Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

Another sign was when the band started getting recognized at truck stops and people were asking for autographs. It was during this period that Jerry realized he would have to learn how to read sheet music. According to Biro, that decision came after seeing transcriptions of Alice in Chains songs and discovering they were inaccurate.

The band’s popularity in Seattle grew by leaps and bounds. “I almost can’t describe it. They were just ridiculously popular up here,” Jeff Gilbert said. “Fans would call KISW and just demand that KISW keep playing them. That led to ‘Metal Shop’ putting them into regular rotation. That album got more airplay than Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden combined. That is a fact right there—that band got sick amounts of airplay. Everybody was an Alice in Chains fan.”

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Alice in Chains should have been very flattered after the success of “Man in the Box” and, later on, the Dirt album. Jack Endino, who produced Bleach, told Nirvana biographer Everett True, “Right around ’92, ’93, that was everybody’s meal ticket. ‘Oh, we’ve got to sound like Nirvana, or the Melvins or Soundgarden’ … or, times a thousand … ‘We’ve got to sound like Alice in Chains.’ That was the easiest blueprint for the suburban metalheads to follow because Alice in Chains made the transition from metal into grunge, whereas the other bands came from punk rock.

“Everybody copped to the metal side of grunge and that was where the really bad horde of imitators came from, the Soundgarden and Alice in Chains side of the grunge equation. The people who were hair metal bands a few years ago and now they’re a grunge band.”19

Kathleen Austin said Layne was having issues with his newfound fame. “Layne hated the fame. He couldn’t go to a cash machine without it being written up,” she said. “The Rocket … would say, ‘Seen at ATM outside 7-Eleven on such and such at three A.M., Layne Staley.’ He couldn’t go anywhere. The next time he’d go to that machine, there’d be people hiding in the bushes. He hated it.”

Another time, Layne and Demri had gone out to dinner with Austin at one of their favorite restaurants. “They had just brought our food, the three of us, and we’re involved in a family conversation. This guy comes up and just, ‘You’re Layne Staley! My girlfriend’s in the back in the bar. I really need your autograph. I have to take it to my girlfriend.’ It just kind of hit me the wrong way,” Austin recalled. “I turned and I looked at this person, and I said, ‘You know, we’re trying to have a family dinner here. I’m sure that Layne would love to write his name on a napkin for you after we have our dinner.’ And of course, he’s backing up and backing off. He apologized and he left.”

After this happened, she looked at Layne and said, “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. That was not for me to do. Please forgive me.” He replied, “Oh, Kathleen, I just wish I could take you with me everywhere I go.”

Layne later told Jon Wiederhorn, “When someone’s excited about what you do, you’ve got to give them respect and be grateful. But when they run by and pull a clump of dreadlocks out of your head and your scalp is bleeding, then you should just kick the shit out of them.”20

A few years later, Layne was talking to Randy Biro. “The greatest line he ever told me: he said if he had known that being in a band was going to be such a tough job, he would have stayed dealing weed,” Biro recalled.

Layne wasn’t the only one having issues with fame. According to Austin, “People approached my daughter and [would] say, ‘Oh, I know you! You’re Layne’s girlfriend!’ And she would say, ‘No, I’m Demri.’ Demri had had a strong sense of self since she was two years old, and she started losing her identity to Layne, being identified as Layne’s girlfriend. Layne, on the other hand, started losing his identity to the band.” She added, “There were times that people came up to him and [said], ‘Oh, I know you! You’re Alice in Chains!’ And he’d say, ‘Do I look like an Alice to you?’”

At some point during 1990–91, Layne and Demri got engaged. Austin does not know the specifics of when or how this happened but says that Layne bought Demri a claddagh ring, an Irish design consisting of two hands clasping a heart, often surmounted by a crown. She recalled that Layne and Demri went to see her at Harborview Medical Center, where she worked, to tell her of their engagement, adding “and then they had a big engagement dinner, down at the Old Spaghetti Factory.”

Jim Elmer recalls that the two families went out to dinner to celebrate the engagement. Wedding plans were made, though the engagement was eventually called off. According to Austin, Layne and Demri chose Kiana Lodge for the venue, located on Bainbridge Island, a ferry ride away from downtown Seattle.21 Demri bought a wedding dress from a vintage clothing store in Pioneer Square.