in 1998 that he and the other guys in Alice frequently hung out with Staley at his place, playing video games and having a grand old time. hp: 1, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready remembered this version of Staley being funny and lucid, and without a doubt he was not reluctant to be a star.. Tom Morello later claimed that he had no recollection of ever speaking to Staley about auditioning for Audioslave, so this could be a case of Gallagher misremembering the conversation, and it having more been about Staley considering the idea of calling up the former Rage Against The Machine members. To anyone with a passing knowledge of Staleys life and music, his downfall played out like the worst kind of endingdistasteful, depressing, and all too predictable. Layne turned a corner with two strippers into a hallway crowded with cops. But while the surviving members of Alice In Chains made sure to present their band as a newly evolved entity, Sublimes Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson are trying to pick up where they were forced to leave off in 1996, when their lead singer, Bradley Nowell, died of a heroin overdose at age 28. Neither Demri's mother nor Layne's stepfather have been able to confirm that. Ill look at the coke-fueled disaster of Oasis misbegotten epic Be Here Now, and the unlikely triumph of Radioheads dystopian prog-rock masterpiece OK Computer. googletag.defineSlot('/98948493,22548962605/alternativenation_multisize_content_1', [[336,280],[300,250]], 'div-gpt-ad-3901802-3') "I pay you," she screamed back. Layne didnt get in, but sat in a chair sipping a beer. She was born Feb. 22, 1969, in Bremerton. Fortunately for Staley, Elmer appeared to be a pretty decent stepdad and even played a large role in getting young Staley into music. "Alice In Chains: The Untold Story" says the two met in 1988, before Alice in Chains blew up, and that it was "love at first sight." And as we're all aware, things have hardly improved in the decades since. But that was contingent on him having the energy and focus to be able to work, and I guess that didnt materialize., 5. Rooster is a spooky character study about Cantrells father fighting off demons from the Vietnam War, but it also applied to Staleys own drawn-out, unwinnable conflict. Starr, after a stint on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" and "Sober House," overdosed on prescription drugs in 2011. Demri Parrott Remembered. She was adopted by her stepfather Stephen John Parrott. She was the fiance of musician Layne Staley. .addService(googletag.pubads()); !function(a9,a,p,s,t,A,g){if(a[a9])return;function q(c,r){a[a9]._Q.push([c,r])}a[a9]={init:function(){q("i",arguments)},fetchBids:function(){q("f",arguments)},setDisplayBids:function(){},targetingKeys:function(){return[]},_Q:[]};A=p.createElement(s);A.async=!0;A.src=t;g=p.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];g.parentNode.insertBefore(A,g)}("apstag",window,document,"script","//c.amazon-adsystem.com/aax2/apstag.js"); According to David de Solas book Alice In Chains: The Untold Story, Layne Staley believed that the ghost of his late girlfriend Demri Parrott visited him just days before his April 2002 death. } Staley erupted, then yelled at him whenever he tried to take more pills. complete: 1, Ten weeks after Nowells funeral, Sublimes label, Geffen, went forward with plans to release the bands new record, though the original title, Killin It, was understandably ditched. "@context": "http://schema.org", Despite his numerous attempts to get clean, Staleys body was discovered in his Seattle condo, with toxicology reports finding his death was the result of an accidental overdose. Hes wearing gold Elvis sunglasses and talking about partying with the other bands on tour and hanging with champion skateboarder Remy Stratton. Now touring as Sublime With Rome, Gaugh and Wilson are playing their old songs with Rome Ramirez, a singer born the same year that Sublime played its first show. My liver is not functioning and Im throwing up all the time and shitting my pants. Mark Lanegan and Mike Inez also went to Laynes home and bang on his door trying to see him. My strengths and my talent are my title," he said. "@type": "ListItem", Demri Lara Parrott, 27, of Bremerton died Oct. 29, 1996, at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland. Forever. Demri Parrott (born Demri Lara Murphy on February 22nd 1969 - d. October 29th 1996) was the love of Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley's life.She was born in Bremerton, Seattle (WA) to Dennis Dougherty and Kathleen Austin, and had three brothers, Devin, Derek and David. The book notes he was missing teeth and struggling to breathe. He had already lost a finger or two from his veins collapsing and not getting enough circulation to his hands I remember seeing him from a distance, and I thought, Thats the oldest punk rocker Ive ever seen., Flash back about 15 years, and Staley is a dramatically different, happier, and more spandex-friendly person. (Volume 2) Castaway, Chemical Tribe, What it Takes, Dying Inside, Siddhartha, Hurts Don't It? On top of this, Staley had lost his ability to ingest food and survived off supplements for the last few years of his life. Dont try to contact any AIC (Alice in Chains) members. .build(); According to The Book Of Rock Lists by Dave Marsh and Kevin Stein (1981 ed. Topics Staley sound-alikes became so common in the years after his public retreat and death that it was perhaps inevitable that one of them ended up replacing him in his own band. The frontmans ex-fiance passed away because of a drug overdose on October 29, 1996, at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington. Though never verified, there have been rumors that Layne worked on a home demo called Everyday that he planned on sending to Jerry Cantrell, possibly as late as 2002. Both Jerry Cantrell, the other engine driving Alice in Chains, and drummer Sean Kinney openly talk about their sobriety these days, but are none too specific about the substances, other than booze, at the source of their addictions. .addSize([0, 0], [[320, 50]]) Layne Staley died on April 5, 2002. By early 2001, it had been a couple of years since he had seen his old friend, so he was very surprised when he ran into him at a party. Courtney Love tried to chase him down following Cobain's death. Meanwhile, Starr, who'd been introduced to heroin by Staley, drank a bottle of bleach used for cleaning syringes, thinking it was water. On January 28, 2001, he saw Layne again at a Super Bowl party. Staley's final public performance was in Kansas City, Mo., in 1996. }, Formed in 1988, Sublime made its name by playing surf towns up and down the California coast, honing a feel-good blend of punk, hip-hop, and ska informed by Nowells multicultural upbringing in Long Beach. googletag.defineSlot('/98948493,22548962605/alternativenation_multisize_top_2', [[336,280],[300,250]], 'div-gpt-ad-3901802-2') The bands 1990 debut, Facelift, went platinum thanks in large part to the popular single Man In The Box, which succinctly laid out the themes of future Alice In Chains records in the very first lineStaley was a man trapped, buried in his own shit, and while he was self-aware enough to acknowledge it, he was powerless to lift himself out. Krist Novoselic, Mark Lanegan, Mike Inez & Sean Kinney Tried To Help Layne. In a lawsuit filed after Staley's death, his mother, Nancy Layne McCallum, alleged that at one point in the mid-'90s, her son tried to withdraw from the band to take care of his issues, but Silver forcefully pointed out that if he did, he would be putting 40 people out of work. googletag.defineSlot('/98948493,22548962605/alternativenation_multisize_top_1', [[300,250],[336,280],[728,90],[970,90],[970,250]], 'div-gpt-ad-3901802-1') } She loved creating decopage with 30s and 40s vintage style images cut outs from wrapping paper or old greeting cards. "item": { ", He then goes says his heroin habit was to blame, and he was well past the point of shooting up for fun. According to Ferrano, even though everyone around them knew that they decided to accuse Parrott of causing Staleys addiction and depression. timeout: 2000 }, But soon he was caught in an inescapable trap that led to his premature death in 2002. "@type": "ListItem", "It's heartbreaking and overwhelming and unnecessary." I know I did my best or what I thought would be right. Starr was likely the last one to see him alive. Equally important for Sublimes success was the element of mans-man machismo, which was spelled out on the album cover depicting a hulking and shirtless Nowell standing with his back to the camera and exposing his large Sublime tattoo. I changed my number. .addService(googletag.pubads()); But everyone starts somewhere. The specificity of Dirt is what makes the album so moving, and its the most obvious attribute separating Alice In Chains from the legion of bands that emerged to take its place after Staley slipped into permanent heroin hibernation. I hadnt seen him in a couple of years and wasnt prepared for it. "@type": "WebPage", William DuVall later replaced Staley and Duff McKagan joined on rhythm guitar. Guns not loaded, see? Tillman recalled Ace saying as he pointed it at his head and, with a smile, pulled the trigger. He thought it was very rock n roll, you know, Nowells widow Troy Dendekker said. The couple was defined as soulmates and everyone admired their passionate relationship. Here he is backstage on the Warped Tour looking like one of the many shirtless, deeply tanned, and blond bros lurking in the audience. But the loss still crushed him. Sublime was a band for working-class people who could reconcile the casual bleakness of the lyrics of a song like Wrong Waya cheery ditty about an underage hookerwith the dance-happy music. The pain is more than you can handle. Its too late. During those years, Staley became a recluse and barely left his apartment. Perry Farrell and Kurt Cobain and all those guys did drugs, and Brad wanted to see what it was like. By the time Sublime was in the studio recording its self-titled third record, Nowell was in such rough shape that producer Paul Learyno stranger to substance abuse as a founding member of Butthole Surferssent him home before the record was completed. Though DuVall obviously apes Staley whenever his voice meshes with Cantrell on one of those ominous, crypt-keeper choruses, at least Black Gives Way To Blue doesnt ignore the track-mark-covered elephant in the room. .addSize([990, 200], [[728, 90], [970, 90], [970, 250]]) Cover for 'Alice and Chains: The Untold Story,' by David de Sola. Hes always been dead as far as most people are concerned. I can get by without them. I know he was joking, but I dont like to hear stuff like that. But his love of Tommy Lee wasn't the only reason he swapped out his middle name. How close do you think that was to us, Ann? Me? This fucking drug use is like the insulin a diabetic needs to survive, he said. If he felt any misgivings about essentially pretending to be Bradley Nowell so his old bandmates could tour again under a lucrative moniker, he didnt show it when he made his debut as Sublimes new lead singer in February 2009 at a surprise show in Nevada. According to Alice in Chains: The Untold Story, it was love at first sight. I know who started it and they know too, but its funny I read stuff from people who make a statement as if they were there, knew her and it was fact and people believe them. They broke up, in part because she couldn't accept his relentless womanizing. On April 4, 2002, Starr, high on benzodiazepine, offered to call 911. He hadn't yet mastered singing high. "I'm not into religion, but I have a good grasp on my spirituality. "@type": "ListItem", There will always be haters, he said in an interview with budZtv in 2010. Tough-guy posturing linked hip-hop with hard rock, and it would come to define the rap-rock hybrid that dominated mainstream rock radio in the late 90s. !function(a9,a,p,s,t,A,g){if(a[a9])return;function q(c,r){a[a9]._Q.push([c,r])}a[a9]={init:function(){q("i",arguments)},fetchBids:function(){q("f",arguments)},setDisplayBids:function(){},targetingKeys:function(){return[]},_Q:[]};A=p.createElement(s);A.async=!0;A.src=t;g=p.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];g.parentNode.insertBefore(A,g)}("apstag",window,document,"script","//c.amazon-adsystem.com/aax2/apstag.js"); Much of the interview deals with his ongoing experiences with heroin addiction, which he claims were about to take his life. Demri Parrott. " Kinney recalls. "position": 2, I told him that John had gangrene once. The pain is more than you can handle. Parrott was born in Bremerton, Washington to Kathleen Austin and Dennis Dougherty on February 22, 1969. "I believe that there's a wonderful place to go to after this life, and I don't believe in eternal damnation for anyone," he said to Rolling Stone in 1996. var mapping1 = googletag.sizeMapping() Staley's girlfriend, Demri Lara Parrott, started shooting smack and Alice in Chains got famous. Dirt plugs you into the day-to-day slog of one addicts life; even if you don't connect with the record, you still cant help but feel a dull ache in your bones and the sting of rancid sickness in your nostrils. .addService(googletag.pubads()); No one would ever see him alive again. Layne: Nothing. "name": "Deep Cuts" This idea was explored to an almost nauseating degree on 1992s Dirt, an unrelentingly grim collection of songs about how people should never, ever shoot heroin. An updated version of The Book Of Rock Lists would probably be topped by Dimebag Darrell Abbott, the former Pantera guitarist who was gunned down onstage by a crazed fan during a performance with his band Damageplan on Dec. 8, 2004 at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. googletag.defineSlot('/98948493,22548962605/alternativenation_multisize_content_2', [[336,280],[300,250]], 'div-gpt-ad-3901802-4') She said he looked like a kid again, and at that moment there was no darkness in his life. Staley and Parrott were no longer together when she died; because she lacked Staleys rock-star bank account, Parrott was reduced to living out a conventional junkie death, finally prostituting herself in order to score drug money. Some believe that that when Layne his ex Demri Parrott died in 1996 from Drug overdose, Layne never recovered from her death and probably what caused him to fall apart beyond repair with his drug using. Neither Demris mother nor Laynes stepfather have been able to confirm that. apstag.fetchBids({ Alternative Nation published a similar article in September 2014, but we are now publishing a new version with a couple of new stories. Band manager Susan Silver told Staley that he had to be the one to break it to ticket buyers that the concert was going to end midperformance because he was too screwed up to carry on. "I know I'm dying," Staley is reported to have said. And I thought, oh, for heaven sake, listen to his music. Then he relapsed again. She was around five feet tall-maybe even shorter-and was stunningly beautiful. Hed been dead for two weeks; the tip-off that something was amiss came not from concerned family members or friends but from Staleys accountants, who noticed that he hadnt spent any money in several days. He was down in a hole so deep he couldnt hope to hit bottom. Layne was even wearing a Metal Gear Solid video game shirt in his final public photo from Halloween 1998. Staley had actually died on April 5, 2002 eight years to the day after fellow Grunge rock frontman Kurt Cobain had taken his own life but his body wasn't found until April 19,according to Ultimate Classic Rock. At one point, Staley was even informed that his old man had passed away, although this wasn't true. She says she hopes that her son's music will shed light on the disease of addiction that ultimately took his life. } To their shock and dismay, the two addicts discovered there was almost an excess of cocaine to be had in Brazil but no smack. By the end of the year, that title would belong to Radiohead. Layne said, Did you see that? Ramirez grew up on Sublime records, and based on this clip of Sublime With Rome performing the hit Wrong Way in 2010 on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he was hired for his ability to make Nowells demise seem like a mere inconvenience that temporarily kept the band off the road. By the end, she was living with an older man who bizarrely drove her around unconscious for several hours before getting help. "position": 3, Pick it up, this is a classic. Clearly, Staley maintained some of what he learned in his religious upbringing, but he wanted nothing to do with the structures it forced him into. Dope sick hurts the entire body, he horrifyingly shared. The last public appearance he made was almost four years before his death when he attended his bandmate Jerry Cantrells solo concert in Seattle on Halloween in 1998.