Alice in Chains

by David de Sola

  11. VH1, Celebrity Rehab, episode 301, “Intake,” January 5, 2010.

  12. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 379.

  13. Jonathan Gold, “Record Rack,” Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1992.

  CHAPTER 16

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Randy Biro, Martin Feveyear, Mark Pellington, Norman Scott Rockwell, and Jimmy Shoaf.

    1. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 272.

    2. Jeff Gilbert, “Love Hate Love: Alice in Chains Have a Gold Record and We Don’t,” The Rocket, October 1992.

    3. The dates and itinerary of the Alice in Chains/Gruntruck tour are based on an author interview with Norman Scott Rockwell and a review of Rockwell’s commemorative jacket of that tour, which had the dates and locations.

    4. The approximate date of Layne’s ATV accident is taken from an interview conducted by a Canadian TV host on Musique Plus in November 1992, during which Layne mentioned that it happened in September and made the statement about lacking an excuse to play. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhQ2aB2TVr0.

    5. An author review of photographs and bootleg videos from the fall 1992 tour with Ozzy Osbourne shows Layne performing on crutches or sitting in a wheelchair or on a couch; the Mike Starr quote about Layne stage-diving while still in his cast came from the November 1992 Musique Plus interview.

    6. 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.

    7. Layne Staley and Mike Starr, interview, Musique Plus, November 1992, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhQ2aB2TVr0.

    8. Ann Powers, “Misery Loves Company,” SPIN, March 1993.

    9. Ressner, “Alice.”

  10. Barrett Martin, eulogy of Layne Staley, April 28, 2002, http://www.layne-staley.com/?page_id=753.

  11. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 385.

  12. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 384.

  13. Lynn Hirschberg, “Strange Love,” Vanity Fair, September 1992, http://www.nirvanaclub.com/index.php?section=info/articles&file=09.00.92.html; Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain (New York: Hyperion Books, 2001), 273; Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 286–87; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 365.

  14. Author review of bootleg videos, available online at http://vimeo.com/26750014.

  CHAPTER 17

  Sources in this chapter include author interviews with Krisha Augerot, Johnny Bacolas, Lori Barbero, James Bergstrom, Randy Biro, Jason Buttino, Ken Deans, Jim Elmer, Maureen Herman, Nick Pollock, Rocky Schenck, and Toby Wright.

    1. There are multiple bootlegs circulating online for the January 8, 1993, Alice in Chains show in Honolulu, which took place at Aloha Tower. A set list can be viewed at http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/alice-in-chains/1993/aloha-tower-honolulu-hi-73d65acd.html.

    2. Al Jourgensen and Jon Wiederhorn, Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen (New York: Da Capo Press, 2013), 96–97.

    3. Unofficial Ministry fan Web site, “Ministry Tour Dates,” http://www.prongs.org/ministry/tour92-93.

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

    5. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 344–45; 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; Chris Gill, “Dirt,” Guitar Legends, issue 117, 58.

    6. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 345; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 398–99; Wiederhorn, “Alice”; Interactive Music Video, Behind the Player: Mike Inez, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nyZeROPlt8.

    7. Mary Kohl is identified as an employee of Susan Silver Management and an associate manager of Alice in Chains in two separate newspaper articles from 1993. See Don Adair, “Dark Dirges Mark Alice’s Local Return,” Spokesman-Review, September 17, 1993, and Associated Press, “So You Wanna Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star? Dozens of Entrepreneurs Eager to Lead Seattle Musicians to the Promised Land,” The Galveston Daily News, June 6, 1993.

    8. John Brandon, Unchained: The Story of Mike Starr and His Rise and Fall in Alice in Chains (Evansdale, Iowa: Xanadu Enterprises, 2001), 88.

    9. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 399.

  10. VH1, Celebrity Rehab, episode 301, “Intake,” January 5, 2010; Mike Starr, interview on KROQ Loveline, February 17, 2010.

  11. Alice in Chains Fan Club newsletter, circa spring 1993. The newsletter is posted on the wall of the men’s bathroom at Feedback Lounge in Seattle; Daina Darzin, “The Real Dirt,” Rolling Stone, February 24, 1994. An archived version of the band’s original Web site can be read at http://web.archive.org/web/20000301091634/www.aliceinchains.net/bio.html.

  12. Author review of January 22, 1993, Alice in Chains show in Rio de Janeiro. A complete video of the performance can be viewed online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydz6tG06P9I.

  13. VH1, Celebrity Rehab, episode 307, “Family Weekend,” February 19, 2010.

  14. Interactive Music Video, Behind the Player: Mike Inez, 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nyZeROPlt8.

  15. For information about John Henry’s, see http://www.johnhenrys.com/; Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 343–45; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 398–400. For the timing of the 1993 European tour, see the Alice in Chains Fan Club newsletter, circa spring 1993.

  16. Bootleg footage of Layne inviting the skinhead onstage and punching him can be viewed online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P91fz-cNgU8. The entire incident can be seen in context of the performance beginning at the 4:20 mark of the clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCPAu_ge6_U.

  17. A bootleg recording of the February 10, 1993, Helsinki show can be found at http://concertsgalore.net/file/alice-in-chains-at-tavastia-helsinki-finland-on-feb-10-1993-concert-bootleg-download-66673.php.

  18. On the U.S. tour with Circus of Power and Masters of Reality, see the Alice in Chains Fan Club newsletter, spring of 1993. For the date of the first recording sessions with Mike Inez, see the band biography on the original aliceinchains.net Web site, accessed via the Wayback Machine, http://web.archive.org/web/20000301091634/www.aliceinchains.net/bio.html; Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 345.

  19. Mike Inez and Layne Staley, interview, Headbangers Ball, 1993, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYW0CHy668w.

  20. Alice in Chains Fan Club newsletter, circa spring 1993. Metallica’s European tour dates for the spring and summer of 1993 can be viewed at https://www.metallica.com/tour_date_list.asp?year=1993&page=2.

  21. The dates and itinerary of the Lollapalooza 1993 tour can be viewed at http://janesaddiction.org/lollapalooza/lollapalooza-93/.

  22. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 424.

  23. Sandra Schulman, “Lollapalooza Lineup a Nod to Diversity: The Eclectic Summer Tour Adds Underground Acts on a Second Stage,” Sun-Sentinel, June 16, 1993, http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-06-16/features/9301190016_1_lollapalooza-tour-second-stage.

  24. Regarding the onstage collaborations among different bands on the Lollapalooza 1993 tour, see Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 423. There are multiple audio and video bootlegs of Layne performing “Opiate” onstage with Tool. On Layne’s friendship with Tom Morello, see Joe D’Angelo and Jennifer Vineyard, “‘An Angry Angel’—Layne Staley Remembered by Bandmates, Friends,” MTV News, April 22, 2002, http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1453544/layne-staley-remembered-angry-angel.jhtml.

  25. Lollapalooza 19
93 tour dates at http://janesaddiction.org/lollapalooza/lollapalooza-93/.

  26. Darzin, “The Real Dirt.”

  27. Footage of the Alice in Chains and Les Claypool pranks appears in Primus’s Animals Should Not Try to Act Like People, DVD (Santa Monica, CA: Interscope Records, 2003). The clip can be viewed online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k5c1KQ9Ne4.

  28. Alice in Chains, interview, Rockline, July 19, 1999, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkz21GO4ASA&list=PL764A777926D8EF70; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 423.

  29. Darzin, “The Real Dirt.”

  30. 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), 209–10; Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 538–39.

  31. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 378.

  CHAPTER 18

  Sources in this chapter include author interviews with Dave Hillis, Jonathan Plum, and Toby Wright.

    1. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 405.

    2. Jar of Flies liner notes.

    3. Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain (New York: Hyperion Books, 2001), 322–25.

    4. For the call from Courtney Love to Susan Silver, see Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 383. For more details on the March 1994 intervention, see Cross, Heavier Than Heaven, 331–35.

    5. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven, 340–56.

    6. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 387–88; Cross, Heavier Than Heaven, 360; Charles R. Cross, Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain (New York: It Books, 2014), 147.

    7. 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.

    8. Everett True, Nirvana (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2007), 460.

    9. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Staff and News Services, “Rock Singer Lay Dead for Two Weeks,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 21, 2002. There are multiple bootleg audio recordings on the Internet of Layne performing “Opiate” with Tool at Rockstock in May 1994.

  10. Wiederhorn, “Alice”; Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 407.

  11. Wiederhorn, “Alice”; Gene Stout, “Cancellations Raise Questions about Future of Alice in Chains,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 22, 1994; Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 470–71.

  12. Live bootleg videos available on YouTube. There are two different clips of Metallica mocking Alice in Chains while doing the “Man in the Box” cover from this tour, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWYnSEZKcVw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSq626zbMyk.

  13. Wiederhorn, “Alice.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Sources in this chapter include author interviews with Michelle Ahern-Crane, Krisha Augerot, Johnny Bacolas, James Bergstrom, Sam Hofstedt, Ron Holt, Henrietta Saunders, and Joseph H. Saunders.

    1. Michelle Ahern-Crane, e-mail to the author, October 15, 2011.

    2. Jeff Gilbert, “Alive: Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready Says Goodbye to Drugs and Alcohol and Is a Better Man for It,” Guitar World, April 1995; Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 146; Mike McCready, interview, source unknown, April 1995, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yUAuwmxjyc.

    3. New York Times, “Paid Notice: Deaths SAUNDERS, BAKER,” January 26, 1999, http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/26/classified/paid-notice-deaths-saunders-baker.html; author interview with Joseph H. Saunders.

    4. John Baker Saunders interview for EMP oral history project, October 20, 1995. A copy of the interview transcript was provided to the author by EMP senior curator Jacob McMurray.

    5. Mike McCready, “Mike McCready Remembers Seattle Bassist John Baker Saunders, 1954–1999,” The Rocket, January 27, 1999; McCready, 1995 interview.

    6. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 482; Gilbert, “Alive.”

    7. Charles R. Cross, “The Last Days of Layne Staley,” Rolling Stone, June 1, 2002.

    8. Gilbert, “Alive.”

    9. Mad Season Facebook page, April 17, 2013, https://www.facebook.com/MadSeason/posts/286025078192141?stream_ref=10.

  10. Author review of bootleg recording of the Mad Season October 12, 1994, show. Titled “Season of Myst,” a copy of the recording was provided to the author by Jason Buttino.

  11. McCready, 1995 interview.

  12. Gilbert, “Alive.”

  13. Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town, 483.

  14. Darren Davis, “Alice in Chains’ Staley Remembered by Mad Season Mate & Rage’s Morello,” Yahoo! Music, April 23, 2002, http://music.yahoo.com/alice-in-chains/news/alice-in-chains-staley-remembered-by-mad-season-mate-rages-morello—12063858.

  15. Nancy McCallum v. Alice in Chains Partnership et al. lawsuit, which was filed in King County Superior Court on May 2, 2013. Obtained by the author through public records.

  16. The complete set list and roster of bands that performed at “Self Pollution Radio” can be seen at http://www.fivehorizons.com/tour/cc/spr_set.shtml.

  17. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 408.

  18. Ibid., 408. Regarding the FTA acronym, see Paul Gargano, “Second Coming,” Maximum Ink, May 1999; http://www.maximumink.com/index.php/articles/permalink/second_coming; Steve Stav, “The Second Coming of Second Coming,” Rock Paper Scissors, 2001, http://www.stevestav.com/2001/09/second-coming-of-second-coming.html.

  19. Undated letter from Layne Staley to Johnny Bacolas, circa 1994–95. Bacolas did not allow the author to review the letters, which he keeps in a safe, but he paraphrased the “black cloud” quote, which he attributed to one of Layne’s letters during an interview.

  CHAPTER 20

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Gillian Gaar, Jeff Gilbert, Sam Hofstedt, Scott Rockwell, Rocky Schenck, Duncan Sharp, Jon Wiederhorn, and Toby Wright.

    1. For the timing of the demo sessions coinciding with Layne’s work on the Mad Season album, see Jeff Gilbert, “Go Ask Alice,” Guitar World, January 1996.

    2. Music Bank liner notes.

    3. Gilbert, “Go Ask Alice.”

    4. Alice in Chains recorded their third studio album in Studio X, which at the time was part of Bad Animals Studio. In 1997, Studio X split from Bad Animals into a separate entity. For consistency with its name at the time and the one that appeared in the album liner notes, Studio X will be referred to as Bad Animals in this book. For more information on the history of the studio, see http://www.badanimals.com/#/History.

    5. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 484–85.

    6. Gilbert, “Go Ask Alice.”

    7. Regarding the backstory behind “Grind,” see Music Bank liner notes; regarding Layne reading rumors about himself on the Internet, see 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.

    8. Different theories about the sound at the beginning of Tool’s “Intolerance” are explored in question F9 at http://toolshed.down.net/faq/faq.html.

    9. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 409–10.

  10. The Nona Tapes, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poCIt4KfDBo.

  11. For the release date of the album, see http://allmusic.com/album/alice-in-chains-r227636/review; Wiederhorn, “Alice.”

  12. Wiederhorn, “Alice.”

  13. Wiederhorn, “Alice.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Sources for this chapter includ
e author interviews with Randy Biro, Alex Coletti, Ken Deans, Rick Krim, and Toby Wright.

    1. Greg Prato, Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music (Toronto: ECW Press, 2009), 412.

    2. The release date for the Unplugged album and its position on the Billboard chart is from http://www.allmusic.com/album/mtv-unplugged-mw0000183677. The airdate for the show is from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276768/.

    3. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 411.

    4. Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, interview with MTV News, circa June–July 1996, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU5rWmq7UTc.

    5. Joe D’Angelo and Jennifer Vineyard, “‘An Angry Angel’: Layne Staley Remembered by Bandmates, Friends,” MTV News, April 22, 2002; Billy Corgan, Twitter, October 15, 2012, https://twitter.com/Billy/status/257902596906446848. Regarding the Alice in Chains dates opening for KISS in the summer of 1996, see http://www.kissasylum.com/ReunionDatesArchive.html.

    6. Blair Fischer, “Alice in Chains Frontman Talks about Band’s Spectacular Second Act,” Lowcountry Current, April 30, 2014, http://www.islandpacket.com/2014/04/30/3086859/alice-in-chains-frontman-talks.html?sp=/99/543/.

    7. Mark Yarm, Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 486.

    8. Author review of bootleg video of July 3, 1996, Kansas City show, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmDYr9dbwIQ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYrBqO45PTk.

    9. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 411.

  10. Prato, Grunge Is Dead, 412.

  CHAPTER 22

  Sources for this chapter include author interviews with Michelle Ahern-Crane, Kathleen Austin, James Bergstrom, Randy Biro, James Burdyshaw, Jason Buttino, Jim Elmer, Jeff Gilbert, Nanci Hubbard-Mills, Karie Pfeiffer-Simmons, Nick Pollock, and Jon Wiederhorn.

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