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    Layne Staley: Talented and Controversial
    Layne Staley: Talented and Controversial
    Layne Staley: Talented and Controversial
    Ebook47 pages43 minutes

    Layne Staley: Talented and Controversial

    By Diana Atkinson

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    One of the most well-known rock singers to have emerged in the 20th century, Layne Staley was the lead singer and co-songwriter for the rock band 'Alice in Chains'. Known for his distinctive vocal style, Staley became an international rock star during the 'grunge rock movement', a subgenre of alternative rock music. He changed the face of rock music and is widely regarded as one of the best male rock vocalists. Introduced to the field of music at a very young age, he started playing the drum at the age of 12 and went on to play for many bands during his teenage years. Despite the growing popularity of his band, 'Alice in Chains', Staley slowly stepped out of the spotlight and remained averse to the media glare. Unfortunately, his personal life was not as peaceful as he became involved in drug abuse and suffered from addiction problems all his life. His drug problems eventually lead to his tragic death at a young age of 34.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXinXii
    Release dateMay 28, 2014
    ISBN9781304919663
    Layne Staley: Talented and Controversial

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    Reviews for Layne Staley

    3.5/5

    4 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This reads like a series of blog posts compiled into an ebook. It is informative for those who know nothing about Layne Staley or Alice In Chains. For anyone who does, the information provided is nothing new.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      This book was nothing more than a collection of newspaper articles and absolutely nothing extra, no new info, no new theories. I’m convinced that this was either a worshipful homage to the late Me. Staley, or the lazy work of someone wanting to earn money from his death. There was no flow, thematic form or even a minimal attempt to organize all these articles and obits into a flowing book.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Layne Staley - Diana Atkinson

    holder.

    Music in Vein

    Layne Staley was Alice In Chains' original front man and the genius behind some of their biggest hits like Rooster, Man in the Box and Would?

    Layne Thomas Staley was born on August 22, 1967 to Nancy and Phil Staley. At the age of 7, his parents divorced. When he was 12, Layne developed an interest in drums. He played in a few glam bands, but, since he was always singing while playing, someone suggested he become a singer. And he did.

    Layne find His Man

    In 1987, at age 19-20, Layne met Jerry Cantrell, the guitarist for Diamond Lie. Layne offered Jerry a place to stay, if he became a sideman for his band, Jerry agreed, only if Layne would be a sideman for his band, Diamond Lie.

    In 1987, Layne joined Jerry for good with Mike Starr and Sean Kinney. They recorded a demo on an 8-track in a tree house studio of a friend, which became known as the Treehouse Tapes. The band had not yet settled on a name, using Mothra and F**k as names. Until they finally landed on Alice in Chains, which was a variation of Alice n Chainz.

    Metal Band: Alice in Chains

    A metal band with an alternative-rock edge, Alice in Chains was among the biggest to emerge from the grunge scene that spawned Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. The group's dark, bitter songs, laden with references to drug addiction and death, occupy a musical landscape somewhere between Metallica's dense head bangers and Pearl Jam's grinding anthems. Layne Staley formed Alice in Chains with an earlier lineup while still in high school. In 1987 he met Jerry Cantrell at the Music Bank, a notorious Seattle warehouse rehearsal space, and the two put together the newly christened Alice in Chains along with Cantrell cohorts Kinney and Starr. By 1989 the group had signed to Columbia Records, where it became the beneficiary of an aggressive promotion campaign that saw the release of a five-song promotional EP, We Die Young, and had the group opening for a range of disparate acts, including Iggy Pop and Poison. As a result, by September 1991, Face Lift (#42) had sold a half-million copies and featured the Grammy-nominated Man in the Box. A low-key and mostly acoustic EP, Sap, and a track in the Seattle youth culture movie Singles kept the band in the public eye between albums.

    The group's thematically bleaker sophomore effort, Dirt (#6), went platinum in 1992 (eventually selling 3 million copies), and the group's appearance on the following summer's Lollapalooza Tour confirmed its popularity. Reports of drug abuse, however, had begun to plague Staley and the band; a couple of songs from Dirt —Junkhead and Angry Chair —had hinted at mental fatigue and self-destruction. Yet Alice in Chains' success was at an all-time high: In late 1993 Dirt went double-platinum, and the following year the acoustic Jar of Flies rocketed to #1, the first EP to ever top the Billboard album chart. In 1994 Staley hooked up with fellow Seattleites Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees), and John Baker Saunders to play a few gigs under the name Gacy Bunch; the next year they changed their name to Mad Season and released Above (#24, 1995), but Staley quit the side project (replaced by Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees) before its second album.

    In 1995 Alice

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