21st Century Schizoid Man Les Rallizes Denudes

503愛的鼓勵 0訂閱站台

Layne Staley (1967--2002)
Text and picture courtesy of New York Times

唉,又是一個樂界壯年過世的消息,當然新聞媒體肯定會報導又是毒品又是複雜的搖滾歌星人際關係,順便以大人的姿態反省一下現今的日益敗壞社會風氣等等. 九十年代來自西岸的Grunge樂隊風潮悲劇代表性人物自Andrew Wood, Kurt Cobain後又多一人.

記得當年Soundgarden, Nirvana與Pearl Jam虛無憤怒的重搖滾旋風開始進駐青少年心裡時是九二年左右,我剛唸高中; 當Kurt開槍轟掉自己腦袋的那天是高三聯考前,我還穿著Kurt指中指照片的T恤在台北車站晃來晃去. 現在想起好像才幾天前發生的事似的.

不過,這一切都已經過去了. 寶貝....


April 21, 2002

Layne Staley, Alice in Chains' Singer, Dies at 34

By JON PARELES

ayne Staley, the lead singer of the pioneering grunge band Alice in Chains, was found dead on Friday at his home in Seattle. He was 34 years old.

Alice in Chains was one of the first grunge bands to gain national attention. Beginning with its 1990 EP, "We Die Young," the group sang bleak visions of death, addiction and despair, set to grinding minor-key guitar riffs. Most of the band's material was written by its guitarist, Jerry Cantrell, though Mr. Staley wrote lyrics for many of its songs, including the band's first hit, "Man in the Box," with the chorus: "Feed my eyes, can you sew them shut?/Jesus Christ, deny your maker."

On the band's second album, "Dirt" in 1992, Mr. Staley sang directly about heroin addiction in songs like "God Smack" and "Junkman," with its chorus, "What's my drug of choice/Well, what have you got?"

Duane Fish, a spokesman for the Seattle Police Department, said that when the police were called on Friday to check on Mr. Staley, officers forcibly entered his apartment near the University of Washington campus after there was no answer to a knock on the door.

Mr. Staley was found dead on a couch with "obvious signs of drug use," Mr. Fish said, including heroin needles and other paraphernalia. The King County medical examiner has not determined the cause of death, but said yesterday that Mr. Staley had been dead for several days. Mr. Fish said, "We have determined it was either drug use or natural causes. There were no signs of foul play, according to our investigators."

Mr. Staley was born in Kirkland, Wash., and started playing drums when he was 12 years old, inspired by a Black Sabbath album from his parents' record collection. A few years later, he decided to become a singer instead, and traded his drum kit for a microphone.

He met Mr. Cantrell at a party, and formed Alice in Chains with him in 1987. The group quickly turned from playing glam-metal to an early variety of grunge, and in 1989, it was signed to Columbia Records, which released the EP "We Die Young" and the band's first album, "Facelift," in 1990.

The group appeared as a bar band in the Cameron Crowe movie "Singles," and toured nationally as "Facelift" went on to sell two million copies. A second EP, "Sap," was released in 1991, followed in 1992 by "Dirt," which has sold four million copies. Alice in Chains was a headliner on the 1993 Lollapalooza tour, and released its third EP, "Jar of Flies," in 1994.

By then, Mr. Staley was struggling with heroin addiction, and on the verge of a 1994 summer tour, the band broke up for six months. Mr. Staley sang on a side project, Mad Season, with Mike McCready, a guitarist in Pearl Jam. Alice in Chains reunited in 1995 to make an album, entitled "Alice in Chains," which sold two million copies.

But in a 1996 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Mr. Staley was covered with needle marks, and spoke obliquely about drug use.

"I wrote about drugs, and I didn't think I was being unsafe or careless by writing about them," Mr. Staley said. "I didn't want fans to think heroin was cool. But then I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen."

Alice in Chains taped an episode of "MTV Unplugged" in 1996; the subsequent album sold one million copies. As the 1990's ended, Columbia released more of the band's material: a boxed set, a live album and a greatest-hits collection. But Mr. Staley had dropped out of sight.