Rockstars Who Tried To Save Alice In Chains Layne Staley

Rockstars who tried to save Layne Staley of Alice in Chains

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From 1996 to 2002 Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley lived a pretty reclusive life. If you’ve read either grunge is dead or everybody loves our town there’s a handful of pretty depressing stories about what layne was up to in his reclusive years and how his appearance had drastically changed from years of drug abuse. It was during this time, especially towards the tale end of his life that several of his musician friends and bandmates tried to help him get clean. That’s what we’re going to explore in today’s video.

John Frusciante

It was around either 1999 or 2000 that, Bob Forrest and John Frusciante tried to help convince Layne Staley to get off drugs. Forrest would recount the story in his book Running with Monsters: A Memoir. Forrest who dealt with addiction previously became known as a person who could get through to addicts and Staley’s mom asked him for his help. Red Hot Chili Peppers john frusciante who was newly sober at the time didn’t think they could get through to staley, but joined Forrest anyways in visiting layne in his apartment in seattle.

Bob: “Hey Layne. What’s going on.”
Layne: “Nothing. I know why you’re here.”
Bob: “Your Mom’s worried, man. You don’t look too good.”
Layne: “I’m okay, though. Really.”
After leaving layne’s apartment forrest woul remark to frusciante in his book “I don’t think he’ll come out of this.” to which Frusciante responded, “It’s his life, man.”
Mark Lanegan
The former Screaming Trees frontman would talk to Rolling Stone and talked about getting sober in the late 90’s and tryingto help Layne. He would tell Rolling Stone The first time I saw him (referring to Layne) after I’d gotten clean, I’d been clean a year. I’m pretty sure that [Alice in Chains’] Jerry [Cantrell] and Mike Inez flew me up to Seattle because they were unable to get into his house. He had a camera and lived in the penthouse of this condo. So whenever anybody from that camp would come to see him, he would just ignore it. Jerry and Mike knew that when he saw me, he would let me in. I went along with that, and I also wanted him to see that I was clean, that it was possible to get clean, that his prediction that I would never be able to do it had failed [laughs]. Hopefully, maybe, it would give him the idea that he, himself, could do it. But he didn’t want to do it.
When I got there, I said, “Hey, man, it’s been a while. I’ve been clean for more than 12 months.” And he was like, “No, you weren’t, man. You just left, like, two months ago.” His sense of time had warped. And he wasn’t buying the truth from me. I remember him saying at that point, “I always just keep thinking I’m gonna get that same feeling I got the first time again.”Lanegan would go on to say that he hoped a medical emergency would force layne to change his ways but his medical emergency ended up being his death.
Finally his bandmates more specifically drummer Sean Kinney and Mike Inez tried to help Layne. Inez would reveal in the book how himself and Mark Lanegan would go beat on his door to talk to Layne but to no avail. with Kinney recalling Kinney said: “It got to a point where he’d kept himself so locked up, both physically and emotionally. I kept trying to make contact. Three times a week, like clockwork, I’d call him, but he’d never answer. Every time I was in the area, I was up in front of his place yelling for him. Even if you could get into his building, he wasn’t going to open the door. You’d phone, and he wouldn’t answer. You couldn’t just kick the door in and grab him, though there were so many times I thought about doing that. But if someone won’t help themselves, what, really, can anyone else do?”
It was also briefly mentioned in the book Alice in Chains the untold story that Krist Novaselic of Nirvana would sometimes take food over to Layne’s house. Hoping to save the frontman after losing his friend Kurt Cobain
In the book grunge is dead krisha augerot who worked for pearl jam singled out Alice in CHains manager and Chris Cornell’s wife at the time as being the person who tried to help Layne the most straighten out his personal life recalling “she was a constant in his life trying to get him clean unfortunately he just never accepted it.”

[seanmckelvey]

Layne's death is all the more tragic when you realize that it was, in a sense, an extremely protracted suicide. You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. Frusciante knew that better than anyone. Almost any addict who has come out the other side will tell you that the only way you can beat it is want it badly enough to do whatever it takes to get clean and stay clean.

[automationvisuals]

I honestly find Layne Staley’s downfall the most intriguing of the grunge lot. His change happened so quickly and yet lasted for so long. RIP Layne…

[jibrilgoodwin]

Layne's story is very tragic, but i think it's a cautionary tale that helped me when i was going through my active addiction, i know exactly how Layne felt, i did exactly that, was distancing myself from the entire world and did nothing but use and the thing about heroin withdrawals, it's extremely difficult to kick without it making you feel like you're a living zombie, and as of now i have 8 months clean, and that's because i have now the program of narcotics anonymous and Layne's story to remind myself to never go back to heroin, R.I.P. Layne Staley, your story contributed to me getting clean

[LynnE]

R.I.P. Layne, love you. No one will ever compare.

[emilyarante]

You may not have been able to save yourself but you sure as hell did save a lot of us with your beautiful music. Your legacy will never be forgotten. RIP Layne

[Bigman-zolv]

Layne definitely has one of if not the Darkest, saddest, most horrible stories in all of music . What gets me is I can’t imagine How Horrible his last few years were and being so mentally defeated That he didn’t even want to Help himself . RIP Layne ! Gone too soon !

[mattyk]

Mark Lanegan’s book Sing Backwards and Weep is an excellent read. He and Layne were best friends and he speaks candidly about their friendship and shared self-destructive lifestyles.

[kristasweetleaf]

Can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved.. he was instrumental to the Seattle sound of the 90s.

[StevenEveral]

The story that really creeps me out about Layne's death is Susan Silver first noticed that money wasn't being regularly being taken out by Layne in early April 2002. That was what tipped them off to something being terribly wrong and the discovery of his body on April 19, 2002.
Every time I read about that it still creeps me out. RIP Layne.

[vante]

His girlfriend Demi dying in 1996 was the final straw I believe that's when his addiction spiraled out of control.

[Lag]

Such a sad story. I recently just discovered this band and Layne had such a beautiful haunting voice. Sad that such a talent is gone

[debby]

Layne gave up a long time before he died. Someone wrote longest suicide in history. I agree. I also agree that Demri dying was it he gave up after that.
Rest easy Layne hope you found the peace you deserved.

[Jason_Maier]

Sid,

Layne's death was because when he was discovered, he had been dead two weeks.

Even worse was that his mother was present (she had called in a wellness check).

[ObsidianLife]

I don’t see enough people talking about the fact that he had a combination of depression and addiction, which is incredibly fucking lethal. As I understand his girlfriend, who was the love of his life had OD’d and that completed the spiral. Maybe on a long enough timeline he would’ve come out of it but by the time he died, it’s pretty clear he still wasn’t in a place where he wanted to live.

[DamonLaRiche]

Layne your music saved my life. I'm living proof you can overcome addiction. I've been clean now since August 2016. I buried my wife, my best friend, family members, and friends all from overdoses. I wish you could have pulled through all of your struggles. It's heartbreaking how you had it all but felt so alone and defeated. I have so much love and respect for you. I will never forget playing in my band and when we'd cover an Alice In Chains song everyone sang along with every word. The impact you had and still have changed the world. I wish you could've been here to see it. Rest easy Layne.

[hollymartins]

It took me 20 years to break free from the poppy. I had to make that decision. Unfortunately, the love of those around me couldn't free me. I had to want the fight bad enough. It's a tragedy, but a fact, that no amount of love will save an addict. Love and support are incredibly important, but the addict has to make that stand. Layne Staley was a beloved soul to those of us touched by his music and he would still be here if our love would have been enough. Most addicts would.

[karakensing]

Gosh the feeling of my myself who wants to save him and hug him is a feeling every time I hear his voice….by far the yearning for him to still be here never will end for me.

[johnkoss]

It’s so sad that krist was trying to save him after losing Kurt like that it’s such a shame drugs take tolls on people like this hope Kurt and Layne are rocking the great gig in the sky rn

[tehfn]

Trying to save Layne was a selfish act but not in the bad way. We all wanted him to live. We all wish we could have saved him. But the simple fact is he was a broken person, exacerbated by drug addiction, who wanted to leave. The irony is his legacy is timeless.

[janelllatour]

My best friend who was a cousin jumped from the Sunshine Bridge ....you are my sunshine my only sunshine. After 25 or 30 years of attempts. I get to her in the nick of time 8 different times. The time before she jumped she stopped breathing in my arms. YOU CANNOT KEEP SOMEBODY ALIVE IF THEY ARE DETERMINED TO DIE. she was an addict too. It's hell for those left behind. I'll love Layne forever too.