Layne Staley, lead singer of Alice In Chains was found dead in Seattle today, a victim of a drug overdose. He was 34. He was another fuckhead heroin addict with no ability for self control in the face of success. I feel badly for my generation… and I feel badly for him. I also marvel at the apparent lack of ability to control compulsive consumption of drugs and alcohol in my generation. I thought the boomers were bad, we’re really no better A lot of good people have taken themselves out.
On the other hand, that’s less of them to compete with for the good seats at McDonalds when the rest of us get old. I guess there is a bright side to just about everything.
I think that they changed the course of music. So many bands since them have modeled their sound after AIC, too many probably. Staley had a voice like no other. There have been many, many imitators (Stone Temple Pilots, Creed, etc…) but, no AIC. They still have an incredible following amongst their fans and have probably picked up as many fans since their last work in 1995 as they did while they were working. What really makes me sad and angry is that they well could have kicked Metallica’s ass for the title of Rock God Superband but, the couldn’t keep this guy straight and productive. I would even go out on the limb and speculate that they could have gone as far as Led Zeppelin if they had wanted to. Now, we are going to have to stare at Hetfield for another 20 years, yeeech.