Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

“He seriously did not know any of his bandmates. He didn’t know Alice in Chains. He didn’t know how to play drums. He didn’t know anything. You could talk to him, and he was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ and he’d look at you like you’re fucking crazy.”

Mike had brought Chuck, his golden retriever, along for the tour. Chuck had his own laminate VIP pass with a smiling dog face on it, which a girl stole and used to get backstage.26 During one show, Layne, Jerry, and Sean went onstage during Primus’s set in the middle of “My Name Is Mud” dressed up wearing Les Claypool–style hats and playing bass guitars while emulating Claypool’s style of performing during the song’s signature bass riff. Claypool apparently returned the favor when he took to the stage dancing in a chicken costume while Alice in Chains was performing “Rooster.” Jerry threw a bottle at him before he ran offstage.27

In retrospect, Jerry said, “Lollapalooza was probably the funnest tour I’ve ever done, and it’s probably the funnest tour I’ve ever seen because there was so much interaction between the bands, with the exception of Arrested Development. Everybody was playing—we were playing with each other, doing it onstage. It was great.” Mike called it “one of those tours where lifelong friendships were made.”28

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Alice in Chains went back to the studio in September to write and record an EP of new material, which is covered in the next chapter. That fall, the band returned overseas for another European tour and their first tour of Australia and Japan. The band was checking into their hotel in the Roppongi district of Tokyo when Layne; his security guard, John; and Todd Shuss, another crew member, came running in. There was a forklift or tractor-type vehicle parked outside on the sidewalk with the keys in the ignition, so Layne decided to take it for a spin. “Layne started [it] up and started driving down the sidewalk, and he tore a sign off a building or something like that, and then the police showed up and [Layne and others] took off,” Biro said, describing what he and everyone else found out afterward. Police came looking for what witnesses described as a tourist-looking white male who had ducked into a hotel.29

When the tour hit Australia, the itinerary was four or five shows in a row in different cities, which presented a logistical challenge. According to Biro, Australian shows end at one o’clock in the morning. Lobby call to leave for the next city was at 6:00 A.M. After three or four shows, Layne was exhausted, and fatigue was beginning to affect his voice. The tour manager insisted the show had to go on. According to Biro, “Kevan Wilkins, the road manager, he sat there and he guilted [Layne]. I think that’s when his hatred for Wilkins really kicked in, and he’d guilt him. I actually sat there and listened to him say, ‘You’ve got to play the show. Think of all the kids that went out and bought tickets just to see you. Are you gonna deny them that?’”

One other episode Biro remembered from the 1992–93 period while the band was touring in support of Dirt—although he doesn’t recall which tour—was what he thinks was the only time they had to cancel a show in the middle of a performance. “Layne was too screwed up,” Biro said. Susan asked him to go onstage and tell the audience the show was over.

“There’s no fucking way I’m doing that.”

“I pay you. Go fucking do it now.”

As he recalls, “It was bad. People were really pissed off. They were playing, and Layne was singing, and he’d put down the mic and walk offstage and go to the bathroom and start getting high, like in the middle of a song. I don’t know what was going on with him.” Ultimately, 1993 was the last year Layne would do any major touring.

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There were two other events that year worth noting. Heart was working on their Desire Walks On album, which featured a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells.” The Wilsons wanted a male voice to harmonize with on that song. Chris Cornell got the initial nod and recorded the track, but Cornell’s record label wouldn’t give them permission to release it.

At that point, Ann Wilson called Layne, and he agreed to do it. Nancy Wilson recalled that she and Ann were like, “This will be great! Let’s have a moment!” Layne came to the studio and, self-conscious when recording, as usual, didn’t want anyone else there.

“He was like, ‘Oh no, you can’t be in the control room when I’m singing. You have to go away.’ He was too shy to be singing where Ann Wilson might be listening,” Nancy Wilson said. “We went out to dinner or something and came back, and he didn’t want to be there when we heard it, so he left. He was just like that.” The engineer later mixed Layne’s take with the Wilsons’ vocals and—in Ann’s words—it sounded “perfect.”