My thoughts on the tragic and haunting death of Layne Staley

LAYNE STALEY           Photo Credit: FRANK MICELOTTA

Layne Staley’s drug-related death is the most tragic and haunting of any other artist who suffered the same fate. It took over two weeks before anyone knew he had died from a lethal overdose and combination of heroin and cocaine. By then, his badly decomposed body, still seated upright in front of a flickering television and surrounded by numerous drug paraphernalia, was discovered by the police along with his accountant when they kicked open the door to his condominium located in a university district of Seattle. It was a horrifying sight… and it marked the end for Layne Staley.

That rabbit hole of drug addiction that Layne Staley found himself in began in the early 90’s– in 1992 to be exact–when his former fiancé, the late Demri Parrott, had introduced him to heroin. It was at the time when the band he had founded, Alice In Chains, became one of the biggest and most popular bands in the world after the massive commercial and critical success of their second studio-release ‘Dirt’.

The timing of his heroin use kicking into overdrive could not have been more ill-fated for Layne Staley. The tensions and problems his addiction would cause down the line with the rest of his bandmates in Alice in Chains would make touring difficult at best, and with management trying to keep his severe drug addiction under wraps, only raised more speculations on what was the true health condition and well-being of Layne Staley.

By that point, his chances of fully extricating himself from using drugs of any kind, especially heroin, seemed to become more bleak. And with each passing year, all of us who were fans of his band, Alice in Chains, would be witnesses to Layne Staley’s downward spiral of self-destruction as he was physically becoming more and more a shell of his former self. The biggest proof of that was the classic MTV Unplugged Alice in Chains special did in 1996. The photo of Layne Staley I have sourced and used for this specific article of mine was, in fact, taken during that above-mentioned live performance of the band.

Before Layne Staley was introduced to heroin, he was one of the most raw, robust, charismatic and animated performers of his time. To see him next–frail-looking and emaciated, barely moving on stage and merely holding on to the mic the entire time during sets as though he was holding on to dear life, and wearing black shades–was a very painful sight to behold !

Heroin was sapping his soul and ravaging his body which caused him to lose nearly half of his original body weight. Puncture marks and sores covered his arms and hands which he hid from view by wearing long sleeves, jackets and gloves. The gradual loss of his teeth would affect his singing so much so that a lisp could be detected. His daily use of heroin would soon cause irreversible damage to his bodily functions that I cannot even discuss the details because they are too disturbing. Layne Staley suffered tremendously in his final years !

And that should not have been the case because  he willingly volunteered himself to a drug treatment facility for an estimated 13 times, according to his mom Nancy McCallum when she was interviewed a few years ago. His attempts to get clean occurred during the early-to-mid 90’s. Yet, despite all his valiant efforts to rid himself of his dependency on drugs, his addiction was all too great for him to overcome and it would cost him his life in 2002.

For those of us who still cannot comprehend why someone like Layne Staley who had a golden voice, was one of the founders of the Grunge Movement, and who had sold millions of albums with his band, Alice in Chains, by the time the mid-90’s had rolled along, could get hooked to such a dangerous and killer drug like heroin remains to be one of the most puzzling questions ever in the history of Rock N’ Roll. What else was he looking for ? I keep turning this thought over and over in my head.

Besides the fact that it is even more depressing that he died at such a young age of 34 when he had so much more to give at what could have been his prime years as a vocalist, his sudden death still leaves us with lingering questions and wondering what more he could have accomplished and what other albums Alice in Chains could have given us would have been like… if only Layne Staley had survived and kicked his drug habit for good ?

So many questions, yet so few answers can be gained since his death.

“Drugs are not the way to the light. They won’t lead to a fairy-tale life, they lead to suffering.” – A quote from Layne Staley.