WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.720 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:07.250 the files on a figure who Really, he essentially 00:00:07.250 --> 00:00:10.449 defines a specific frequency of the 1990s. Oh, 00:00:10.449 --> 00:00:12.650 for sure. You know the sound. It's that grinding, 00:00:13.130 --> 00:00:16.410 harmonized dread that somehow, against all odds, 00:00:16.550 --> 00:00:20.129 became pop radio gold. We are talking about Layne 00:00:20.129 --> 00:00:23.390 Staley. The voice of Alice in Chains. And, I 00:00:23.390 --> 00:00:25.829 mean, probably the most imitated voice in modern 00:00:25.829 --> 00:00:28.050 rock history. I think that's fair to say. Absolutely. 00:00:28.089 --> 00:00:30.329 Yeah, if you go into any bar with a cover band 00:00:30.329 --> 00:00:31.969 right now, anywhere in the world, you're going 00:00:31.969 --> 00:00:34.429 to hear someone trying to do the Layne Staley 00:00:34.429 --> 00:00:36.729 growl. And almost... Certainly failing. Almost 00:00:36.729 --> 00:00:38.390 certainly failing. But here's the thing. And 00:00:38.390 --> 00:00:40.009 this is why I wanted to pull this stack of research 00:00:40.009 --> 00:00:43.070 today. I feel like Layne Staley has been reduced 00:00:43.070 --> 00:00:45.950 to a bumper sticker. You know, he's the tortured 00:00:45.950 --> 00:00:48.649 grunge guy. He's the cautionary tale. He's the 00:00:48.649 --> 00:00:51.289 tragedy. He's the tragedy. It's the saint of 00:00:51.289 --> 00:00:53.509 the sad archetype. It's just very easy to box 00:00:53.509 --> 00:00:56.009 him in there and leave it at that. It is. And 00:00:56.009 --> 00:00:58.549 look, the tragedy is there. We have the source 00:00:58.549 --> 00:01:00.770 material, the biography, the police reports, 00:01:00.950 --> 00:01:03.689 the interviews, and it gets incredibly dark. 00:01:03.789 --> 00:01:05.450 We aren't going to shy away from any of that. 00:01:05.549 --> 00:01:08.849 No. But the mission today for this deep dive 00:01:08.849 --> 00:01:12.469 is to dig past that headline. Because when I 00:01:12.469 --> 00:01:14.469 was reading through all these notes, I kept finding 00:01:14.469 --> 00:01:18.129 this duality, this conflict. It's the conflict 00:01:18.129 --> 00:01:21.870 between the legend and the actual guy. Right. 00:01:21.989 --> 00:01:23.689 The person who lived behind the voice. Right. 00:01:23.980 --> 00:01:25.879 We're going to find a guy who wasn't just, you 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:28.719 know, born wearing flannel and brooding in the 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:30.980 Seattle rain. We're talking about a drummer who 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:33.140 desperately wanted to be a singer. We're talking 00:01:33.140 --> 00:01:35.780 about a glam metal enthusiast. The glam metal 00:01:35.780 --> 00:01:38.140 enthusiast who, let's not forget, dressed in 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:40.099 drag. We're definitely getting into the drag 00:01:40.099 --> 00:01:43.200 for sure. But also a guy with a wicked sense 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:45.620 of humor. That's the part that I feel gets completely 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:48.200 lost in the shuffle. Oh, completely. So if you 00:01:48.200 --> 00:01:51.079 think you know the story. If you think it's just 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:53.280 man in the box and then a slow fade to black, 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:56.739 you're missing like half the picture. We've got 00:01:56.739 --> 00:01:59.280 connections between his childhood religion and 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:02.060 those famous lyrics that, I have to admit, I 00:02:02.060 --> 00:02:04.620 never put together before. And some really, really 00:02:04.620 --> 00:02:07.239 unsettling synchronicities regarding the end 00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:09.610 of his life that are just... They're chilling, 00:02:09.789 --> 00:02:12.129 frankly. They really are. So let's rewind. Let's 00:02:12.129 --> 00:02:14.389 get out of the grunge era entirely for a second. 00:02:14.430 --> 00:02:16.430 Because to understand the ending, we really have 00:02:16.430 --> 00:02:18.909 to go back and look at the origin. Layne Staley, 00:02:19.129 --> 00:02:23.569 Bellevue, Washington, born 1967. August 20, 1967. 00:02:24.370 --> 00:02:27.490 So Pacific Northwest, local through and through. 00:02:27.729 --> 00:02:30.830 But if we are really talking about origins, we 00:02:30.830 --> 00:02:33.460 have to talk about identity. because he spent 00:02:33.460 --> 00:02:35.639 the first chunk of his life trying to figure 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:38.039 out who he was, literally starting with his name. 00:02:38.139 --> 00:02:40.240 He wasn't born Lane Staley. I mean, that wasn't 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:43.000 his full name. He was born Lane Rutherford Stahler. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:45.620 Rutherford. Okay, I'm trying to picture a rock 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:48.840 star screaming, Hello, Seattle! And introducing 00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:52.099 himself as Lane Rutherford. It doesn't quite 00:02:52.099 --> 00:02:54.199 have the edge, does it? It really doesn't. It 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:56.319 sounds like a 19th century president or something. 00:02:56.539 --> 00:02:58.439 It sounds like a banker or a history professor. 00:02:58.990 --> 00:03:01.849 And apparently he hated it with an absolute passion. 00:03:02.330 --> 00:03:05.210 The sources all mentioned that he would get visibly 00:03:05.210 --> 00:03:08.509 angry if people used that middle name. It was 00:03:08.509 --> 00:03:10.550 a real four spot for him. Okay, so he changes 00:03:10.550 --> 00:03:15.310 it. So in his teens, he legally changed it to 00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:18.870 Thomas. Lane Thomas Daly. Exactly. Now pause 00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:21.330 for a second here. Why Thomas? I would assume 00:03:21.330 --> 00:03:23.750 it's a family name. His dad, his grandfather. 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:26.620 Something like that. You would assume that. That's 00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:29.400 the logical leap. But no, he chose Thomas because 00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:31.699 he was obsessed with Tommy Lee. Wait, wait, wait. 00:03:31.819 --> 00:03:34.560 The drummer from Metley Crue. The very same. 00:03:34.659 --> 00:03:36.539 This is what I mean about breaking that grunge 00:03:36.539 --> 00:03:39.280 stereotype right from the jump. Teenage Layne 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:42.080 Staley wasn't looking at moody poets for inspiration. 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:44.500 He was looking at the Sunset Strip. He was looking 00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:47.879 at hairspray and spandex and, you know, rotating 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:50.539 drum kits that go upside down. The whole spectacle. 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.319 He idolized the showmanship of it all. That is 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:55.319 hilarious. It actually makes a lot of sense, 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:57.400 though, because Lane started as a drummer, right? 00:03:57.500 --> 00:03:59.520 He wasn't always the guy out front with the mic. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.360 Correct. That's a huge point. He started playing 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:05.039 drums at age 12. He was the kid in the back. 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:07.659 But the source material highlights his really 00:04:07.659 --> 00:04:11.379 interesting tension. He was a drummer who played 00:04:11.379 --> 00:04:14.939 in all these glam bands in his early peens, but 00:04:14.939 --> 00:04:17.939 he secretly, desperately wanted to be the singer. 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:19.939 He wanted the microphone. He wanted the spotlight. 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:23.060 It's the classic. Dave Grohl or Phil Collins 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:25.120 trajectory. You know, the guy in the back of 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:26.660 the bus knowing he can do it better than the 00:04:26.660 --> 00:04:29.620 guy in the front. Exactly. But there was a lot 00:04:29.620 --> 00:04:31.399 of instability in the background while all this 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:34.040 musical ambition was happening. His parents divorced 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.180 when he was seven. He was raised by his mom, 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:39.480 Nancy, and his stepfather, Jim Elmer. And speaking 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:41.800 of names, he actually went by Lane Elmer for 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:44.000 a while in high school, didn't he? He did. So 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:46.319 he's Lane Rutherford, then he's Lane Elmer, then 00:04:46.319 --> 00:04:48.279 he becomes Lane Thomas, and then finally just 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:50.620 Lane Staley. That's a lot of shifting identities 00:04:50.620 --> 00:04:53.000 for a kid. It really is. It suggests someone 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.519 who's just trying on different skins, you know, 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:58.000 trying to find the one that fits. But the biggest 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.839 influence on his psyche, and eventually his lyrics, 00:05:00.980 --> 00:05:03.500 it wasn't the divorce or the name changes. It 00:05:03.500 --> 00:05:06.560 was the religion. This was the part of the research 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:09.240 that really, really made me sit up. I always 00:05:09.240 --> 00:05:13.000 knew Alice in Chains had lyrics that were, let's 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.339 call them skeptical of religion. That's a diplomatic 00:05:15.339 --> 00:05:17.759 way to put it. Yeah. But I always just chalked 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:20.339 it up to, you know, standard teenage rebellion, 00:05:20.699 --> 00:05:23.000 question authority, that kind of thing. It was 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.319 much more specific and I think much more personal 00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:27.800 than that. Lane was raised as a Christian scientist 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:30.019 until he was 16 years old. Okay. And for listeners 00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:32.740 who might not know the details. Christian science 00:05:32.740 --> 00:05:35.560 isn't just going to church on Sundays. It's a 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:38.579 very, very specific worldview, right? It is deeply 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:42.100 rigorous. The core tenet, to put it simply, is 00:05:42.100 --> 00:05:44.660 that the material world, and specifically sickness, 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:48.060 pain, and disease, is an illusion. It's an error 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:50.319 in thought. So you don't treat illness with medicine? 00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:53.040 You don't. You treat it with prayer. You treat 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:56.100 it by correcting your thought patterns to align 00:05:56.100 --> 00:05:58.959 with God's perfect reality where sickness doesn't 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:01.660 exist. Wow. So if you're a kid and you scrape 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:04.079 your knee or you get the flu, the messaging isn't 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:06.019 here's a Band -Aid or take some Tylenol. It's 00:06:06.019 --> 00:06:09.620 this pain isn't real. Exactly. Your pain is an 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:13.360 illusion that you need to pray away. Now imagine 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:16.740 being a child who is naturally sensitive, perceptive, 00:06:16.740 --> 00:06:20.300 and maybe feeling things very, very deeply. And 00:06:20.300 --> 00:06:23.439 he's being told constantly that what he feels, 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.769 what his body is telling him, isn't real. That 00:06:25.769 --> 00:06:28.430 is a recipe for a massive, massive disconnect 00:06:28.430 --> 00:06:30.250 from your own experience. And that disconnect, 00:06:30.490 --> 00:06:32.810 according to the sources, it fueled a lot of 00:06:32.810 --> 00:06:35.250 anger in him. There's a really telling quote 00:06:35.250 --> 00:06:37.910 from a 1991 interview where Lane just unloads 00:06:37.910 --> 00:06:40.189 on this. He talks about seeing people being brainwashed. 00:06:40.310 --> 00:06:42.089 Right. He says he had a fascination with how 00:06:42.089 --> 00:06:44.569 people would give up their money, their time, 00:06:44.670 --> 00:06:47.410 and their entire lives for a cause that he felt 00:06:47.410 --> 00:06:49.589 was wrong. He actually said, and I wrote this 00:06:49.589 --> 00:06:52.069 down, for a cause there sure is right, but I'm 00:06:52.069 --> 00:06:55.259 sure is wrong. That's not confusion. That's judgment. 00:06:55.459 --> 00:06:58.660 That's a firm stance. It is. He'd seen it from 00:06:58.660 --> 00:07:01.240 the inside and he made a conscious choice to 00:07:01.240 --> 00:07:05.120 reject it. He decided explicitly to stop believing 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:08.079 in anything apart from himself in his own experience. 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:10.620 And if you fast forward to his songwriting, I 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:12.399 mean, you see it everywhere. Look at a track 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:14.699 like Get Born Again. Which is a terrifying song, 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:16.639 by the way. The sound of it is just so bleak. 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:19.579 It is. And in 1999, Lane confirmed that that 00:07:19.579 --> 00:07:22.149 song is about religious hypocrisy. It's a direct 00:07:22.149 --> 00:07:24.250 shot. And then you go back to their biggest hit, 00:07:24.410 --> 00:07:26.949 Man in the Box, and he's screaming, deny your 00:07:26.949 --> 00:07:30.370 maker. That isn't just a cool, edgy metal slogan. 00:07:30.550 --> 00:07:32.910 No. It's a direct rejection of the Christian 00:07:32.910 --> 00:07:35.410 science God he grew up with. He is fundamentally 00:07:35.410 --> 00:07:38.410 asserting the reality of his own pain. Deny your 00:07:38.410 --> 00:07:40.750 maker takes on a whole new meaning when you think 00:07:40.750 --> 00:07:43.290 about it as deny the God who tells me that my 00:07:43.290 --> 00:07:46.100 suffering is an illusion. Precisely. He's screaming, 00:07:46.199 --> 00:07:49.240 no, this pain is real. I am real. This box is 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:51.579 real. Okay, so let's pivot from that to the music 00:07:51.579 --> 00:07:54.100 that actually shaped that sound. Because if his 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:56.600 ideological influence was this profound rejection 00:07:56.600 --> 00:07:59.759 of religion, his musical influences were chaotic. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:04.300 Eclectic is the polite word. Chaotic might be 00:08:04.300 --> 00:08:07.560 better, yeah. He cites Black Sabbath as his first 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:09.920 and primary influence. Which, okay, that's the 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:11.879 obvious one. You listen to Alice in Chains, you 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:13.740 hear the sludge, you hear the down -tuned guitars. 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:16.720 That's Sabbath 101. No surprise there. But then 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:20.680 on the same list, he has Prince and David Bowie. 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:23.379 Prince? The purple one? I'm trying to connect 00:08:23.379 --> 00:08:25.800 the dots between War Pigs and Raspberry Beret, 00:08:25.860 --> 00:08:28.240 and I'm struggling. I know. But then you add 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:31.699 the Stooges to that mix, and then Industrial 00:08:31.699 --> 00:08:34.120 acts like Ministry and Skinny Puppy. Hold on. 00:08:34.379 --> 00:08:37.179 How do you mix Prince and Skinny Puppy? One is 00:08:37.179 --> 00:08:40.080 pure funk -pop perfection and joyousness, and 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:42.299 the other is literally the sound of a factory 00:08:42.299 --> 00:08:45.019 imploding for 45 minutes. But that's the genius 00:08:45.019 --> 00:08:47.879 of Layne Staley, isn't it? He took that theatricality 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:49.940 and the incredible vocal range of someone like 00:08:49.940 --> 00:08:52.980 Prince or Bowie, that ability to project a persona 00:08:52.980 --> 00:08:56.759 to perform, and he welded it to the raw, visceral 00:08:56.759 --> 00:08:59.320 aggression of Iggy Pop and the Stooges. And then 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:01.299 he coated it all in the mechanical, repetitive 00:09:01.299 --> 00:09:04.190 dread of industrial music. So he's not just a 00:09:04.190 --> 00:09:07.309 metal singer. He's a performance artist who just 00:09:07.309 --> 00:09:10.009 happens to like incredibly heavy riffs. I think 00:09:10.009 --> 00:09:12.289 that's the perfect way to describe him. Which 00:09:12.289 --> 00:09:15.110 brings us very neatly to the visual evidence 00:09:15.110 --> 00:09:18.549 of that performance art. We need to talk about 00:09:18.549 --> 00:09:20.950 the glam years. Yes, please. This is my favorite 00:09:20.950 --> 00:09:23.190 part of the stack. Because I think people forget 00:09:23.190 --> 00:09:27.570 that before 1991, before Nirvana broke, the entire 00:09:27.570 --> 00:09:31.139 rock world. was swimming in Hairspray. Oh, it 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:33.519 was an ocean of Aquanet. And Lane was right there 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:35.740 doing the backstroke. He wasn't just swimming, 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:39.299 he was competing. In 1984, he joined a band of 00:09:39.299 --> 00:09:42.179 students from Shorewood High called Sleaze. Spelled 00:09:42.179 --> 00:09:44.840 S -L -E -Z -E, of course. Naturally. Yeah. Because 00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:47.519 the letter A was clearly not cool enough. Incredible. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.379 And this wasn't some, you know, jeans and t -shirt 00:09:50.379 --> 00:09:52.879 garage band. They were fully 100 % committed 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:55.600 to the glam aesthetic. Makeup, crazy hair, the 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:57.220 whole nine yards. And they were on TV, right? 00:09:57.379 --> 00:10:01.240 They were. In 1985, they made a cameo in a low 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:03.559 -budget public access movie called Father Rock. 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:05.779 And if you dig deep enough on the Internet, you 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:08.799 can find the footage of Layne Staley, the future 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:11.500 voice of Grunge Doom, looking like he just walked 00:10:11.500 --> 00:10:14.100 off the set of a Poison video. It's amazing. 00:10:14.460 --> 00:10:17.039 But Sleaze eventually morphed, right? They changed 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:18.820 members and became something else? They did. 00:10:18.899 --> 00:10:23.179 In 1986, Sleaze morphed into Alice in Chains. 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:26.100 But not the Alice in Chains we know. There's 00:10:26.100 --> 00:10:28.059 a crucial difference in the spelling. A huge 00:10:28.059 --> 00:10:30.639 difference. This was spelled Alice, apostrophe, 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:34.600 and, quote, chains, like guns and roses. Got 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:37.419 it. And the concept, well, Lane described it 00:10:37.419 --> 00:10:40.059 best himself. He said they dressed in drag and 00:10:40.059 --> 00:10:41.799 played speed metal. Let me just stop you there. 00:10:42.019 --> 00:10:44.200 Yeah. Dressed in drag and played speed metal. 00:10:44.679 --> 00:10:46.639 Those are two subcultures that historically did 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:48.460 not get along. Not at all. You had the hair metal 00:10:48.460 --> 00:10:50.440 guys over here and you had the thrash metal guys 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:52.379 over there. And they usually wanted to beat each 00:10:52.379 --> 00:10:54.399 other up in the parking lot. And somehow Lane 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:57.299 bridged the gap. They were on stage, in dresses 00:10:57.299 --> 00:10:59.639 and makeup, playing Slayer and Armored Saint 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:02.620 covers. That is bold. I mean, that is genuinely 00:11:02.620 --> 00:11:05.700 punk rock in its attitude. It was all about shock 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:07.940 value. And it shows that Lays had this incredible 00:11:07.940 --> 00:11:10.340 sense of humor. He wanted to provoke a reaction. 00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:12.600 He wasn't this guy sitting in a corner crying 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:15.879 about his feelings. He was on stage in Fishnets 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:19.279 screaming Slayer lyrics. That is a vital part 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:21.200 of his personality that the sad sack narrative 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:24.259 completely erases. It totally erases it. He was 00:11:24.259 --> 00:11:28.019 a showman. So how do we get from this? this drag 00:11:28.019 --> 00:11:31.480 -wearing speed metal band to the real Alice in 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:34.559 Chains. It involves a chance meeting at a very 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:37.639 specific, very grungy location. The Music Bank. 00:11:37.899 --> 00:11:40.480 This was a rehearsal studio in Seattle, a pretty 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:44.659 grimy place by all accounts. And in 1987, Lane 00:11:44.659 --> 00:11:47.179 met a guitarist named Jerry Cantrell at a party 00:11:47.179 --> 00:11:49.600 there. And Jerry was. He wasn't doing so well 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:51.809 at the time, was he? Jerry was effectively homeless. 00:11:52.009 --> 00:11:53.730 He'd just gotten kicked out of his family's house 00:11:53.730 --> 00:11:55.870 after a fight. Had nowhere to go. So he's at 00:11:55.870 --> 00:11:57.929 this party basically couch surfing. Exactly. 00:11:58.090 --> 00:12:00.070 And Lane, being the guy he was, found out Jerry 00:12:00.070 --> 00:12:01.769 was homeless and just invited him to move in 00:12:01.769 --> 00:12:03.690 with him at the music bank. So before they were 00:12:03.690 --> 00:12:06.009 ever bandmates, they were roommates. They were 00:12:06.009 --> 00:12:09.509 roommates living in this dilapidated 24 -7 rehearsal 00:12:09.509 --> 00:12:13.330 space. Just two broke guys surrounded by instruments. 00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:16.399 Probably not a lot of food. That creates a bond 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:18.879 that you can't just manufacture. You learn someone's 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:21.519 rhythms, their habits, their darkest humor. You 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:23.919 really do. They were living in each other's pockets 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:26.100 for over a year. But they weren't playing together 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:29.600 yet. Which seems crazy to me. You have Layne 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.840 Staley and Jerry Cantrell living in the same 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:34.259 room. Why weren't they writing songs immediately? 00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:36.740 Because Layne didn't want to be in Jerry's band. 00:12:37.340 --> 00:12:39.759 At that point, Lane was actually in a funk band. 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:42.379 A funk band. Okay, the journey continues. We've 00:12:42.379 --> 00:12:45.379 gone from glam to speed metal to funk. The man 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:48.240 had range. He was exploring. He was trying everything. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:52.100 So Lane's funk band needed a guitarist. He asked 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:54.720 Jerry to join. And Jerry said, okay, I'll be 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:57.200 your side man, but only if you join my band. 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.059 The old quid pro quo. The rock and roll tradeoff. 00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:02.100 Exactly. And Jerry's band was the one that already 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:04.379 included drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike 00:13:04.379 --> 00:13:08.240 Starr. The core was there. But Lane was dragging 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:10.120 his feet. He really wanted to make this funk 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:13.700 thing work. So Jerry and the guys, they came 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:16.860 up with a plan to break him. A plan of psychological 00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:19.960 warfare. This is the stripper anecdote. I love 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:22.419 this because it sounds like a plot from a sitcom. 00:13:22.539 --> 00:13:26.179 It's so ridiculous. It really is. So they wanted 00:13:26.179 --> 00:13:28.600 Lane to be their lead singer. Lane wouldn't commit. 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.460 So they started holding auditions for a new lead 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:34.399 singer right in front of Lane. in their shared 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:37.580 rehearsal space. Oh, that's cold. And they intentionally 00:13:37.580 --> 00:13:39.919 brought in the absolute worst singers they could 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:42.600 possibly find. So Lane is just sitting on the 00:13:42.600 --> 00:13:44.620 couch trying to, I don't know, eat a sandwich, 00:13:44.679 --> 00:13:48.320 and he's watching these terrible vocalists just 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:50.840 butcher songs. And Jerry's looking at him the 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:52.460 whole time like, well, I guess we'll have to 00:13:52.460 --> 00:13:54.519 hire this guy unless someone else steps up. It's 00:13:54.519 --> 00:13:57.059 brilliant. But Lane just laughed it off at first. 00:13:57.100 --> 00:13:58.659 He knew exactly what they were doing. He wasn't 00:13:58.659 --> 00:14:01.240 falling for it. Until they brought in the final 00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:04.159 straw. the nuclear option they auditioned a male 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:07.179 stripper who i assume was not a trained vocalist 00:14:07.179 --> 00:14:10.500 he was not a trained vocalist and apparently 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:13.860 his performance was so egregious so offensive 00:14:13.860 --> 00:14:16.620 to lane's musical sensibilities that he finally 00:14:16.620 --> 00:14:19.100 just snapped he couldn't take it anymore he got 00:14:19.100 --> 00:14:21.980 angry he basically stood up and said fine that's 00:14:21.980 --> 00:14:24.220 it i'll join the damn band just get him out of 00:14:24.220 --> 00:14:27.100 here So the legendary lineup of Alice in Chains 00:14:27.100 --> 00:14:29.860 exists because Layne Staley could not handle 00:14:29.860 --> 00:14:32.519 watching a male stripper try to sing. History 00:14:32.519 --> 00:14:35.320 turns on the smallest, most ridiculous pivots. 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:37.820 And so they take the name from Layne's old band. 00:14:38.059 --> 00:14:40.820 Eventually, yeah. They flirted with some other 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:42.990 names first. For a while, they were called Diamond 00:14:42.990 --> 00:14:47.070 Lie. Okay, very 80s. Very 80s. And then, unbelievably, 00:14:47.269 --> 00:14:49.610 they considered a band name that was just the 00:14:49.610 --> 00:14:52.330 word fuck. Fuck, just the word. Just the word. 00:14:52.370 --> 00:14:54.509 It's hard to put on a marquee. Hard to get radio 00:14:54.509 --> 00:14:56.129 play with that one. Yeah, your marketing options 00:14:56.129 --> 00:14:58.309 are a little limited. So they went back to Lane's 00:14:58.309 --> 00:15:01.389 old name, Alice in Chains, modified the spelling 00:15:01.389 --> 00:15:04.090 to one we know now, and the Beast was born. Okay, 00:15:04.129 --> 00:15:08.049 so section three is the rise to stardom. And 00:15:08.049 --> 00:15:12.409 it's meteoric. It happens so fast. But it almost 00:15:12.409 --> 00:15:14.409 ended before it even started because of a very 00:15:14.409 --> 00:15:19.289 Seattle problem. The drug raid. A massive one. 00:15:19.389 --> 00:15:21.409 They had a local promoter, a guy named Randy 00:15:21.409 --> 00:15:23.470 Hauser, who was going to pay for their first 00:15:23.470 --> 00:15:25.649 professional demos. This is their golden ticket, 00:15:25.750 --> 00:15:27.710 their big shot. And the recording was booked 00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:29.990 at the music bank where they live. Right. And 00:15:29.990 --> 00:15:31.649 the day before they were supposed to go in and 00:15:31.649 --> 00:15:34.230 record, the police kicked the doors in on the 00:15:34.230 --> 00:15:36.509 entire facility. What are they looking for? Everything. 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:39.700 It turned out to be the biggest cannabis raid 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:42.740 in Washington state history at that time. The 00:15:42.740 --> 00:15:45.000 entire studio was shut down, declared a crime 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.879 scene. So the demo money is gone. The studio 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:50.000 is locked up. They're back to square one. But 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:51.799 they scraped it together. They found another 00:15:51.799 --> 00:15:54.899 way. And they recorded what became known as the 00:15:54.899 --> 00:15:58.490 Treehouse Tapes. In 1988. And those are the tapes 00:15:58.490 --> 00:16:00.590 that got them notice. Those are the tapes. They 00:16:00.590 --> 00:16:02.629 made their way to Susan Silver and Kelly Curtis, 00:16:02.730 --> 00:16:04.470 who were managing Soundgarden at the time. So 00:16:04.470 --> 00:16:06.549 that's the stamp of approval right there. That's 00:16:06.549 --> 00:16:08.970 the co -sign from Seattle Royalty. And that got 00:16:08.970 --> 00:16:10.830 them the attention of Columbia Records, who signed 00:16:10.830 --> 00:16:14.289 them in 1989. And then in 1990, Facelift drops 00:16:14.289 --> 00:16:18.730 and the world gets man in the box. The song that 00:16:18.730 --> 00:16:20.690 changed the radio landscape. It sounded like 00:16:20.690 --> 00:16:23.519 nothing else. I want to pause here and get technical 00:16:23.519 --> 00:16:25.899 for a minute because Man in the Box sounds different 00:16:25.899 --> 00:16:28.039 than Pearl Jam. It sounds different than Nirvana. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:31.299 What exactly is Lane doing with his voice there 00:16:31.299 --> 00:16:34.120 that makes it so unique? It's a technique that's 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:37.340 often described as tensed throat vocals. Okay, 00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:39.480 explain that like I'm five. What does that mean? 00:16:39.659 --> 00:16:43.559 Okay, so imagine you are trying to scream, but 00:16:43.559 --> 00:16:46.279 at the exact same time, you are tightening your 00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:49.019 neck muscles and your pharynx. You're constricting 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:51.240 the airflow to create friction and pressure. 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:53.139 It's like putting your thumb over the end of 00:16:53.139 --> 00:16:55.840 a garden hose. That is the perfect analogy. The 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:58.720 water, or in this case the sound, comes out faster 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:00.480 and harder, but it's under immense pressure. 00:17:00.820 --> 00:17:04.619 That sounds incredibly painful and probably terrible 00:17:04.619 --> 00:17:07.880 for your vocal cords. It is extremely taxing 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:11.339 physically. Most vocal coaches would scream at 00:17:11.339 --> 00:17:14.680 you for doing it. But the sound it produces is 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:19.109 this metallic, grinding, resonant tone. He sounds 00:17:19.109 --> 00:17:21.049 like a human distortion pedal. And he's layering 00:17:21.049 --> 00:17:22.849 that over the guitars. He's not just singing 00:17:22.849 --> 00:17:26.089 on top of them. That's the absolute key. In Man 00:17:26.089 --> 00:17:28.809 in the Box and a lot of their songs, he is singing 00:17:28.809 --> 00:17:32.710 in unison with Jerry's guitar riff. Not an octave 00:17:32.710 --> 00:17:36.089 above, not a harmony unison. He is matching the 00:17:36.089 --> 00:17:38.329 frequency of the distortion. And then Jerry sings 00:17:38.329 --> 00:17:40.609 the harmony underneath that. Right. And Jerry 00:17:40.609 --> 00:17:43.789 has that drier, more classic rock, almost country 00:17:43.789 --> 00:17:46.410 rock voice. So you have Lane's garden hose under 00:17:46.410 --> 00:17:48.809 pressure scream layered exactly with the guitar. 00:17:48.869 --> 00:17:51.410 And then you have Jerry's smooth, dry, lower 00:17:51.410 --> 00:17:53.390 harmony underneath it all. And that friction 00:17:53.390 --> 00:17:55.150 between those two voices and the voice and the 00:17:55.150 --> 00:17:58.529 guitar, it creates a sound that is uniquely Alice 00:17:58.529 --> 00:18:00.910 in Chains. It sounds huge. It sounds like a wall 00:18:00.910 --> 00:18:03.349 coming down on you. And it resonated. Facelift 00:18:03.349 --> 00:18:05.789 was a huge hit. But Dirt in 1992, I mean, that 00:18:05.789 --> 00:18:08.500 was the monster. dirt is the masterpiece yeah 00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:10.920 it's the defining statement quadruple platinum 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:15.559 yeah but it's also where the darkness becomes 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:18.039 the text not just the subtext he was still really 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:20.039 involved creatively though right it wasn't just 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:22.640 him showing up to sing oh absolutely he even 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:24.779 designed the sun logo on the album in layard 00:18:24.779 --> 00:18:28.359 himself he was an artist in every sense but lyrically 00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:32.079 This is basically a concept album about addiction. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:34.279 It's harrowing. I mean, you listen to songs like 00:18:34.279 --> 00:18:37.619 Junkhead and Godsmack. He's not being metaphorical 00:18:37.619 --> 00:18:39.700 at all. There's no poetry hiding the meaning. 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.019 It's a direct diary entry. And then you have 00:18:42.019 --> 00:18:45.890 Jar of Flies in 1994. I really want to emphasize 00:18:45.890 --> 00:18:48.529 how crazy the success of this record was. Because 00:18:48.529 --> 00:18:50.890 it was an EP. It was an EP. Seven songs. They 00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:52.670 recorded it in a week just to see what would 00:18:52.670 --> 00:18:54.329 happen. Right. Usually EPs are just, you know, 00:18:54.329 --> 00:18:56.829 throwaways. B -sides for the hardcore fans. Exactly. 00:18:56.910 --> 00:18:59.630 But Jar of Flies debuted at number one on the 00:18:59.630 --> 00:19:03.450 Billboard 200 chart. Number one. An EP. It was 00:19:03.450 --> 00:19:06.569 the first EP in history to do that. That just 00:19:06.569 --> 00:19:08.690 shows you the appetite the public had for this 00:19:08.690 --> 00:19:11.240 band. They didn't just want the heavy screaming 00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:13.819 stuff. They wanted the acoustic, atmospheric, 00:19:14.220 --> 00:19:17.420 beautiful, sad stuff too. And Lane was writing 00:19:17.420 --> 00:19:19.759 a lot more by this point too, correct? He was. 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:22.299 He wrote about half the lyrics across their catalog 00:19:22.299 --> 00:19:25.380 before the reunion. But he was also picking up 00:19:25.380 --> 00:19:28.480 the guitar more. On tracks like Angry Chair and 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:31.380 Hate to Feel, that's Lane playing guitar. And 00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:33.779 Jerry Cantrell, who is an undisputed guitar god, 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.380 was totally supportive of that. He was incredibly 00:19:36.380 --> 00:19:38.960 supportive. He went on record calling Angry Chair 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:41.460 a masterpiece. He loved that Lane was stepping 00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:43.680 up musically and bringing in his own riffs. I 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:45.819 love that dynamic. Jerry wasn't territorial. 00:19:46.140 --> 00:19:48.059 He wasn't like, I'm the guitar player. He was 00:19:48.059 --> 00:19:49.839 like, yeah, Lane, pick up the axe. Let's hear 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:51.599 what you've got. They really pushed each other. 00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:54.799 But as the artistic peak was happening, The personal 00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:58.299 valley was getting deeper and deeper. Which brings 00:19:58.299 --> 00:20:01.579 us to section four, the struggle. We can't avoid 00:20:01.579 --> 00:20:04.079 it, the addiction. It's the elephant in the room 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:07.019 of his entire biography. But I want to be careful 00:20:07.019 --> 00:20:09.579 here not to just, you know, list drugs and be 00:20:09.579 --> 00:20:11.640 sensational. I want to talk about the impact 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:13.819 it had on him and the people around him. The 00:20:13.819 --> 00:20:16.240 impact was devastating. But what's important 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:18.480 to remember is that there are these moments of... 00:20:18.829 --> 00:20:22.309 Let's call it functioning heroism right in the 00:20:22.309 --> 00:20:24.309 middle of the mess. We have to talk about Brazil, 00:20:24.509 --> 00:20:28.190 1993. This was during the Dirt Tour. Yes. The 00:20:28.190 --> 00:20:31.130 band is in Brazil headlining some huge festivals. 00:20:31.230 --> 00:20:35.690 And Mike Starr, the bassist, overdoses. And it's 00:20:35.690 --> 00:20:37.630 a bad one. I mean, he is dying. His heart is 00:20:37.630 --> 00:20:39.970 stopped. And who's the one who steps in to save 00:20:39.970 --> 00:20:42.619 him? Lane. The guy who's deep in his own struggle. 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:45.240 Lane Saley, who is struggling with his own massive 00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:47.880 demons, has the presence of mind and apparently 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:49.900 the medical knowledge from his own experiences 00:20:49.900 --> 00:20:53.539 to resuscitate his friend. He saved Mike Starr's 00:20:53.539 --> 00:20:56.519 life. That is such a heavy, tragic irony. The 00:20:56.519 --> 00:20:58.759 guy who needs saving is the one doing the saving. 00:20:58.859 --> 00:21:01.180 It shows that he wasn't just a zombie. He wasn't 00:21:01.180 --> 00:21:03.200 gone. He cared so deeply about his friends and 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:07.380 he was still in there. But then 1994 hits. April 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:11.109 1994. Kurt Cobain. Kurt Cobain. is found dead. 00:21:11.250 --> 00:21:15.170 And the entire Seattle music scene just freezes. 00:21:15.309 --> 00:21:17.910 For Lane, this wasn't just a news story about 00:21:17.910 --> 00:21:20.930 another rock star. This was a peer. This is a 00:21:20.930 --> 00:21:24.450 guy his age from his town in the same boat. And 00:21:24.450 --> 00:21:26.970 it scared him. The source material says Cobain's 00:21:26.970 --> 00:21:29.849 death scared Staley into temporary sobriety. 00:21:29.930 --> 00:21:32.049 It must have felt like looking in a mirror. A 00:21:32.049 --> 00:21:34.230 terrifying mirror. I can't imagine what that 00:21:34.230 --> 00:21:36.210 must have felt like. But, you know, fear is a 00:21:36.210 --> 00:21:39.039 motivator that eventually wears off. He relapsed. 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:41.980 And here is where we see the band's integrity 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:44.599 really shine through. Right, because Alice in 00:21:44.599 --> 00:21:46.880 Chains had the world at their feet at this point. 00:21:46.980 --> 00:21:48.920 They could have toured Jar of Flies and made 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:50.640 millions of dollars. They could have been the 00:21:50.640 --> 00:21:53.440 biggest band in the world. But the managers and 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:55.400 the rest of the band, they said no. They turned 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:57.259 down the tour money. They refused to put the 00:21:57.259 --> 00:21:59.660 band on the road. They canceled a huge tour with 00:21:59.660 --> 00:22:02.500 Metallica. They knew that if they put Lane on 00:22:02.500 --> 00:22:04.940 a tour bus with all the access and the pressure, 00:22:05.099 --> 00:22:08.619 he might die. They chose his life over the money. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:10.900 That is incredibly rare in the music business. 00:22:11.180 --> 00:22:13.019 I mean, usually the machine just keeps grinding 00:22:13.019 --> 00:22:15.559 until the wheels fall off. It speaks to how much 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:17.619 they loved him. They were trying to protect him. 00:22:18.220 --> 00:22:20.980 But since Alice in Chains was on hiatus, Lane 00:22:20.980 --> 00:22:24.500 needed another outlet, a safer outlet. And this 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:27.140 is where the band Mad Season comes in. I adore 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:30.779 the Mad Season album above. River of Deceit is 00:22:30.779 --> 00:22:32.519 one of the most beautiful songs ever written, 00:22:32.579 --> 00:22:35.319 period. But I didn't realize the band was essentially 00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:37.839 formed as an intervention. It was basically a 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:40.680 musical safe house. It was formed by Mike McCready 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:43.700 of Pearl Jam. And McCready was sober at the time. 00:22:43.960 --> 00:22:46.440 He grabbed Barrett Martin from Screaming Trees 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:49.839 and a blues bassist named John Baker Saunders. 00:22:50.059 --> 00:22:52.759 And the idea was, let's surround Lane with sober 00:22:52.759 --> 00:22:54.519 musicians. Let's just get in a room and play 00:22:54.519 --> 00:22:56.799 blues. Let's keep it low pressure and positive. 00:22:57.039 --> 00:22:59.589 Did it work? Musically, it was an absolute triumph. 00:22:59.829 --> 00:23:01.890 It proved Layne could do so much more than just 00:23:01.890 --> 00:23:04.170 scream. He could sing the blues. He could be 00:23:04.170 --> 00:23:06.890 vulnerable and quiet. His voice on that album 00:23:06.890 --> 00:23:09.250 is heartbreaking. It really is. Personally. It 00:23:09.250 --> 00:23:11.109 helped for a while. It gave him a focus. But 00:23:11.109 --> 00:23:13.329 the addiction was just too entrenched at that 00:23:13.329 --> 00:23:15.769 point. I think there's a misconception that Lane 00:23:15.769 --> 00:23:17.869 thought drugs were cool, you know, that he was 00:23:17.869 --> 00:23:20.390 promoting the lifestyle through his music. And 00:23:20.390 --> 00:23:23.710 he absolutely hated that perception. There is 00:23:23.710 --> 00:23:26.509 a quote from a Rolling Stone interview in 1996 00:23:26.509 --> 00:23:30.490 that is just... It's absolutely essential to 00:23:30.490 --> 00:23:33.130 understanding him. He said, drugs worked for 00:23:33.130 --> 00:23:34.950 me for years and now they're turning against 00:23:34.950 --> 00:23:37.130 me. I didn't want my fans to think that heroin 00:23:37.130 --> 00:23:39.589 was cool. That's the key. Now they're turning 00:23:39.589 --> 00:23:42.869 against me. That is such a clear, lucid, and 00:23:42.869 --> 00:23:45.670 self -aware realization. He knew he was trapped. 00:23:46.059 --> 00:23:48.539 He wasn't glorifying it. He also said, I'm walking 00:23:48.539 --> 00:23:50.640 through hell and this sucks. He talked about 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:52.240 how fans would come up to him and give him a 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:54.799 thumbs up and say, hey, man, I'm high, too, thinking 00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:57.880 it would, like, bond them. And Lane was horrified 00:23:57.880 --> 00:23:59.940 by that. He didn't want to be the poster boy 00:23:59.940 --> 00:24:02.019 for heroin. He wanted to be a musician. Let's 00:24:02.019 --> 00:24:03.819 move to the slow retreat. This is Section 5, 00:24:04.099 --> 00:24:07.779 roughly 1996 to 2002. This is the period where 00:24:07.779 --> 00:24:10.519 he really fades from public view. And the catalyst 00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:12.579 for the final withdrawal was another tragedy, 00:24:12.839 --> 00:24:16.920 October 1996. Demaree Laura Parrott, his former 00:24:16.920 --> 00:24:19.799 fiance, died of an overdose. And they were soulmates, 00:24:19.859 --> 00:24:21.400 by all accounts. Even though they had broken 00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:24.279 up, they were still deeply connected. Mark Lanigan, 00:24:24.500 --> 00:24:26.500 another Seattle musician and a close friend, 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:29.180 said that Lane never recovered from her death. 00:24:29.420 --> 00:24:32.240 He was placed on 24 -hour suicide watch immediately 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:35.519 after he heard the news. It seems like whatever 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:39.000 fight he had left in him, a huge part of it died 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:41.470 with her. We did get that one last incredible 00:24:41.470 --> 00:24:44.170 performance, the MTV Unplugged show in April 00:24:44.170 --> 00:24:47.309 in 1996, just a few months before she died, which 00:24:47.309 --> 00:24:50.549 is now just iconic. It's iconic, but it is so 00:24:50.549 --> 00:24:52.569 hard to watch. You see the frailty. He's wearing 00:24:52.569 --> 00:24:54.930 sunglasses. He's wearing gloves to hide the track 00:24:54.930 --> 00:24:57.990 marks on his hands. He's incredibly thin. But 00:24:57.990 --> 00:25:01.279 the voice. The voice is still there. That was 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:03.220 basically the end of the road for live performances. 00:25:03.559 --> 00:25:06.740 It was. His final show ever was on July 3, 1996 00:25:06.740 --> 00:25:09.859 in Kansas City, opening for Kiss of All Bands. 00:25:10.420 --> 00:25:12.240 After that, he went home to his condo in the 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:14.240 University District of Seattle, and he basically 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:16.240 just closed the door on the world. The rumors 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:19.920 from this era are gruesome. They are. And unfortunately, 00:25:20.220 --> 00:25:24.380 many of them turn out to be true. In 1998, he 00:25:24.380 --> 00:25:27.119 briefly went back into the studio to record two 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:30.619 final songs with Alice in Chains, Get Born Again 00:25:30.619 --> 00:25:34.740 and Died. And the producer, Dave Jordan, was 00:25:34.740 --> 00:25:37.180 absolutely shocked by his appearance. What did 00:25:37.180 --> 00:25:40.759 he see? He said Lane weighed 80 pounds. 80 pounds. 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:44.259 He was six feet tall. That's skeletal. He was, 00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:47.680 in Jordan's words, white as a ghost. He had lost 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:50.250 several teeth, which affected his singing. and 00:25:50.250 --> 00:25:53.250 gave him a noticeable lisp. His legs had atrophied 00:25:53.250 --> 00:25:56.269 from lack of use. But he still sang. But, and 00:25:56.269 --> 00:25:58.130 this is the miracle and the tragedy of Lane Staley, 00:25:58.309 --> 00:26:00.869 he stood in front of that microphone, and he 00:26:00.869 --> 00:26:03.369 delivered. The power was still in his throat, 00:26:03.529 --> 00:26:05.829 even if the rest of his body was completely failing 00:26:05.829 --> 00:26:07.769 him. His friends tried to reach him during this 00:26:07.769 --> 00:26:09.329 time, right? It wasn't like everyone just gave 00:26:09.329 --> 00:26:12.200 up on him. No, not at all. Sean Kinney, the drummer, 00:26:12.299 --> 00:26:14.740 was relentless. He said he would call Lane three 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:17.180 times a week, every week. He would go to the 00:26:17.180 --> 00:26:18.900 condo building and stand on the street and just 00:26:18.900 --> 00:26:21.119 yell up at his window, Lane, pick up the phone, 00:26:21.160 --> 00:26:23.359 I'm here. But Lane wouldn't answer the door. 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.220 He wouldn't answer. Why? Do you think it was 00:26:26.220 --> 00:26:29.700 shame? I think it was likely shame. And also 00:26:29.700 --> 00:26:32.940 maybe a form of protection. He didn't want his 00:26:32.940 --> 00:26:35.299 friends to see him in that state. He wanted to 00:26:35.299 --> 00:26:37.920 preserve their memory of who he was, not what 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:39.759 he'd become. But we should correct the record 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:42.539 on one point. He wasn't completely alone. His 00:26:42.539 --> 00:26:45.119 mother, Nancy, insisted that the narrative of 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:47.259 him being totally cut off wasn't true. That's 00:26:47.259 --> 00:26:50.279 right. She visited him. She was there as late 00:26:50.279 --> 00:26:52.779 as February 2002, just two months before he died. 00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:56.140 So he had his family's love, but he was locked 00:26:56.140 --> 00:26:58.779 in a battle that he was losing day by day inside 00:26:58.779 --> 00:27:01.819 that apartment. Which brings us to April 2002 00:27:01.819 --> 00:27:04.960 and the timeline of the discovery is just, it's 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:07.740 brutal. It's a forensic timeline. It's cold and 00:27:07.740 --> 00:27:10.599 sad. In mid -April, his accountants were the 00:27:10.599 --> 00:27:12.619 first to notice something was wrong. They saw 00:27:12.619 --> 00:27:15.480 lack of activity in his bank account, no money 00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:17.880 had been withdrawn for two weeks. And for an 00:27:17.880 --> 00:27:20.200 addict, that's a huge red flag. So they contacted 00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:22.339 his mother. They contacted his mother, who then 00:27:22.339 --> 00:27:24.480 went to the apartment. This was April 19th. And 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:26.359 before they even opened the door, she knew something 00:27:26.359 --> 00:27:29.319 was wrong. She knew. Because of the cat. Sadie. 00:27:29.809 --> 00:27:32.329 Lane's cat. She said Sadie was known to be a 00:27:32.329 --> 00:27:35.289 very quiet, silent cat. But Lane's mother could 00:27:35.289 --> 00:27:37.470 hear her meowing in distress from down the hallway, 00:27:37.650 --> 00:27:39.569 just screaming, basically, behind the locked 00:27:39.569 --> 00:27:42.650 door. That detail, the cat crying behind the 00:27:42.650 --> 00:27:44.769 locked door, it grounds the horror in something 00:27:44.769 --> 00:27:48.190 so domestic and so sad. It really does. She called 00:27:48.190 --> 00:27:51.470 911. They broke the door down. And they found 00:27:51.470 --> 00:27:53.849 him on the couch. He'd been dead for two weeks. 00:27:53.910 --> 00:27:56.730 He weighed 86 pounds. And the cause of death 00:27:56.730 --> 00:28:00.460 was an overdose. a speedball, heroin, and cocaine. 00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:02.799 And the medical examiner, based on the state 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:05.039 of the body, estimated that the date of death 00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:08.259 was April 5th. April 5th, the exact same date 00:28:08.259 --> 00:28:11.019 that Kurt Cobain died eight years earlier. You 00:28:11.019 --> 00:28:12.680 couldn't write that in a movie script. People 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:14.359 would say it was too contrived, too on the nose. 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:18.000 But that is the reality. The two defining voices 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:21.319 of Seattle grunge gone on the same calendar day. 00:28:21.559 --> 00:28:23.740 There is one last piece of this puzzle that just 00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:25.940 makes it even heavier. The Mike Starr confession. 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:27.960 This came out years later, didn't it? Yeah, this 00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:30.500 was in 2010. Mike Starr, the original bassist, 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:33.980 was on the TV show Celebrity Rehab. And he revealed 00:28:33.980 --> 00:28:35.500 a secret that he had been carrying for eight 00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:37.900 years. He was the last person to see Lane alone. 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:40.279 He was. On April 4th, it was Mike's birthday, 00:28:40.420 --> 00:28:43.099 he went over to Lane's condo to see him. And 00:28:43.099 --> 00:28:45.180 Lane was clearly in very bad shape. He was sick. 00:28:45.660 --> 00:28:48.839 Mike wanted to call 911. He begged him, let me 00:28:48.839 --> 00:28:51.839 call 911 for you. And Lane refused. Lane refused. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:54.440 He got angry. He threatened to never speak to 00:28:54.440 --> 00:28:56.849 Mike again if he made that call. They got into 00:28:56.849 --> 00:29:00.009 a huge argument. And Mike, who was high on benzodiazepines 00:29:00.009 --> 00:29:02.569 himself at the time, was emotional and confused. 00:29:03.190 --> 00:29:06.150 So he stormed out. And Lane's last words to him. 00:29:06.250 --> 00:29:08.609 As he was leaving, Lane yelled, not like this, 00:29:08.670 --> 00:29:10.509 don't leave like this. And Mike Starr carried 00:29:10.509 --> 00:29:13.470 that guilt to his own grave. He did. He died 00:29:13.470 --> 00:29:15.970 of an overdose himself in 2011. He said in that 00:29:15.970 --> 00:29:17.710 interview that he blamed himself every single 00:29:17.710 --> 00:29:19.809 day for not making that call. It's just a tragedy 00:29:19.809 --> 00:29:22.210 compounded by tragedy. So after all that darkness, 00:29:22.349 --> 00:29:25.480 we are left with the legacy. Section 7. How do 00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:27.279 we remember him? Well, the immediate aftermath 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:30.200 in Seattle was just this huge outpouring of love 00:29:30.200 --> 00:29:33.160 and grief. There was a public vigil at the Seattle 00:29:33.160 --> 00:29:36.240 Center. Jerry Cantrell dedicated his solo album, 00:29:36.420 --> 00:29:40.119 Degradation Trip, to Lane's memory. And in a 00:29:40.119 --> 00:29:42.420 really touching personal gesture, Jerry adopted 00:29:42.420 --> 00:29:45.180 Sadie the cat. He took the cat. He took the cat 00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:47.039 home with him. He did. He gave her a home for 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:48.819 the rest of her life. That makes me feel a little 00:29:48.819 --> 00:29:50.960 better about everything. Me too. And the musical 00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:53.630 tributes were everywhere. Pearl Jam wrote a song 00:29:53.630 --> 00:29:57.940 called 42 ,002. Stain had a huge hit with a song 00:29:57.940 --> 00:30:00.640 just called Lane. Metallica has said that the 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:03.480 title of their album, Death Magnetic, was inspired 00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:06.059 by him. It shows the respect the entire heavy 00:30:06.059 --> 00:30:08.759 metal community had for him. He wasn't just a 00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:11.299 grunge guy to them. He was a titan of vocals. 00:30:11.500 --> 00:30:13.319 He really was. And of course, Alice in Chains 00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:15.900 eventually came back. They did with William Duvall 00:30:15.900 --> 00:30:19.059 on vocals, and they handled it with so much grace 00:30:19.059 --> 00:30:21.680 and respect. The title track of their comeback 00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:24.779 album, Black Gives Way to Blue, is essentially... 00:30:24.809 --> 00:30:28.509 a funeral dirge for Lane. It's a beautiful heartbreaking 00:30:28.509 --> 00:30:30.750 song. And who do they get to play piano on it? 00:30:30.869 --> 00:30:32.910 Elton John? It's for Elton John. Which is an 00:30:32.910 --> 00:30:35.349 incredible full circle moment. It's the perfect 00:30:35.349 --> 00:30:38.150 full circle moment because the very first concert 00:30:38.150 --> 00:30:41.309 Lane Staley ever attended as a little kid was 00:30:41.309 --> 00:30:44.470 an Elton John concert. And now all those years 00:30:44.470 --> 00:30:47.710 later Elton John is playing him out. That is 00:30:47.710 --> 00:30:51.170 beautiful. So as we wrap this up. We started 00:30:51.170 --> 00:30:53.569 this deep dive looking for the human being behind 00:30:53.569 --> 00:30:56.130 the tortured artist headline. And I think he's 00:30:56.130 --> 00:30:58.190 there. He's in all those details. He's the kid 00:30:58.190 --> 00:31:00.369 who changed his name to sound like a Muttley 00:31:00.369 --> 00:31:02.950 Crew drummer. He's the guy who laughed while 00:31:02.950 --> 00:31:05.650 a male stripper auditioned terribly for his band. 00:31:05.869 --> 00:31:07.849 He's the guy who saved his friend's life in Brazil 00:31:07.849 --> 00:31:10.369 in the middle of his own chaos. He was funny. 00:31:10.470 --> 00:31:14.410 He was complex. He was kind. And he was undeniably 00:31:14.410 --> 00:31:17.170 earth shatteringly talented. He was a singular 00:31:17.170 --> 00:31:19.230 talent. There will never be another voice like 00:31:19.230 --> 00:31:21.859 that. Never. So here's the thought I want to 00:31:21.859 --> 00:31:24.259 leave you with tonight. We often look back at 00:31:24.259 --> 00:31:27.079 the 90s and we romanticize the darkness. There's 00:31:27.079 --> 00:31:29.279 this myth that the heroine made the music better, 00:31:29.380 --> 00:31:32.259 that the pain was the fuel. But Lane Staley told 00:31:32.259 --> 00:31:35.460 us explicitly that the drugs turned against him. 00:31:35.579 --> 00:31:38.119 He told us point blank that it wasn't cool, that 00:31:38.119 --> 00:31:40.940 it sucked. So when you listen to Man in the Box 00:31:40.940 --> 00:31:44.539 or Nutshell tomorrow on your drive to work, try 00:31:44.539 --> 00:31:46.980 not to hear it as a glorification of that lifestyle. 00:31:47.519 --> 00:31:50.490 Hear it as a warning. Hear it as a distress signal 00:31:50.490 --> 00:31:52.210 from a guy who knew he was losing the battle 00:31:52.210 --> 00:31:54.289 but kept singing through the static anyway. That 00:31:54.289 --> 00:31:57.630 makes the music not just heavy but brave. Incredibly 00:31:57.630 --> 00:31:59.730 brave. Exactly. Thank you for listening to The 00:31:59.730 --> 00:32:01.950 Deep Dive. Go listen to Jar of Flies deeply tonight. 00:32:02.029 --> 00:32:03.109 We'll catch you next time.