Why I want to meet Layne Staley
i want to tell him that he can have wings and fly.
Layne Staley (placeholder)
Staley was born on August 22, 1967 in Kirkland, Washington. His parents were divorced by the time Staley was eight and this devastated him. Soon after, his family received a phone call stating that his father was dead, making Staley’s sadness worse. This statement later turned out to be false. Staley describes his experience from an Adriana Rubio interview: “My world became a nightmare,” he said. “There were just shadows around me. I got [a] call saying that my dad had died, [but] my family always knew he was around doing all kind of drugs. Since that call I always was wondering, ‘Where is my dad?’ I felt so sad for him and I missed him. He dropped out of my life for fifteen years.” Staley then discovered that he had talent to become a rockstar, thinking that if he became a celebrity his dad would return. He began writing songs in his teens and jamming with other musicians. At the same time, he did a bit of research to find out where his father was living and what kind of a man he was. By his adolesent years heavy metal would feed his listening habits. He would listen to the likes of Poison,Motely Crue,and Alice Cooper.
At the age of twelve, Staley began playing drums and played in several glam bands in his early teens, but aspired to be a singer. Whenever he told this to his fellow bandmates, they often poked fun of him, which infuriated Staley. He later traded in his drum set for a microphone. He met up with Jerry Cantrell in 1987 while at a party, and Cantrell soon asked him to join his band Diamond Lie. Eventually, the band renamed itself Alice in Chains. Originally a glam band, Alice in Chains shifted into marked metal influences, and was soon included as part of the burgeoning grunge movement.
Layne died of a Heroin over-dose in 2002.
Recent stories by and about Layne Staley
My favorite memory of Layne Staley
Layne and I were talking about the old days before he ws famous, we used to hang out at this house on capitol hill. It was full of life love and hope. There were always artists, musicians and hippies playing drums, taking acid and smoking weed. We went to a pot luck in the university district alot and played drums and ate and had a great time. At the time he was working on a side project called The Gacey Boys. I told him that i didn’t think that name was right, and he later changed it to Madseason, a european term for mushroom season. Anyway, that conversation was long and it made Layne smile and laugh remembering all that. That conversation ended up becoming the song “Long gone day” on the only Madseason record. During that same night, I told Layne that he had to do letterman and unplugged before the band broke up, he eventually did both. I didn’t realize it at the time but i had a big influence on him. Sure miss that man.
