SATO guitarist Ken Kramer said, “I just remember him as an unconditionally loving person. It didn’t matter, any of you guys, whoever you were, if you knew him, he loved you unconditionally, no matter what.”
Andrew Wood’s fiancée, Xana La Fuente, recalled, “The last time I saw Mike, I told him I wouldn’t give up on him even if I was standing over his grave. Yesterday marks twenty-one years, sixteen hours, and … well, you guys know [Wood’s death]. The people that were there for me during that were Jerry, Mike—you guys made all that a lot better for me. We don’t say good-bye to Mike. We say hello to heaven.”
Happenin’ Harry, a Los Angeles show promoter and musician, said that when they lived together, Mike walked out of Harry’s closet wearing his clothes because he wanted to dress up as Harry for Halloween. He also recalled Mike’s giving out hundred-dollar bills at shows to starving guitar players who didn’t have enough gas to get home. Harry once went over to Mike’s house when Mike was “so proud” he had gotten a new car. “Dude, check it out!” Harry thought he would get a ride, but Mike got in the car by himself and drove it around the block.
Jerry and Sean were in attendance. Jerry said, “Looking at all those pictures is amazing. It made me think about the first time I met him, which was in Burien, I guess. My mother and my grandmother had just passed, and I didn’t really have anywhere to go. I had met this guy Tim Branom, and he had invited me to come to his house and to stay for a couple of days. I was kind of camped out in his basement, and he said this guy was coming over to play bass with us to try out for Gypsy Rose, I guess. Mike cruises up on a motorcycle, and he just looked really cool, man. He was a great guy. We got to spend about a week together. I didn’t make the band, actually. Brock [Graue] did. I got cut. I think Mike lasted a little longer than I did.”
“I met Layne … very shortly after that,” Jerry explained. “He introduced me to Sean, and we were talking about maybe getting together and jamming. He’s like, ‘Do you got any ideas for a bass player?’ I was like, ‘I met this guy Mike Starr, who’s really cool.’ He’s like, ‘That’s really weird, because he’s my friend and I’m dating his sister. I think I can make that happen.’ So he brought him down, and that’s how everything started for us.”
“I’m just thinking about all the good stuff, and there was a lot of it. We created some really amazing music together. That will always continue to live. We’re in the process of playing that, and still living that. That part is always alive, and Mike was a big part of that. We were a bunch of rat kids, man. We kind of bonded together; we lived under a wharf at the Music Bank. We ran keys—Layne and I ran keys for TV dinners. Mike and Sean and I, we’d go to 7-Elevens at four o’clock in the morning to get the old dried-up food to eat. We relied on each other and we were a family. Gayle gave us a place to live, and we lived in that house for a long time. John lived with us for a while. Mel was part of the family. He was a good man. He had a good soul. He had a big heart. I heard a very good friend of mine, who’s not here anymore, say that the best that we can hope for is to be human, and Mike most certainly was that. He was my friend. I love him and I’ll miss him.”22
Chapter 29
There’s a history not to be forgotten, and there’s a history about to be made.
—SUSAN SILVER
BECAUSE LAYNE DIED WITHOUT a will, was not married, and had no children, his biological parents had to go to court to be named coadministrators of his estate. According to a court document, Layne’s assets were valued “in the approximate amount of over $500,000” and his liabilities at “less than $100,000.”1 There are no publicly available estimates for the current value of the estate twelve years after Layne’s death.
The process of going through Layne’s apartment and taking inventory of his personal effects was not easy. Because of health concerns surrounding the drug paraphernalia found in the apartment and Layne’s hepatitis C diagnosis, a special cleaning crew was hired to sanitize the entire apartment so they could start packing up Layne’s things.
Mike Korjenek, an employee at a waterproofing company that had previously done work in Layne’s building, was hired to do some work in Layne’s apartment less than a week after his death. When Korjenek and his colleague walked into the apartment—knowing the identity of the previous owner—they noticed the carpeting had been changed and all the furniture had been removed.
“It was pretty much empty, and it looked like there had been some work done already on the interior,” Korjenek recalled. As he was working, the apartment was already being shown to potential buyers. “One of the realtors, a woman realtor, turned to me and in so many words she said, ‘Don’t mention anything about that rock star dying here.’”
After his death, it was discovered that Layne had several storage units broken into, with personal effects missing or stolen. Among the items taken and later recovered: Layne’s artwork, which the estate found itself in the frustrating position of having to buy back from someone who thought “Layne would want them to have it”; his Harley Davidson motorcycle, which was driven for fifty miles on two flat tires and displayed in someone’s living room; and items from his car, which was also extensively vandalized. After hearing of his death, the Lynnwood Police Department contacted their Seattle counterparts to inform them they had Layne’s MTV Video Music Award in their evidence room. Also taken but not yet recovered as of this writing were Layne’s journals.2
Susan later said, “I had been through an incident in 2002 with another client who had been a very serious drug addict who had a lot of his belongings in different storage lockers that were broken into. And at one point, a box of his belongings made its way to the hands of some guy that tried to extort $50,000 for himself and his bandmates for this box of belongings, and that was a terrible feeling.”3
Some of the items might be missing for reasons other than theft. Layne was very generous, according to multiple sources. An example: several years earlier, he had given Ron Holt handwritten lyrics and artwork, items that Holt has since lost. There is a market for Layne Staley memorabilia, and it is potentially very lucrative. According to Darren Julien, president and CEO of Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, the lyrics and art could be worth several thousand dollars each. Depending on their content, his journals could be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Layne’s original artwork for the cover of Above, along with the corresponding handwritten letters from Layne to the record label, sold at Christie’s for more than ten thousand dollars.4
* * *
Less than a year after his death, Adriana Rubio’s book, Layne Staley: Angry Chair—A Look Inside the Heart and Soul of an Incredible Musician, was published in January 2003. The book was poorly written, and its only news value was a series of quotes attributed to Layne that Rubio claimed were from an interview he gave during a 3 A.M. phone call on February 3, 2002. Because the book was published after his death, Layne was never able to comment about the quotes attributed to him. Evidence suggests the conversation never happened.
In the updated e-book, retitled Layne Staley: Get Born Again, Rubio said she spoke to Layne for two and a half hours and was going to publish the complete transcript of that conversation. Based on what Rubio wrote, it is clear she did not speak to Layne for two and a half hours. The portion of her book detailing their conversation runs approximately six pages. In contrast, my interviews with Randy Hauser—two hours and thirty-three minutes—run 101 pages; with Paul Rachman—one hour and twelve minutes—run thirty-three pages; with Mark Pellington—twenty-seven minutes—run eleven pages. There is no way what Rubio published is anywhere near a two-and-a-half-hour transcript.
During my research, I have read or listened to Layne’s comments in many interviews over the years and obtained quotes attributed to him. In doing so, I became familiar with his way of speaking, his word selection, and the types of subjects he would and wouldn’t discuss. If you set aside the substance of the comments in the Rubio book, it is necessary to look at the language. It doesn’t read or
sound like something he would have said. She quotes Layne at least ten times making specific reference to lyrics and titles of Alice in Chains or Mad Season songs. During my research over the course of three years, I have not found a single instance of Layne’s referencing his own lyrics or song titles the way Rubio claims he did in her interview.
In the first edition of her book, there is a quote attributed to Layne in which he speaks of Jim Morrison’s poetry, which concludes, “Please do me a favor, go and read about Morrison and God, go and see how the government of all countries kill us, go and watch the news … then let me know if I’m wrong: Can I be as my GOD AM?” In addition to the lyrical reference to “God Am,” Layne is alleged to have touched on a pet topic of Rubio’s: she wrote a book titled Jim Morrison: Ceremony—Exploring the Shaman Possession, and it should be noted that, for it, she tried to interview a man in Oregon claiming to be Morrison, who had allegedly faked his own death decades earlier.5
Rubio and John Brandon were collaborating on a biopic about Layne, with Rubio writing the screenplay and Brandon directing and contributing to the script. According to Rubio, one of the producers involved received a letter from the law firm that represents Alice in Chains. A partial excerpt of the letter, quoted on Rubio’s blog, reads, “The literary work upon which your project is based contains misleading information about our clients and portrays our clients in a negative and false light. Since our clients cannot be involved with your film and will not support any project based in whole or in part on any literary work written by Ms. Rubio and Mr. Brandon, our clients would prefer that you cease developing your project and move on to one that does not require our clients’ input or the literary work written by Ms. Rubio and Mr. Brandon.”
According to Rubio’s blog profile, the project was derailed because “The Staley Estate did not authorize it.” In an e-mail, Rubio said she had passed my interview request on to John Brandon but had not heard back. She declined to be interviewed, citing her mother’s poor health. “With all due respect,” she wrote, “both Layne Staley and AIC are not a priority in my life now.” Rubio’s book further contributed to the misinformation about Layne, enough that more than a decade later, her “interview” is still cited on his Wikipedia page as of this writing. Layne’s family has disavowed her book.6
On December 9, 2011, an attorney filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office seeking to trademark the Alice in Chains name under the ownership of Nancylayneco LLC, a Seattle-based company owned and controlled by Nancy Layne McCallum. Attorneys representing Alice in Chains filed a notice of opposition in January 2013, objecting to McCallum’s application and requesting it be denied by the USPTO. As of this writing, ownership of the Alice in Chains trademark has not yet been determined, but according to a legal filing dated July 9, 2014, an extension for the discovery period has been requested because both sides are “engaged in settlement discussions.”7
* * *
In 2001, Chris Cornell started working on material for Audioslave. According to court records, he checked himself in to rehab in late 2002, and, while he was there, he and Susan separated. Cornell filed for divorce a year later.8 According to a court document filed by Susan’s attorneys, Cornell wanted to finalize the divorce quickly because his girlfriend, the Paris-based publicist Vicky Karayiannis, was pregnant, and he wanted to start a family with her. They would later marry. He gave Susan a settlement offer, which she accepted, and the divorce was finalized on March 2, 2004.9
Litigation surrounding the divorce would play out over several years, involving multiple cases, courts, and attorneys in Washington and California. There were further legal disputes about personal effects of his that had remained at their Seattle home, now owned by Susan, including Grammy awards, lyrics and demos for songs, and a collection of guitars that Cornell had used during his career.
* * *
At the beginning of the decade, Alice in Chains was still on hiatus. Although he left the door open for an Alice reunion as long as all four members were “alive,” Jerry made another solo album.10 Dave Hillis moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and ran into Jerry at the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood. The two wound up hanging out together. At the time, Hillis was living in a studio apartment in Hollywood and was waiting for a two-bedroom unit to open up in his building. Jerry eventually took over his old apartment.
According to Hillis, there were a lot of musicians and actors who lived in the building, including Comes with the Fall, a band from Atlanta that Jerry was a fan of. This was the beginning of Jerry’s friendship with William DuVall.
“Comes with the Fall had just moved from Atlanta to LA,” William said during a 2013 interview. “[Jerry] came up and introduced himself to me at the Dragonfly Club on Santa Monica in LA. That’s how we met. Then it evolved into him learning our songs with us in our apartment. He would sit there, ‘Show me that thing you’re doing.’ Then he was finishing up Degradation Trip and he asked us to go on tour with him, so that kind of cemented our friendship.”11
William’s musical career began with the Atlanta hardcore band Neon Christ in the fall of 1983, in which he played guitar. Neon Christ released a self-recorded, self-produced record in early 1984 on Social Crisis Records—a name William came up with. In addition to being musicians and record producers, Neon Christ had to be business entrepreneurs, responsible for selling their own records. “In the early days of the hardcore scene in America, it was so small. I’d even extend that to the entire scene in the whole world—little pockets of people in Finland, then you’d find out about a little pocket of people in Japan, a little pocket in Italy, and you’d get these letters,” William said during a 2013 interview with Drowned in Sound. “To be in your bedroom trying to come up with these songs, then to be in your friend’s bedroom shoving envelopes and getting orders from Russia, then you get these broken-English letters … This was pre-Internet, in the early eighties, and it was so small and so innocent, and so passionate.”
On the significance of the hardcore scene, William said, “The hardcore thing is the first time the kids actually seized control of the means of production, in a meaningful way that was happening concurrently across the world, without you and your little scene knowing about anyone else. It’s a weird thing in the collective consciousness, where it just had to happen.”12
According to Randy DuTeau, William’s bandmate and singer in Neon Christ, the band started out heavily influenced by thrash, but the music evolved from an emphasis on speed to an emphasis on structure and melody. That musical progression was largely the result of William’s diverse range of musical influences up to that point.13
Jerry tapped Comes with the Fall and another band, Swarm, as his opening acts for a monthlong solo tour of clubs and small venues in March and April 2001. In addition to being an opening act, Comes with the Fall would be pulling double duty as Jerry’s backing band, because Rob Trujillo and Mike Bordin were unavailable for touring.14
After returning to Seattle to attend Layne’s memorial service, he decided not to cancel or postpone any of his remaining tour dates. That spring and summer, he found himself in the odd situation of opening for Nickelback and Creed, both influenced by Alice in Chains.
The Nickelback/Jerry Cantrell tour came to Seattle a month after Layne’s death. Jerry dedicated “Down in a Hole” and “Brother” to Layne, the latter of which featured a guest appearance by Ann and Nancy Wilson. He closed his set with “Them Bones.”15
* * *
Sean and the former guitarist from Queensrÿche, Chris DeGarmo, formed a side project in 1999 after they finished touring behind Boggy Depot. Mike Inez and Vinnie Dombroski were recruited to fill out the band. The group went by the name Spys4Darwin—named after one of the homeless people who hung around the Seattle recording studio where they worked. In 2001, the band released a six-song EP titled microfish. After Jason Newsted quit Metallica, Mike was considered as a replacement, although Rob Trujillo ultimately got the job. Mike joined Heart in 2002, a gig
that would last for four years. On October 22, 2004, the Alice in Chains partnership—at this time consisting of Jerry and Sean—received a letter from Sony Music that stated, “Sony BMG has recently received notice that both Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney have ceased to perform as members of the group ‘Alice in Chains’. Sony BMG hereby notifies you … of our election to terminate the term of the Agreement,” referring to the band’s contract signed in September 1989.16 Alice in Chains was without a record label for the first time in fifteen years.
More than two years after Layne’s death and two months after being dropped by Sony, it took another tragedy—one of cataclysmic proportions—to bring the surviving members of Alice in Chains back together. On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 to 9.3 earthquake in the Indian Ocean set off a devastating series of tidal waves, killing more than 227,000 people and displacing nearly 1.7 million in fourteen countries throughout Southeast Asia. It was the third-strongest earthquake on record since measurements of magnitude began in 1899.17
A few months later, Sean was helping to organize a benefit show in Seattle, with all proceeds going to relief efforts. The show was announced on KISW. The buzz and demand for tickets was immediate. According to Jeff Gilbert, “It just detonated all over this city. I’ll tell you, that thing sold out so flippin’ fast, there were people scrambling, trying to find tickets.”
The plan for the show was for Sean, Jerry, and Mike—in their first public performance as Alice in Chains since 1996—to play with a revolving door of singers, including Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin, Heart’s Ann Wilson, and Damageplan’s Pat Lachman. The show ended with Wilson, Keenan, Lachman, and Scantlin taking turns singing in what the Seattle Post-Intelligencer described as a “We Are the World”-esque performance of “Rooster.” The show raised more than $100,000 for relief efforts.18
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