Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

“These were in Seattle. I was around ten, probably,” he answered, flipping through more memorabilia. “And then my seventy-nines, and look, I got that from a stagehand,” he said, pointing to a vintage backstage pass from that tour.

“Don’t ask him what he had to do for that,” Jerry interjected.

“I was young. I needed the money. That’s all I’m gonna say.”4

Alex Coletti went to the Detroit show on June 28. He had come to see KISS as a fan, having traveled with some friends. “We ran right down to the front of the stage for Alice and watched KISS from the soundboard. I thought they were great. I just thought I was so happy to see [Alice] onstage doing the rock show in front of that size crowd.” Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan was also there, and he would later recall, “I saw Alice in Chains at one of their final performances, opening for KISS at Tiger Stadium. They played outside in the sunshine, and they were awesome.” He described Layne as “a truly beautiful man. Gifted almost beyond compare. My fave singer of [the] 90s.”5 The Louisville, Kentucky, show on June 30 wasn’t significant because of anything that happened onstage, but because of who was in the audience—as had been the case so many times before. In this case, the audience included an Atlanta musician named William DuVall, whose own future with Alice in Chains was still a decade away.6

On July 3, 1996, Alice in Chains took the stage at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. “Howdy, Kansas City,” Layne said as the band kicked into “Again.” Susan was at the soundboard with Kevan Wilkins, the tour manager. As soon as the band went on, she looked over at Wilkins and said, “This is the last time we’re gonna see these guys together onstage, Kevan. I just feel it.”7 She was right.

After “Angry Chair,” Sean stepped up to Layne’s microphone and addressed the audience. “Okay, you guys, shut up for a minute. This is serious, really.” He cleared his throat and began singing the opening verse of “Beth,” the KISS ballad sung by the band’s drummer, Peter Criss. The audience was divided—Sean was cheered and booed immediately.

“What, you don’t like the song? Oh, I don’t have the makeup on, right? If I have big shoes and makeup, you love me, right? Well, fuck you, Kansas City!” he quipped before returning to his drum kit to perform “A Little Bitter.”

Layne addressed the crowd. “We got one more for you. We’ve been out a week; you’ve definitely been the coolest crowd. I’m not just saying that. We’ve got to do the mandatory crowd-pleaser now,” he said as the crowd began cheering and the band started “Man in the Box.” After the song, the four members locked hands and took a group bow. Bootleg video shows the band in good form onstage. What nobody in the audience knew at the time was they had just witnessed Layne’s final public performance.8

Things took an ominous turn after the show when Layne overdosed. Susan was flying back to Seattle the next morning. After her plane landed, she got a phone call saying they couldn’t revive Layne and he wound up being admitted to a local hospital.9

“Those were the last shows we played in public. They went great—they were fun. It was nice being out there. It was only five or six shows, and by the end of the shows, the last one, it was cops, ambulances, and, ‘Get on the plane! Hide the drugs!’ The same shit was going on,” Sean said. In retrospect, following the success of Unplugged, he said, “Right then is when I knew, ‘OK, if we never do anything again, I’m good with this.”10

Chapter 22

I’ll be dead before I’m thirty.

DEMRI PARROTT

LAYNE AND DEMRI CALLED off their engagement at some point during the period between 1991 and 1994. He briefly addressed the breakup during his interview with Jon Wiederhorn: “I can definitely say rock and roll was a huge factor in us breaking up. When you’re in a relationship, the girl usually instigates the big idea that you were joined at the hip. So when the fighting comes, it’s really painful.” Layne added, “This isn’t a dig on women … but I think women are so different chemically from men, and that makes it hard to sustain a relationship. They have periods, they go through horrible, awful emotional swings, and trying to be logical with a person that’s got a whole different logic running around in her brain is just impossible.

“When you’re in a relationship, the girl usually instigates this big truth that you were put on Earth to be together. And after being with a person a long time and being convinced that you’re soul mates, you can get really crushed if things eventually fall apart. When I broke up with my last real girlfriend, life was just dismal. I didn’t know how to live or what to do. And then I had to realize, ‘Okay, I got along for twenty years before I met her, and I had good times.’ But right now I’m alone, and I’m totally cool with it.”1