- The wonderful year marked with the birth of Alice in Chains. It all started in Seattle,WA at a party. It just so happened that an extremely talented guitarist named Jerry Cantrell was attending this party along with the man that sings like a lark, Layne Staley. At that time, Layne was involved in a glam band which was growing stale. When he met and hit it off with Jerry that night, Jerry threw out the brilliant idea that they should start a band together. Layne agreed. Now there were two.
Jerry knew a man by the name of Mike Starr who agreed to play bass for the new band. Now all they needed was a drummer. (Layne could play of course, but as you know, he enjoys vocals) Luckily, Mike introduced the others to Sean Kinney, a crazy drummer who was dating Mike's sister. They decided to call their band Alice 'n Chains. (The name was supposedly spawed from a crazy idea about the group dressing in drag and playing). The monumental date of their first gig was on August 5, 1987.
After that, they were briefly known as Diamond Lie and played a few shows sparking the takeoff of their music. Of course they ended up calling themselves Alice In Chains. Later in 1987 they signed with Columbia Records. Their first EP titled "We Die Young" was released in 1990 and is currently a rare collectors item. A few months after that, they released their first full length album called "Facelift".The release of this album sent their debut song "We Die Young" to the top.
Westminister, CA was their first U.S. tour date which happened a few months after Facelift's release. In Seattle, the December 22 show sold out. It was, though, filmed and released as Live Facelift. Their first American Music Award nomination happened in January of 1991 when they were up for Favorite Heavy Metal Artist. Sadly, they lost."Man In The Box" was their first single which they released. This was their first exposure on MTV.
Alice In Chains made a movie debut in the film "Singles" where they played the song "Would?" in a bar. They then toured with Megadeth in Europe for the first time. They received a Grammy nomination for the "Best Heavy Metal Performance". Sadly, they lost again.
Next up for AIC was the "Clash of the Titans" tour with Slayer. They then had time to make their television debut with ABC for their "In Concert" show. After that they accompanied Van Halen on a 4 month tour.Facelift went gold around September of 1991. During their tour break in November, they recorded their second EP. The album was titled SAP, a name given to it by Sean Kinney. He had a dream about the group making an album and naming it SAP because it was "sappy".
Spring 1992 was some well deserved off-time for AIC. They soon began recording Dirt, though. It was released in September. "Would?" was the first single released. "Angry Chair" followed. At this point,Layne broke his foot, but completed the tour with Ozzy using a wheelchair or crutches. (He didn't miss a date!) A tour shirt had an X-ray of Layne's fractured foot on it.
Lollapalooza was the main focus of the summer 1993. After this, they recorded their new EP- Jar Of Flies.They then began the Down In Your Hole tour- a six week speedy tour. At this point, "Down In A Hole" was released as a single. A video was shot for this song as well. Finally, "Them Bones" was released as single number four from "Dirt". The cool film "Last Action Hero" was in theatres along with two unreleased Alice in Chains songs- "What The Hell Have I?" and "A Little Bitter". A video was shot for "What The Hell Have I?"
AIC recorded their third full length album in April of 1995. After nearly four months, the result was a harder heavier album originally named "Tripod". (third full length album, three legged dog and man) The dog on the cover was inspired from a dog that would chase Sean when he was delivering papers as a child. The album ended up self titled. It was released in November 1995 and debuted number one on the Billboard chart. They were nominated for a Grammy once again, and once again they lost. 1996 found AIC performing on Saturday Night Special, David Letterman, and a show for MTV Unplugged.They opened four shows for KISS on their reunion tour as well.
The Unforturnate Death of Lead Singer Layne Staley -- 1967-2002 By: Travis Gibson (nadawgy2k1@yahoo.com)
Alice in Chains' Layne Staley died from a mixture of heroin and cocaine, an autopsy and toxicology report revealed Monday.
Laboratory results determined the singer died April 5, according to a spokesperson for the King County medical examiner's office, the same day fellow grunge pioneer Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994. Staley was found dead two weeks later, surrounded by intravenous drug paraphernalia in his Seattle apartment.
The death certificate reads Staley's death resulted from "an acute intoxication due to the combined effects of opiate (heroin) and cocaine." The death was classified as "accidental."
The lethal combination goes by the name "speedball" in drug circles. The same ingredients contributed to the deaths of comedian John Belushi in 1982 and actor River Phoenix in 1993.
