Jerry Rooth but Youll Try Again
Alice in Chains: The Untold Story - Layne Staley's concluding gloomy days as the frontman of the Seattle grunge legends
In this saddening except from Alice in Chains: The Untold Story, author David De Sola recounts the final gloomy days of frontman Layne Staley.
In April of 1997, an entity known as the Larusta Trust bought a three bedroom, 1,500 square-human foot 5th-floor condominium at a building in Seattle's University District for $262,000.
A review of the property records, when cross-referenced with Alice in Chains album liner notes and other public records, shows that the Larusta Trust shared the aforementioned Bellevue address as the concern entity AIC Touring Inc. and VWC Management, a concern management and bookkeeping firm that has counted Alice in Bondage amidst its clients in the by.
Larusta was a reference to John Larusta, the alias Layne was using at the time, according to Ken Elmer. The property was acquired through this roundabout mechanism presumably to go on Layne'due south name off whatsoever public records associated with the transaction. This condo would be Layne's dwelling house for the final five years of his life.
At some point after Layne moved in, producer Toby Wright gear up up a home recording studio for him. Wright described it as, "I think he had some [Alesis Digital Audio Tapes] up at that place, a small console. I fix guitar paths, I set up a couple of song paths, and I call back I had a keyboard path too, and some multiple things where he could just become in, hitting a push button and tape… He had a fiddling drum auto and that kind of thing, he used to do demos."
Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell seemingly confirmed the beingness of Layne solo recordings or demos during a 2010 interview, saying, "I'd fucking go over to his identify and he'd exist playing me shit he'd exist writing all the fourth dimension. I would too. He'd play me stuff, I'd play him stuff, vice-versa." He did not specify the period when he heard these recordings, if they were from the menstruum when Alice in Bondage was nonetheless active or if they were from Layne'south afterwards years.
Jerry likewise said in the same interview that there are no more unreleased Alice in Bondage recordings with Layne's vocals, although drummer Sean Kinney did non entirely rule out the possibility. "If there is, information technology's nothing that we would desire, or he would accept wanted released."
Jamie, Jim and Ken Elmer [Layne'south step-blood brother] are unaware of any solo demos Layne might have recorded during his later years, though he had the means to practice so. The 1 person that would know for sure is his mother, who declined to be interviewed for this book. Layne did at least i confirmed invitee recording from this menses.
His friend Jesse Holt - known as Maxi when he was the singer/guitarist of 2d Coming - was working on a new project under the moniker the Despisley Brothers -the proper noun presumably a play on the R&B grouping the Isley Brothers. Layne re-recorded his guest song for the chorus of the song The Things You Do, which is musically different from the version he recorded with Ron Holt in 1988.
There are at least two recorded versions of this song, the outset from the leap or summertime of 1996, the second dated November 3, 1997. Musically and lyrically, the two later on versions are the aforementioned. Stylistically, Layne'south vocals sound very different from any of his previous work. The difference is that in the 1997 version, he sounds indifferent, with no existent ability or feeling in the performance.
Jason Buttino, who has recordings of both versions, attributes the change to the fact the 2nd version was recorded more than a twelvemonth after the death of Demri Parrott, Layne's longtime girlfriend. Buttino also said Jesse Holt - who declined to be interviewed for this book - had to boost the level on Layne's vocals in the 1997 version considering his voice was and so soft and quiet.
I'm looking past this really skinny, fucked-up looking guy trying to see where Layne is, and it was Layne. I felt really awkward
Randy Biro, Alice in Chains collaborator
Soundgarden broke up in spring of 1997 among ascent tensions. The band played what at the time was their final show in Honolulu on February 9. Chris Cornell decided to call it quits before long afterwards. Susan Silver Direction and A&Chiliad Records issued a joint statement announcing the split.
In October of 1997, according to a report in the Seattle Times, Susan was a panelist during a discussion about stone management at N By Northwest Music and Media Conference. Susan responded to a questioner saying her gender never blocked her progress - "It didn't even enter my sphere of reality." The report as well notes, "She also hinted, with a sigh, that Alice is near to 'self-destruct.' "
That fall, Susan announced she was closing downward her direction business organization. The news was mentioned in the Lip Service section of The Rocket, which as well fabricated the sarcastic comment, "Sources within the visitor report that Silver will close upwards the shop well-nigh the end of December. Sure, Soundgarden don't need a director anymore, but who will burp and change Alice in Chains?"
At some point subsequently that edition was published, the mag received a package containing a jar of urine and a handbag of feces. It too included a note, which read, "Wipe and change this, motherfuckers!" The assumption is information technology came from Layne.
Susan Argent Direction organized a Christmas party that yr, held at a bar in the U District. Randy Biro, a musician who contributed vocals to the 1994 AIC EP Jar of Flies, went to the party, along with his former roommate Kevin Shuss, who has worked with Alice in Bondage and Pearl Jam over the years.
"Hey, Layne wants to see y'all," Shuss told Biro at the political party.
"Corking, where is he?"
"He's correct behind you."
Biro turned around. "I'yard looking by this actually skinny, fucked-upwards looking guy trying to see where Layne is, and it was Layne. I felt really awkward."
"He had a baseball cap on, he had glasses downwards to the end of his nose, and not very many teeth. It shocked me at first. Information technology looked like decease. It was gross." Jim Elmer doesn't know exactly when Layne's tooth loss started, merely thinks it was effectually 1995 or 1996 and said it was a gradual process.
Layne invited Biro to check out his condo, which was around the corner from the bar. He described Layne as being very proud well-nigh his dwelling house. Layne had a massive rear-projection TV. "The fucking thing was huge. I'd never seen a Television set that big. He had gotten it through the label some manner, and all he did was sit down there and get high and play video games all day."
Biro, who was make clean, asked, "Wow, have you got anything?" - referring to drugs.
"Yeah, but I'thou non gonna give information technology to you."
"Why not?"
"Because you're clean. I'm not gonna be part of this. If you need to go do that, y'all do it somewhere else. I don't want to exist part of it. I don't want you to end up like me over again." That was the concluding fourth dimension Biro saw him.
With Alice in Chains on hiatus, Jerry Cantrell called Toby Wright. "He was compiling songs for a while, and so he just called me upward and asked if I would assist out with a solo tape, which I gladly did," Wright said.
Jerry tapped Sean to play drums, and a series of guest musicians to tape parts, including Mike Inez, Fishbone's Norwood Fisher, Pantera's Rex Brown, and Primus' Les Claypool. Three of the iv members of Alice in Chains were actualization on this album, with the exception of Layne.
"At that indicate, they weren't really speaking for whatever reason. There was some kind of something going on. I don't know the cause of it or why," was Wright'south caption for whether or not Jerry tried to go Layne onboard. Wright said there was more than pressure on Jerry considering in addition to being the main songwriter and guitarist, he had to sing.
A lot of anxiety was pent up during the recording of Boggy Depot, about its issue, its success rate, expectations, all that kind of stuff
Toby Wright
The album was titled Boggy Depot - a reference to the area of Oklahoma where Jerry's male parent grew upwards. Rocky Schenck, Mary Mauer and a crew traveled to Atoka, Oklahoma, on September seven, 1997, to shoot photos for the album.
"Great trip, although all of united states of america about got arrested for smuggling liquor into a local restaurant in a dry county," Schenck wrote. The embrace shows Jerry covered in mud continuing waist-deep in a branch of the Boggy River. Jerry made several trips to Oklahoma as he was writing the anthology, and would drive his truck to the edge of the river at the location where the cover was shot.
Jerry sent Male monarch Brown a tape with 11 songs he wanted him to play on. Brownish agreed to exercise it, seeing it as an opportunity to expand his horizons and also to get abroad from some of the issues in Pantera. He went to Sausalito, California, to record his parts.
According to Brown's memoir, he was butting heads with Toby Wright during the making of the album. He also noted Jerry was dealing with his own habit: "Allow's only say I would get past his place from fourth dimension to fourth dimension and encounter his canis familiaris chained up with no nutrient in the bowl for iii fucking days, and that indicated to me that peradventure something was seriously incorrect."
By the time the album was finished, Wright said, "A lot of anxiety was pent up during the recording, almost its result, its success rate, expectations, all that kind of stuff. And I call back once it was done, mixed, [Jerry] approved everything, I think information technology was a swell relief to him." The album, originally scheduled for an Oct 1997 release, was delayed to the following leap.
Boggy Depot was released April 7, 1998, reaching number 28 on the Billboard chart its commencement week. After the album's release, Jerry fabricated articulate that Alice in Chains was his priority, but would not requite a definitive answer on the status of the band at the time. "It's something I never really wanted to exercise, just the way things take played out, information technology'south like, why not?" he told Guitar World of his decision to do a solo album.
"To be honest, I'd just be happy existence the lead guitarist and singer for Alice in Chains. It'southward always been my first love, and always will exist, but the situation existence what it is…we've been together for a long time, and right at present it's kinda played out. It's fourth dimension to let it be."
Asked if the band had broken up, he said, "We haven't gone public and said that we've cleaved up, because how do you phone call something like that over? You never desire to shut that door. I dearest those guys, and hopefully we'll exist able to do something once again, simply information technology won't be for a while." He declined to answer questions about Layne's health.
Rocky Schenck directed the music video for My Song, which was shot on location in Los Angeles on June 6 and 7, 1998. "I can think the record company being very upset with me well-nigh the concept, telling me that it 'would never play on MTV,' " Schenck wrote. Jerry supported Schenck throughout the project and it was filmed every bit planned. There is a second version of the video, "a bit racier" than the edited version that aired on MTV.
To support the album, Jerry put together a live band consisting of Sean, quondam Queensrÿche guitarist Chris DeGarmo, Old Lady Litterbug bassist Nick Rhinehart, and old Fishbone keyboardist Chris Dowd. The group landed an opening slot for Metallica's U.S. tour which ran from June through September of 1998. Jerry would ofttimes close shows with a encompass of Pinkish Floyd's Brain Damage and Eclipse, the terminal two songs on The Night Side of the Moon.
In Baronial of 1998, Dave Jerden, Bryan Carlstrom and Annette Cisneros were working on the Offspring's Americana album at Jerden's El Dorado studio. Jerden got a call: Alice in Chains wanted to record two new songs with Layne for Music Banking company, their upcoming box set. With the exception of Mike Inez, it would exist a reunion of the band and production team that made Dirt six years earlier.
Considering The Offspring had booked studio time and had all their gear set up, the just time Alice in Chains could come in was the weekend of Baronial 22-23. The Offspring agreed to permit Alice in Bondage use the studio. The fact both bands were signed to Columbia Records probably helped make that happen.
For Jerden, it was a no-brainer. "We gotta do this," he told his engineer Bryan Carlstrom. Carlstrom was tired from working long hours and originally did not want to exercise it, until Jerden convinced him otherwise. "I basically told him you have to practise it. It's the only time in my life where I ever said that to Bryan."
Jerden was nether the impression the ring was going to be in that location the entire weekend, based on what he heard from his manager who had talked to Susan. His program was to record a song a day - bones tracks, overdubs and mixing. Because Carlstrom was burned out, Jerden was prepared to mix the songs himself.
Early in the morning of Sabbatum, August 22, assistant engineer Cisneros and Elan Trujillo, the runner and studio assistant, came in and thoroughly documented all of the levels and settings on the Offspring's gear and the control room equipment before they could take everything down and fix for Alice in Bondage.
Trujillo was excited. He had moved dorsum to Los Angeles specifically to work with Dave Jerden, in big part because of Jerden's work with Jane's Addiction and Alice in Chains. Two years later, he had the opportunity to work with Alice in Chains.
"I had to contain myself as best I could, because I was like freaking out. For me, this young child, and similar i of my favorite bands of all time is gonna come in, like I'grand gonna exist able to work with these guys? This is it! This was the culmination of the whole bargain," Trujillo said, the enthusiasm nonetheless evident in his vox years subsequently.
The production team was set up to work by x o'clock in the morning time. Sean's drum tech Jimmy Shoaf and Jerry'due south guitar tech Darrel Peters were the commencement to make it, and set upward all their gear. That twenty-four hour period too happened to be Layne's thirty-first altogether. When Trujillo establish out, he told Cisneros they should become him a block. She agreed, and gave him money to buy a cake and candles.
Jerry, Sean and Mike arrived in the late morning or early on afternoon. Sean got all his parts downward in near four takes, Shoaf recalled. Mike recorded his bass parts, and then Jerry recorded his rhythm guitar parts and some overdubs. Cisneros had her photographic camera and took several photos during the session.
Layne showed up at the studio and I didn't recognize him. He looked similar an fourscore-twelvemonth-sometime man
Engineer Bryan Carlstrom
There was a sense of excitement before Layne arrived. Accounts vary as to the exact fourth dimension he got in that location, only it was tardily - possibly every bit late as three A.M. according to Jerden. When he finally arrived, the change in his physical appearance was striking even from his last live performances two years before, let lonely from 1992 when Jerden, Carlstrom and Cisneros had last seen him.
He had grown his pilus down by his shoulders, in its natural brownish-blonde color. He was wearing a white cap and eyeglasses. He had a dark grayness shirt and a blue Dallas Cowboys jacket. He was wearing a necklace or chain that had what appeared to be a pipe hanging from the end. He was also carrying a black leather satchel.
"Layne showed upwardly at the studio and I didn't recognize him. He looked like an eighty-year-former man. He didn't have whatever teeth. I was shocked, to say the least," Carlstrom recalled.
Trujillo had a like reaction. "When Layne came in, nosotros were all actually shocked because Layne definitely didn't look like how he used to look. He had obviously been really afflicted by his substance corruption at that point, because he had cloudburst in his legs. He looked like an one-time man. He had no teeth. It was really pitiful, I was actually heartbroken." Although Layne was "obviously high," Jimmy Shoaf said at that place were flashes of the Layne of old. "I retrieve the first thing he did was grab my ass. Layne was still inside that shell. The humour and his wit were in there."
Trujillo besides noted how Layne could announced out of information technology, then be focused seconds later. They had ordered broiled potatoes, and people wanted butter. Trujillo put the butter in the microwave to defrost information technology, when Layne, who was sitting in the kitchen lounge seemingly non paying attention, said to him, "Y'all better exist conscientious, man. That's got tinfoil on information technology. That'll exist unsafe in the microwave." Layne also talked to Trujillo about video games - there was a Sony Playstation in the studio lounge, and Layne was giving him tips for how to get ahead in certain games.
They prepare Layne up in a control room and so he could listen to the rough tracks and work on lyrics. Trujillo was tasked with keeping an middle on him and helping him. Shortly after, Layne went to the bathroom and stayed there for a long time. He somewhen went dorsum to the control room, where he institute the mini-fridge stocked with sodas. Layne took out a bottle of root beer. Cisneros and Trujillo saw him sitting on a burrow in the control room having nodded off, the root beer spilled on the floor. Trujillo cleaned it upward.
Offspring drummer Ron Welty'south Five drums were fix in the control room to practice or develop his parts. V drums are a small electronic drum kit which can be programmed with different sound effects from a memory bank. Layne started playing around with the kit. Trujillo showed him how to change and program the unlike sounds. Layne went nuts when he discovered he could program cartoon effects for the different pads.
"That's what he really liked - the cartoon sounds," Trujillo said. "He just got a kick out of that. He was but scrolling through the bank sounds on the little brain of the V drums, and only trying everything. He fucking loved it, he was like, 'This is smashing. I want to become ane of these. Where practise these come from?' "
The other members of Alice in Bondage and their coiffure were watching this, happy to see Layne happy and having fun. Shortly after, they brought out the cake and sang Happy Birthday and gave him a birthday card that they had all signed. Cisneros took a picture of Layne on the drumset as he was about to blow out the candles.
While Layne was playing effectually, he showed no indication of being gear up to piece of work. Eventually, Layne said he wanted to do everything - write lyrics and track his vocals - that night. By that bespeak, it was most five o'clock in the morning, and everyone was exhausted, some having been in the studio for well-nigh xx hours. Jerden, under the impression they all the same had the next 24-hour interval to work, met with the ring and decided to phone call it a night, telling them Carlstrom was tired and they'd come back and finish on Dominicus.
At that indicate, Layne said he had to go dorsum to Seattle to nourish his sister's hymeneals, but Jerry tersely cut him off. According to Jerden, he said, "Laaaaaayne," in an exasperated tone of vocalization.
"[Layne] turned into this little child that had been reprimanded severely by his parents. It probably didn't audio like anything, but I'll tell y'all it was i of the strangest things I ever saw, how Jerry just wasn't putting up with Layne'south bullshit anymore, and Layne who had such a stiff personality had completely turned into this nothing."
Layne acted like he was afraid, terrified of Jerry. He just sat there and froze upwards
Dave Jerden
"He wasn't crying, merely he looked like he was almost to cry. He reverted to about a four-year-old boy," Jerden explained. "Layne acted like he was agape, terrified of Jerry. He just saturday there and froze up. I don't remember him maxim another thing that night. Jerry totally understood me, he was cool with the fact that we had to stop and he didn't contend with me at all. Jerry did not argue, the rest of the band did not argue. He knew that I'd been told that I had Layne until Sunday, and that bullshit of him saying all of the sudden, he has to go to a wedding?"
"Then I blew up and I said, 'Listen, I'1000 non hither to be your friend. I take a job to do,'" he told Layne. Trujillo thinks Layne may have thought Jerden was mad at him, peradventure from memories of the blowup during the Dirt sessions when Jerden confronted him about his drug utilise.
Jerden was skeptical, thinking Layne was using the hymeneals as an excuse then he could become dorsum to Seattle to get drugs. Any his intentions were, show shows Jerden's skepticism was accurate. According to public records from the King County Recorder'south office, Liz Elmer and her fiancée Greg Coats applied for a union license on May 26, 1998, were married on June 1, and filed the marriage certificate on June 11 - more two months before this recording session.
According to Layne's other sister Jamie Elmer, "They got married just at the justice of the peace, and they had their two best friends there. Nobody else was there."
"I've seen pictures of my sister and her husband Greg in the court. And it'south with her best friend, and Greg's friend. Only it was the four of them, and I'm pretty darn certain that Layne wasn't there."
In that location was a wedding party in mid-June that "Layne very well may have planned on coming to, only didn't brand it to, because that's just sometimes what would happen. Then, to his credit, he may have definitely been trying to become there for a nuptials party, or that was his plan. But I don't remember him there." Jim Elmer, Ken Elmer and Kathleen Austin besides attended the party. All iii of them said Layne was not there.
At that point, the band members left. Jerden tried to book a studio in Seattle for Layne'southward convenience to record his vocals, but by that point Layne didn't desire to work with him anymore. Susan was furious.
"Susan Silverish chosen me up and read me the fucking riot human activity. She says my career was based on Alice in Chains, which is totally bullshit. I've worked with a lot of famous people earlier that. I had a lot of hit records that I produced before," Jerden recalled. Rolling Stone got wind of the episode and wrote a story about it."
Toby Wright got a call from Layne and Kevan Wilkins, request if he would exist willing to finish the projection.
He booked time at Robert Lang Studios to tape the vocals and mix it with the material from the session with Jerden.
"At that betoken, Jerry and Layne weren't getting forth at all. So I had i guy in, and I would have another guy in, later he was done. Those ii songs required a lot of Pro Tools editing. That was ane of the first times Alice was e'er even on Pro Tools. Because Layne would practise something, he'd go home, Jerry would come in, I'd change it for him, he'd go home. Layne would come in and hear what nosotros did, and he'd change it again. And so it was a lot of digital manipulation," Wright said.
Recording Layne's vocals was difficult because of the loss of his teeth, which resulted in a lisp that afflicted his speech and singing ability. Consequently, they tried to stay away from lyrics that accentuated his lisp.
"It was kind of hard to do that, because it shows upwardly pretty much everywhere on those tracks. Only it was easy for me because Layne and I got along really well. So I didn't have any problem with him at all. It was simply a thing of getting him into the studio, having him sit downwards and become creative."
Get Built-in Again and Died were the terminal songs Layne recorded with Alice in Bondage.
From Alice in Chains by David de Sola. Copyright © 2015 past the author and reprinted by permission of Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press, LLC.
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Source: https://www.guitarworld.com/magazine/alice-chains-untold-story-layne-staleys-final-gloomy-days-frontman-seattles-grunge-legends
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