A Piece of Alice in Chains History

Seattle musician and producer Dave Hillis (who was an engineer on Sap and who I interviewed extensively for my book) posted a picture of his 1/4-inch reel copy of the early Alice in Chains demos (circa 1988, before they recorded their first album Facelift) If you aren’t doing it already, follow Dave on Instagram.

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The Origin of Layne Staley's Middle Name

Nancy McCallum – Layne Staley’s mother – did an interview with Northwest Music Scene recently.  This particular exchange caught my attention: Early bands: “In 5th grade, he borrowed his Uncle Bob’s trumpet, so that was his first instrument. Then, our family friend Fred loaned him a drum set, and he loved the drums. He wasn’t…

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Jim Elmer Remembered

Jim Elmer, Layne Staley’s stepfather, passed away in his home in Long Beach, Washington last week from heart failure, according to his son Ken. He was 72 years old. He was born in Spokane, Washington on March 28th, 1945 at home, but spent most of his life in the Seattle area. Jim had Bachelor’s and…

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Demri Parrott Remembered

This past Saturday was the 20th anniversary of the death of Demri Parrott, Layne Staley’s ex-fiancée. I wrote the following tweetstorm to remember her (and him) for the occasion: Most, if not all of that material was in my book, where Layne and Demri’s relationship and her passing is covered in much more depth.

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A Guide to the Unreleased Layne Staley Material

The subject of unreleased Layne Staley material received renewed attention today after this post at Alternative Nation.  I covered this subject in my book Alice In Chains: The Untold Story and thought it would be worth going into some detail here: Are any of the unreleased tracks from leftover Alice in Chains material? No. When…

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Layne Staley vs. the PMRC

A few months ago, I wrote about the thirtieth anniversary of the PMRC hearing, as well as Layne Staley’s public comment on a local television program in opposition to any kind of censorship.  I’m revisiting the subject today because someone found an image of Layne on that show and posted it on an Alice in…

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