Cantrell ended up taking on a bigger role when it came to singing duties and credited Layne Staley with pushing him out of his comfort zone. He sang lead vocals on “Heaven Beside You”, “Grind” and “Over Now”.
The Nona Tapes
It was pretty common for labels to ask for bands to do electronic press kits where they talk about their new album and the band but Alice in Chains wanted to do something different, releasing a mockumentary called the Nona Tapes.
For the mockumentary, Cantrell dressed up as a tv interviewer named Nona Weisbaum who would interview the band members. The label wasn’t happy with the mockumentary but it soon developed a cult following.
In 2020, Jerry dressed up as Nona Weisbaum again for a livestream event when the band became the recipient of the Museum of Pop Culture’s Founders Awards event in Seattle.
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Some of these magazines talk only about Layne drug addiction. He was much more that that. His fans and stans will not let y’all disrespect his name again. We all know about his problem with drugs. Be forreal.