Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

Trujillo had a similar reaction. “When Layne came in, we were all really shocked because Layne definitely didn’t look like how he used to look. He had obviously been really affected by his substance abuse at that point, because he had atrophy in his legs. He looked like an old man. He had no teeth. It was really sad; I was really heartbroken.” Although Layne was “obviously high,” Jimmy Shoaf said there were flashes of the Layne of old. “I think the first thing he did was grab my ass. Layne was still inside that shell. The humor and his wit were in there.”

Trujillo also noted how Layne could appear out of it, then be focused seconds later. They had ordered baked potatoes, and people wanted butter. Trujillo put the butter in the microwave to defrost it when Layne, who was sitting in the kitchen lounge seemingly not paying attention, said to him, “You better be careful, man. That’s got tinfoil on it. That’ll be dangerous in the microwave.” Layne also talked to Trujillo about video games—there was a Sony PlayStation in the studio lounge, and Layne was giving him tips for how to get ahead in certain games.

They set Layne up in a control room so he could listen to the rough tracks and work on lyrics. Trujillo was tasked with keeping an eye on him and helping him. Shortly after, Layne went to the bathroom and stayed there for a long time. He eventually went back to the control room, where he found the minifridge stocked with sodas. Layne took out a bottle of root beer. Cisneros and Trujillo saw him sitting on a couch in the control room having nodded off, the root beer spilled on the floor. Trujillo cleaned it up.

Offspring drummer Ron Welty had his V drums set up in the control room so that he could practice or develop his parts. V drums are a small electronic drum kit that can be programmed with different sound effects from a memory bank. Layne started playing around with the kit. Trujillo showed him how to change and program the different sounds. Layne went nuts when he discovered he could program cartoon effects for the different pads.

“That’s what he really liked—the cartoon sounds,” Trujillo said. “He just got a kick out of that. He was just scrolling through the bank sounds on the little brain of the V drums and just trying everything. He fucking loved it. He was like, ‘This is great. I want to get one of these. Where do these come from?’” The other members of Alice in Chains and their crew were watching this, happy to see Layne happy and having fun. Shortly after, they brought out the cake and sang “Happy Birthday” and gave him a birthday card that they had all signed. Cisneros took a picture of Layne on the drum set as he was about to blow out the candles.

While Layne was playing around, he showed no indication of being ready to work. Eventually, Layne said he wanted to do everything—write lyrics and track his vocals—that night. By that point, it was almost five o’clock in the morning, and everyone was exhausted, some having been in the studio for almost twenty hours. Jerden, under the impression they still had the next day to work, met with the band and decided to call it a night, telling them Carlstrom was tired and they’d come back and finish on Sunday.

At that point, Layne said he had to go back to Seattle to attend his sister’s wedding, but Jerry tersely cut him off. According to Jerden, he said, “Laaaaaayne,” in an exasperated tone of voice. “[Layne] turned into this little kid that had been reprimanded severely by his parents. It probably didn’t sound like anything, but I’ll tell you it was one of the strangest things I ever saw, how Jerry just wasn’t putting up with Layne’s bullshit anymore, and Layne, who had such a strong personality, had completely turned into this nothing.”

“He wasn’t crying, but he looked like he was about to cry. He reverted to about a four-year-old boy,” Jerden explained. “Layne acted like he was afraid, terrified of Jerry. He just sat there and froze up. I don’t remember him saying another thing that night. Jerry totally understood me. He was cool with the fact that we had to stop, and he didn’t argue with me at all. Jerry did not argue; the rest of the band did not argue. He knew that I’d been told that I had Layne until Sunday—and that bullshit of him saying, all of the sudden, he has to go to a wedding?

“So I blew up, and I said [to Layne], ‘Listen, I’m not here to be your friend. I have a job to do,’” Jerden said. Trujillo thinks Layne may have thought Jerden was mad at him, possibly from memories of the blowup during the Dirt sessions when Jerden confronted him about his drug use.