Biografia

He became extremely angry when people made fun or light of his drug addiction. When The Rocket, a now-defunct Seattle-area music magazine, wrote an article on the retirement of Alice in Chains' longtime manager that included the words "But who's to wipe and change Alice in Chains now?", Layne evidently took great umbrage to this and sent them a jar of urine and a bag of human feces with an attached note that read "Wipe and change this, motherfuckers!".

It's believed he died on April 5, 2002. The autopsy report from the May 7, 2002, from the King County Medical Examiner's Office confirms that Staley died after injecting a "speedball", a mixture of heroin and cocaine. He had been dead for about two weeks when his body was discovered on April 19, and was surrounded by drug paraphernalia. His body was so decomposed when found that it was only identified as that of Layne Staley after a check of the dental records.

Wrote about his struggles with heroin addiction in such songs as "Angry Chair", "Junkhead", "God Smack", "Hate To Feel" and "Nutshell".

Following his death, his friend and Alice in Chains guitarist, Jerry Cantrell, adopted Staley's cat, a female Siamese named Sadie. The cat appeared on Cantrell's episode of MTV Cribs, which was shot at Cantrell's ranch in Oklahoma in September 2002. Sadie died on the same night of Alice in Chains' concert in Seattle on October 8, 2010, aged 18. She lived with Cantrell's family in Oklahoma until her death.

Staley's Alice in Chains' bandmates and friends, Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, have expressed their frustration over the Grammy Awards ignoring Staley during their annual tribute to the musicians who have passed away over the past year during their 2003 ceremony.

[Rolling Stone - February 8, 1996] People have a right to ask questions and dig deep when you're hurting people and things around you. But when I haven't talked to anybody in years, and every article I see is dope this, junkie that, whiskey this - that ain't my title. Like 'Hi, I'm Layne, nail biter,' you know? My bad habits aren't my title. My strengths and my talent are my title.

The only pressure this band will ever feel is living up to our own expectations.

[on the near-death experiences that he claimed forced him to re-evaluate his lifestyle two and a half years before this interview - Rolling Stone - February 8, 1996] I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of where I was going to go if I did follow through with it. That makes me sad for my friends who have taken their own lives, because I know that if your time is not finished here, and you end it yourself, then you gotta finish it somewhere else. There was a time when things seemed desperate, and I thought taking my life might be a way out. I made a couple of really weak attempts, mostly to see if I could do it, and I couldn't.

[on if he were writing his autobiography, what would he want people to know about him - Pandemonium, Vol#29 - April 1995: "Layne Staley Unchained"] I've always looked for the perfect life to step into. I've done all the work, taken all the paths to get where I wanted. But no matter where I go, I still come home to me. At home I'm just Layne, a guy who has interests that extend far beyond music. Music is the career I'm lucky enough to get paid for, but I have other desires and passions.

[Rolling Stone - February 8, 1996] There's no huge, deep message in any of the songs. It was just what was going on in my head right then. We had good times, and we had bad times. We recorded a few months of being human.