Alice in Chains

by David de Sola

  14. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 72, 98.

  15. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 47, 60.

  16. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 105–6; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 157–58.

  17. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 275; for Novoselic’s acknowledgment of Susan in his speech during Nirvana’s induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10, 2014, see http://www.alternativenation.net/?p=46030.

  18. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 100, 105–6; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 60, 64.

  19. Alice in Chains biography, circa summer of 1989, copy provided by Ken Elmer.

  20. Sean Kinney and Layne Staley, Guest List interview, circa 1991, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRsZLGmJ0nw.

  21. The Hard Report, February 17, 1989, copy of article provided by Ken Elmer.

  22. Pulse, April 1989, copy of article provided by Ken Elmer.

  23. Seattle Times, “Alice in Chains Hopes to Link Up with a Major Deal,” May 19, 1989, copy of article provided by Ken Elmer.

  24. Don Kaye, Deathvine, Kerrang, July 15, 1989, copy of article provided by Ken Elmer.

  25. Rip, September 1989, copy of article provided by Ken Elmer.

  26. Jeffrey Ressner, “Alice in Chains: Through the Looking Glass,” Rolling Stone, November 26, 1992, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/alice-in-chains-through-the-looking-glass-rolling-stones-1992-feature-20110309.

  27. The estimated duration of negotiations between Alice in Chains and Columbia Records was conveyed to the author by Ken Deans in an interview and corroborated by Sean Kinney in a 2010 interview with Kinney and Jerry Cantrell on Faceculture.tv, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm511Gt3J0o.

  28. Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, interview, Faceculture.tv.

  29. Sony Music press release, “Michele Anthony Named President and Chief Operating Officer of Sony Music Label Group U.S.” December 2, 2005, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/michele-anthony-named-president-and-chief-operating-officer-of-sony-music-label-group-us-67493772.html.

  30. Alice in Chains, contract with CBS Records, September 11, 1989. The document is part of the case file for Nancy McCallum v. Alice in Chains Partnership et al., filed in King County Superior Court on May 2, 2013, and was obtained by the author through public records.

  CHAPTER 9

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Steve Alley, Bryan Carlstrom, Ronnie Champagne, Dave Hillis, Dave Jerden, Leslie Ann Jones, and Evan Sheeley.

    1. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 261; Music Bank liner notes; Jerden and Champagne interviews.

    2. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 273–74; Jeffrey Ressner, “Alice in Chains: Through the Looking Glass,” Rolling Stone, November 26, 1992, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/alice-in-chains-through-the-looking-glass-rolling-stones-1992-feature-20110309.

    3. Layne Staley and Sean Kinney, interview, Fuse TV, 1991, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdaClCmFXw.

    4. Evan Sheeley allowed the author to inspect and photograph the markings on Mike’s amp in August 2011, when it was being kept at his store, Bass Northwest; he later sold it at the request of Mike’s family, after Mike’s death.

    5. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 261; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 273.

  CHAPTER 10

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Bryan Carlstrom, Ronnie Champagne, Ken Deans, Jeff Gilbert, Dave Jerden, Jacob McMurray, Nick Pollock, and Rocky Schenck.

    1. Leone Pope, “Andrew Wood’s Poetry Revealed a Young Man ‘Angry Too Long,’” Seattle Times, March 29, 1990; Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story, a documentary directed by Scot Barbour, 2005.

    2. Dawn Anderson, “Malfunkshun,” The Rocket, December 1986.

    3. A. Wood, “Drugalog outline.” For the timing of the intervention and Wood’s rehab treatment, see Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 29; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 154–55.

    4. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 231; Pope, “Andrew Wood’s Poetry.”

    5. Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty, 32.

    6. David Duet quote taken from the transcript of his interview with Yarm for Everybody Loves Our Town (Yarm provided the author with the excerpt featuring the complete quote).

    7. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 231–33; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 226–31; the times of Wood’s overdose and hospital admission are from Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story.

    8. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 228.

    9. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 229.

  10. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 233.

  11. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 231–33; Greg Prato, “Andrew Wood,” Allmusic.com, http://www.allmusic.com/artist/andrew-wood-p139483/biography; Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 226–31; Jacob McMurray, Taking Punk to the Masses: From Nowhere to Nevermind (Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2011), 151; Lonn M. Friend, “Lament for a Starchild,” http://www.glampunk.org/mlb2.html; Pope, “Andrew Wood’s Poetry”; Andrew Wood death certificate, obtained by the author through a public records request.

  12. For the date of the memorial service at the Paramount Theatre, see Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty, 32; author interview with Ken Deans; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 232–33; Pope, “Andrew Wood’s Poetry”; a partial audio recording of David Wood’s address at Andrew Wood’s memorial service can be heard at the beginning of Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story.

  13. Deans interview; Chris Cornell, “Essence of Dreams,” October 14, 2008, http://www.myspace.com/chriscornell/blog/440829728; Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, with Charles R. Cross, Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll (New York: It Books, 2012), 192.

  14. Cornell, “Essence of Dreams.”

  15. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 234–35.

  16. Pearl Jam Twenty film, directed by Cameron Crowe, 2011.

  17. “Rekindled: Candlebox’s Kevin Martin Talks to AAM,” All Access Magazine, July 24, 2008, http://www.allaccessmagazine.com/vol6/issue11/candlebox.html; Chris Cornell, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, interview on KISW 99.9 FM, April 14, 1991, http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/radio041491.shtml; Kevin Wood, interview, Fullinbloommusic.com, http://www.fullinbloommusic.com/kevinwood.html.

  18. Rocky Schenck declined to be interviewed by phone but agreed to answer the author’s questions in writing. The result was a seventeen-page PDF document titled “AIC Memories” he sent to the author that chronicled in great detail Schenck’s experiences with the band.

  19. Schenck, “AIC Memories.” More information about the Facelift cover shoot and album title came during a follow-up e-mail exchange between the author and Schenck; Music Bank liner notes.

  20. Schenck, “AIC Memories.”

  21. The release date for Facelift is taken from the RIAA Gold and Platinum Program searchable database; Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 261.

  CHAPTER 11

  Sources for this chapter include an author interview with Jimmy Shoaf.

    1. For the length of Alice in Chains’s tour with Extreme, see Jerry Cantrell, quoted in Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 263.

    2. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 263.

    3. Patrick MacDonald, “Screaming Trees: A Band with Bark Has a New EP,” Seattle Times, October 12, 1990.

    4. John D’Agostino, “Rock in the Reptile House: Iguanas in Tijuana Is a Bizarre, Almost-Anything-Goes Venue Just 15 Minutes from San Diego but Light-Years from Most Other Clubs,” Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1991, http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-14/entertainment/ca-3235_1_
san-diego.

    5. Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 44.

    6. Patrick MacDonald, “Word,” Seattle Times, December 7, 1990.

    7. Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty, 44.

  CHAPTER 12

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Michelle Ahern-Crane, Kathleen Austin, Johnny Bacolas, Randy Biro, Duane Lance Bodenheimer, Jim Elmer, Rick Krim, Paul Rachman, and Aaron Woodruff.

    1. On the dates of the February 1991 West Coast tour, see Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 52; for the food fights on the freeway, see Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 274.

    2. For details about the show, including date and set lists, see http://www.metalsetlists.com/showthread.php?t=10581.

    3. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 274.

    4. Patrick MacDonald, “It’s a Concert for Peace at the Paramount,” Seattle Times, February 22, 1991.

    5. Patrick MacDonald, “Established Acts Take Big Awards,” Seattle Times, March 4, 1991.

    6. For the start of the European tour featuring Megadeth, the Almighty, and Alice in Chains, see the “History” section of Megadeth’s official Web site: http://www.megadeth.com/history#1991.

    7. The clips are available on Aaron Woodruff’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/OBSSMEDIA; comments from Mike Starr memorial service DVD. A copy of the DVD was provided to the author by Gayle Starr.

    8. Kyle Anderson, Accidental Revolution: The Story of Grunge (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), 99.

    9. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 234.

  10. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 340; Music Bank liner notes.

  11. Alice in Chains, interview, Rockline, July 19, 1999, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX06Qiqv-E0.

  12. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 385.

  13. Ibid., 277–78; Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain (New York: Hyperion Books, 2001), 180–81. The information about the location of the Alice in Chains Singles shoot is from an e-mail to the author from Michelle Panek, dated September 23, 2011. At the time, Panek worked at Cameron Crowe’s office. Crowe declined to be interviewed for this book.

  14. Regarding Death Angel’s bus accident, see Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman, Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal (New York: HarperCollins, 2013), 264–65. For the dates of the Clash of the Titans tour, see http://www.slayerized.com/ontheroad/tourdatabase/1991.html.

  15. Alice in Chains, interview, Headbangers Ball, 1991, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9w9aQhtbyc.

  16. Chris Gill, “Dirt,” Guitar Legends, issue 117; Wiederhorn and Turman, Louder Than Hell, 265–66.

  17. MTV “Buzz” special, circa 1998–99, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hepqBckLhW8.

  18. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 263–64.

  19. Everett True, Nirvana (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007), 294–95.

  20. Jon Wiederhorn, “Famous Last Words,” Revolver, http://www.adbdesign.com/aic/articles/art114.html.

  21. For Layne and Demri’s choice of venue for their wedding, author interview with Kathleen Austin; for information about Kiana Lodge, see http://kianalodge.com/.

  22. Author interview and e-mail correspondence with Paul Rachman; undated Demri Parrott handwritten note to Paul Rachman, 1991. Rachman sent the author a scan of the document for review.

  CHAPTER 13

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Krisha Augerot, Kathleen Austin, Johnny Bacolas, Randy Biro, James Burdyshaw, Jason Buttino, Dave Hillis, Dave Jerden, Jonathan Plum, Nick Pollock, Paul Rachman, and Evan Sheeley.

    1. For the tour dates and itinerary of the Van Halen and Alice in Chains tour, see http://www.vanhalenencyclopedia.com/entries/for-unlawful-carnal-knowledge-tour.html. The stories about Mike’s high school yearbook and the phone call to Ken Kramer during the Van Halen tour come from the Mike Starr memorial service DVD, March 20, 2011. A copy of it was provided to the author by Gayle Starr.

    2. Gene Stout, “Van Halen Frontman Fires Band’s Heavy-Metal Decibels to the Top,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 8, 1991.

    3. For the date, nominees, and winners of the 1991 MTV VMA, see http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/1991/.

    4. Duff McKagan, It’s So Easy and Other Lies (New York: Touchstone Books, 2011), 4, 51.

    5. Vanessa Ho, Linda Keene, Kery Murakami, and Peyton Whitely, “‘Seattle Scene’ and Heroin Use: How Bad Is It?” Seattle Times, April 20, 1994, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940420&slug=1906421.

    6. Ho, Keene, Murakami, and Whitely, “‘Seattle Scene.’”

    7. Hype! Helvey-Pray Productions, 1996. Information about Bruce Silver’s heroin addiction is taken from the author’s interview with James Burdyshaw; Susan Silver is quoted in Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 340. According to records from the Denver coroner’s office, Bruce Silver died of hypothermia when he fell asleep in a parked car in Denver in December 1996. He was thirty-four years old.

    8. John Brandon, Unchained: The Story of Mike Starr and His Rise and Fall in Alice in Chains (Evansdale, Iowa: Xanadu Enterprises, 2001), 61.

    9. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 266. Bacolas verified the quote during an interview with the author.

  10. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 399.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Jeff Gilbert, “Rain Man: Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell Cleans Up His Act and Hits Pay Dirt,” Guitar World, January 1992; Jerry Cantrell, interview with Total Guitar, November 7, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK3WAJ9L4hc.

  13. Jerry Cantrell, interview with Jim Dunlop, June 3, 2013, http://www.jimdunlop.com/blog/dunlop-on-the-record-alice-in-chains-jerry-cantrell/. The photo can be seen at http://loudwire.com/alice-in-chains-jerry-cantrell-epic-prank-war-van-halen/.

  14. Chris Gill, “Dirt,” Guitar Legends, issue 117.

  15. Jeffrey Ressner, “Alice in Chains: Through the Looking Glass,” Rolling Stone, November 26, 1992, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/alice-in-chains-through-the-looking-glass-rolling-stones-1992-feature-20110309. Release dates for Pearl Jam’s Ten and Nirvana’s Nevermind are from the RIAA’s searchable online database for gold and platinum certifications, as well as Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 60.

  16. Jon Wiederhorn, “Alice in Chains: To Hell and Back,” Rolling Stone, February 8, 1996, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/alice-in-chains-to-hell-and-back-rolling-stones-1996-feature-20110405.

  17. Author interviews with David Ballenger, James Bergstrom, Tim Branom, James Burdyshaw, Chrissy Chacos, Dean Noble, Nick Pollock and Darrell Vernon.

  CHAPTER 14

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Kathleen Austin, Chrissy Chacos, Dave Hillis, Ron Holt, Jonathan Plum, and Rocky Schenck.

    1. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 340; for the date of the Sap recording sessions, see Music Bank liner notes. The November 1991 date was also corroborated by Rocky Schenck, “AIC Memories.”

    2. Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell, interview on YouTube, source and date unknown, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebYt8mGFz8U; Music Bank liner notes.

    3. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 340.

    4. Schenck, “AIC Memories.”

    5. For Nancy Layne McCallum’s estimate of how many times Layne went to rehab, see VH1’s Celebrity Rehab, episode 307, “Family Weekend,” February 19, 2010; Jim Elmer agreed with that estimate during an interview with the author.

  CHAPTER 15

  Sources
for this chapter include author interviews with Kathleen Austin, Randy Biro, Bryan Carlstrom, Annette Cisneros, Dave Hillis, Dave Jerden, Jonathan Plum, Rocky Schenck, Duncan Sharp, Evan Sheeley, and Josh Taft.

    1. For information on Skywalker Sound, see http://www.skysound.com/about_ranch.html.

    2. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 341.

    3. Vanessa Ho, Linda Keene, Kery Murakami, and Peyton Whitely, “‘Seattle Scene’ and Heroin Use: How Bad Is It?” Seattle Times, April 20, 1994, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940420&slug=1906421.

    4. Jocelyn Y. Stewart, “Addiction Specialist Worked with Celebrities,” Los Angeles Times, March 8, 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/08/local/me-timmins8.

    5. Marc Lacey and Shawn Hubler, “Rioters Set Fires, Loot Stores; 4 Reported Dead,” Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1992; Richard A. Serrano and Tracy Wilkinson, “All 4 in King Beating Acquitted: Violence Follows Verdicts; Guard Called Out,” Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1992; Amy Wallace and David Ferrell, “Verdicts Greeted with Outrage and Disbelief,” Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1992; Stan Wilson, “Riot Anniversary Tour Surveys Progress and Economic Challenges in Los Angeles,” CNN, April 25, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/25/us/california-post-riot/index.html?hpt=us_t4.

    6. Nick Bowcott, “Seattle Do Nicely: Jerry Cantrell,” Guitarist, April 1993.

    7. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 341.

    8. For information about the city curfew during the riots, see Matt Moody and Brian MacDonald, “A Rapidly Expanding Curfew Area,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 2012, http://graphics.latimes.com/towergraphic-la-me-riot-curfews/.

    9. Jeffrey Ressner, “Alice in Chains: Through the Looking Glass,” Rolling Stone, November 26, 1992, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/alice-in-chains-through-the-looking-glass-rolling-stones-1992-feature-20110309.

  10. Jon Wiederhorn, “Alice in Chains: To Hell and Back,” Rolling Stone, February 8, 1996, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/alice-in-chains-to-hell-and-back-rolling-stones-1996-feature-20110405; regarding Lou Reed, see Jim DeRogatis, Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America’s Greatest Rock Critic (New York: Broadway Books, 2000), 210.