Layne Staley's Orange Shirt

Xana La Fuente – fiancee of the late Andrew Wood – wrote a blog post about how Layne came about the long sleeve orange shirt he wears in the “Would?” video.  It’s an interesting read, further connecting the song, band, and video to the fallen grunge pioneer.

Read More

WAMC Roundtable Interview

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed about Alice in Chains: The Untold Story for the WAMC Northeast Public Radio program The Roundtable.  You can listen to the audio here.

Read More

Facelift 25

Facelift was released 25 years ago this week.  There is some discrepancy as to the exact date, though.  Media reports say it was on August 21, but the RIAA database of gold and platinum records has the release date as August 24.  (I ran into this discrepancy while doing research for my book, and ultimately…

Read More

Does My Book Focus On Layne Staley Too Much?

Two weeks since its release, a recurring critique I’ve read online about my book is that it is too Layne-centric.  I think it’s a valid point, and thought it would be worth explaining my creative/editorial process for why I wrote it the way that I did. By the time I started working on the book…

Read More

The End of the Road

A lot happens in four years: a presidential term, an Olympic Games or World Cup, a high school or college education, and a leap year. Almost four years after I started working on it, as of today Alice in Chains: The Untold Story is a reality, available in hard cover and e-book editions. It’s a…

Read More

Journalism, Sources and Access

A frequent critique of myself or the book I’ve read online in recent days – usually by people who haven’t read it – is that the book wasn’t authorized by the band, or that I didn’t interview the band members.  My lack of access wasn’t for my lack of trying over the course of three…

Read More