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[Data West]

21 years since the death of Cobain(April 5, 1994) and 13 years since the death of Staley(April 5, 2002). Today marks the anniversary of two of the most important men in the Seattle music scene and arguably two of the most popular rock vocalists of the 90s who helped shape that sound with their own different takes. While Cobain would pass in the middle of his career, Staley would have his own personal demons that hurt his singing and more importantly his health as the Alice In Chains frontman would withdraw from public life and rarely be heard of again until his death in 2002.

Both suffered from their own issues that they used to create a tormented sound in their music that would capture the better parts of a decade. This thread isn't really a, 'Who is better' 'Who was more important' or anything like that, it's honestly just a thread that I thought should be made to discuss the music and contributions of these men.

MTV Unplugged: Nirvana
MTV Unplugged: Alice In Chains - To me, this is Layne's last truly great performance and you can already see the wear on him. He would later record Get Born Again and Died, but both those songs lacked the booming command of Staley's voice in Dirt or Jar of Flies)

Loudwire article that goes much more indepth on the events leading up to their passing.

 

[Lime]

I love Staley's voice so much. I'm grateful for what he contributed to the world and how he made people feel.

 

[AudioNoir]

There's a really great animated interview PBS put together where Kurt talks about his parents' divorce, his friendships with women and distaste for how they're treated in general, homophobia etc. I heard it years and years after he passed, and it totally renewed the already-existing respect I had for the guy.

Would link it, but my phone is being a dirty turd Think the YouTube channel is Blank on Blank or something. Worth checking out.

 

[TheSeks]

Would link it, but my phone is being a dirty turd Think the YouTube channel is Blank on Blank or something. Worth checking out.

This?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Z2BkZaOQc

 

[AudioNoir]

This?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Z2BkZaOQc

Yeah! Merci!

 

[glow]

Kurt's death hit me the hardest at the time because his career was still going (kind of).

Saddest part about the deaths for me, looking back, was Layne's final interview:

"I know I'm near death. I did crack and heroin for years. I never wanted to end my life this way. I know I have no chance. It's too late."

Heartbreaking to read those words.

 

[The Real Abed]

I had an ex who was obsessed with Layne Staley.

She had his poster on her wall. I bought her a vinyl Mad Season album off eBay for $80 for Christmas.

She also had pics of her dog on her phone. But never had any with us or me.

 

[TheSeks]

Yeah! Merci!

Here's the full (text) interview: http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/kurt-cobain-the-lost-interview

But apparently you need an account to access it. IDK.

 

[Bread]

Layne Staley...fuck he was so good. RIP.

Don't Follow is my favorite from AiC

 

[disappeared]

This?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Z2BkZaOQc

Is that the entire interview? Would really enjoy listening to an extended one if it exists.

 

[kamineko]

I remember seeing Nirvana a few months before KC's death. We were in Oklahoma, so he talked about the Flaming Lips a little. It was this huge venue, because they were a huge act. It seemed like nobody knew what the hell he was talking about. I felt out of place at the show, the crowd seemed to mostly be OU students, probably greek life. He then said to the folks in the pit that if he saw any guys groping women in the pit that's he'd jump down their and kick their asses.

I mean, he seemed like this guy the audience wouldn't even talk to in real life. & neither was I, you know? Seeing him like that, I felt even more connected to the music. Talking to a bunch of strangers about the Flaming Lips & they don't know what the hell you're talking about. I get it. I loved the show but left worried about him. There's nothing worse than being surrounded by people that don't understand you at all, and that was his job, now. He seemed so alone.

I love the whole Nirvana catalog, but I mostly listen to In Utero these days. I've lived through troubles of my own with mental illness and drugs, and "Milk It" seems like the perfect distillation of something in me that is very difficult to express. It's a shame he was so damn sad. I wish, in his brief time, he could have at least experienced more happiness.

 

[MomoPufflet]

I can't watch or listen to Nutshell unplugged without getting a tear in my eye. Not possible.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

Layne Staley had such a great voice.

 

[Raistlin]

I don't know how I wasn't aware (or eventually forgot?) they died on the same date.




Either way ... I'll pour a 40 for each

 

[Data West]

Kurt's death hit me the hardest at the time because his career was still going (kind of).

Saddest part about the deaths for me, looking back, was Layne's final interview:



Heartbreaking to read those words.

He seemed pretty resigned to his fate by 1996 already. You can really see it. He never seemed jovial, but he just looked like he went from dealing with the suffering to just accepting it was happening and doing what he could before he couldn't take it anymore.

No. I hope not. I do have a lot to say about preventing people from making stupid decisions. I made a stupid decision and now I’m paying for it. My bed isn’t made, I’m tired, I haven’t slept well for two weeks. I haven’t been laid in a month. I don’t have a girlfriend. And I have a warrant for my arrest. Being me is no different than being most anyone else, I guess. I don’t think any drug that can cause brain damage, failing kidneys, hardening arteries, pain, and suffering should be made available. Drugs are not the way to the light. They won’t lead to a fairy-tale life, they lead to suffering. .

Then you hear about stuff with his dad

“He said he’d been clean of drugs for six years,” Staley related. “So, why in the hell didn’t he come back before? I was very cautious at first. Then the relationship changed. My father started using drugs again.
We did drugs together and I found myself in a miserable situation. He started visiting me all day to get high and do drugs with me. He came up to me just to get some sh–, and that’s all. I was trying to kick this habit out of my life and here comes this man asking for money to buy some smack.”

And the stuff where Mike Starr saw him before he passed and basically has the weight on his shoulders that he thinks he could have saved him.

That Layne didn’t die alone. Mike then explains how he left and tells, for the first time, what Layne’s last words to him were: “Don’t leave like this. Not like this.”

A lot of the dying stuff you read about musicians and celebrities kind of have that poetic death, but everything I read about Layne's was that he didn't want to die. He accepted in his head that he was going to for over 5 years but didn't want to.

 

[Einhander]

Layne was a wonderful singer and human being. When I think about the circumstances of his death and his childhood, I feel sad.

His parents divorced when he was 7. His dad was a drug addict. He was convinced that if he became a celebrity, that his dad would come back to reunite with him. Much of the last years of his life were doing drugs because he was dope sick. He was no longer doing drugs for enjoyment, and he'd comment on this many times in interviews. He felt major regret that the public viewed him as a partying junkie. There wasn't any partying going on when he was doing heroin towards the end of his life. There was a moment in his life where he was attempting to go clean from drug use. That was around the time his dad suddenly came back into his life, but Layne was wary of his intentions. His dad got him back into doing drugs. They'd do it together. His dad would stop by for drugs too. Eventually his dad stopped coming around, and thanks to him, Layne's dreadful drug addiction went back into his life.

This is what happened on the day he died:

On April 19, 2002, Staley's accountants contacted Staley's former manager Susan Silver and informed her that no money had been withdrawn from the singer's bank account in two weeks. Silver then contacted Staley's mother Nancy McCallum, who then placed a call with 911 to say she hadn't heard from him "in about two weeks." The police went with McCallum and her husband to Staley's home, "When police kicked in the door to Layne Staley's University District apartment on April 19, there, on a couch, lit by a flickering TV, next to several spray-paint cans on the floor, not far from a small stash of cocaine, near two crack pipes on the coffee table, reposed the remains of the rock musician." It was reported that the 6-foot-1-inch (1.85 m) Staley weighed only 86 pounds (39 kg) when his body was discovered.

In an interview on VH1's Celebrity Rehab with McCallum, former Alice in Chains bass player Mike Starr said that he spent time with Staley the day before he died as Starr's birthday was April 4. Starr claimed that Staley was very sick but would not call 911. The two ex-bandmates briefly argued, which ended with Starr storming out. Starr stated that Staley called after him as he left: "Not like this, don't leave like this". Since Staley is believed to have died a day later, on April 5, Starr expressed regret that he did not call 911 to save his friend's life; Starr reported that Staley had threatened to sever their friendship if he did. Starr was the last known person to see Staley alive.

 

[truly101]

This?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Z2BkZaOQc

I say this as a big Nirvana fan but the thing you have to remember about Cobain's interviews, you will get some truth, some embellishment and some complete total bullshit. He has interviews that contradict stuff he said in others. The issue with the gay friend, he stated before that he ended the friendship due to peer pressure at high school. His Irish ancestry, his father's family could be traced directly back to Ireland, and they had the Irish romanticized issues with drinking, depression and suicide (he had two uncles who killed themselves prior). The stomach pain thing thing has always been sketchy. I think he had it to a degree, but it became an excuse for his heroin addiction so he used it as a crutch.
I don't say this as really an indictment of Kurt Cobain, but its a reality that there are things from his past he either wished he did,, or he still runs from it.

 

[disappeared]

I say this as a big Nirvana fan but the thing you have to remember about Cobain's interviews, you will get some truth, some embellishment and some complete total bullshit. He has interviews that contradict stuff he said in others. The issue with the gay friend, he stated before that he ended the friendship due to peer pressure at high school. His Irish ancestry, his father's family could be traced directly back to Ireland, and they had the Irish romanticized issues with drinking, depression and suicide (he had two uncles who killed themselves prior). The stomach pain thing thing has always been sketchy. I think he had it to a degree, but it became an excuse for his heroin addiction so he used it as a crutch.
I don't say this as really an indictment of Kurt Cobain, but its a reality that there are things from his past he either wished he did,, or he still runs from it.

Interesting. I suppose we all have our own versions of "the truth" that we choose to tell.

 

[Ace Harding]

I say this as a big Nirvana fan but the thing you have to remember about Cobain's interviews, you will get some truth, some embellishment and some complete total bullshit. He has interviews that contradict stuff he said in others. The issue with the gay friend, he stated before that he ended the friendship due to peer pressure at high school. His Irish ancestry, his father's family could be traced directly back to Ireland, and they had the Irish romanticized issues with drinking, depression and suicide (he had two uncles who killed themselves prior). The stomach pain thing thing has always been sketchy. I think he had it to a degree, but it became an excuse for his heroin addiction so he used it as a crutch.
I don't say this as really an indictment of Kurt Cobain, but its a reality that there are things from his past he either wished he did,, or he still runs from it.

Totally agree with you here. As I've now gotten older than Kurt was when he killed himself I realize he was still just a kid. If I think about my life pre-27 there are a lot of things I did and said that I wouldn't be proud of now. I think it's pretty obvious Kurt either had selective memory or did some selective editing to his life.

 

[disappeared]

Totally agree with you here. As I've now gotten older than Kurt was when he killed himself I realize he was still just a kid. If I think about my life pre-27 there are a lot of things I did and said that I wouldn't be proud of now. I think it's pretty obvious Kurt either had selective memory or did some selective editing to his life.

To be fair, everyone does this to some degree. I mean, yes, his life was in the spotlight so it made his stories that much more radiant, but he was just as human as you or I.

Bukowski once spoke of the stories that he and his classmates would tell when it rained in L.A. for weeks on end, and how all of kids would embelish their tales, because the truth of their actual experiences was far too boring.

 

[TheSeks]

Is that the entire interview? Would really enjoy listening to an extended one if it exists.

See two posts above yours. The full interview is at that link but you need an account there.

 

[Rushersauce]

I really don't care much for Kurt. Laney on the other hand, hurts. Why, Laney? DRUGS ARE NEVER THE ANSWER!

 

[Einhander]

Bukowski once spoke of the stories that he and his classmates would tell when it rained in L.A. for weeks on end, and how all of kids would embelish their tales, because the truth of their actual experiences was far too boring.

We now call that Facebook.

 

[Sealion88]

Layne Staley...I remember my social studies teacher telling me this.

 

[disappeared]

See two posts above yours. The full interview is at that link but you need an account there.

Thank you.

 

[disappeared]

We now call that Facebook.

Suddenly I am quite depressed.

Fair point.

 

[Tarkus]

This reminds me: My friend has had my AIC Unplugged DVD for 5 years now. I gotta get that shit back.

 

[Banana Aeon]

Both of these men have had a large impact on my music taste. It's harrowing to hear tales of their last days, regrets, and all.

Don't ever do drugs people.

 

[H.Cornerstone]

This reminds me: My friend has had my AIC Unplugged DVD for 5 years now. I gotta get that shit back.

Yes, yes you should. I still get chills watching this,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rbpS2LfoTKU

I feel like an idiot for not knowing until today that they died on the same day:

 

[VARIA]

Heartfelt tweet:

 

[fluffydelusions]

A bit late but RIP. Listened to his music so much when I was a kid.

 

[Hugstable]

Heartfelt tweet:

Lol what the hell is that David Spade?

 

[glow]

Yes, yes you should. I still get chills watching this,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rbpS2LfoTKU

I feel like an idiot for not knowing until today that they died on the same day:

To be fair, no one knew at the time that Layne died on the same day for awhile after his body was found. An autopsy was needed to determine it. I don't think I knew what day he died until I saw Mike Starr talk about it on Celebrity Rehab.

 

[To Far Away Times]

The 27 club is a hell of a thing. A bunch of Singer/Songwritters died at Age 27 of substance abuse (or in Kurt's case, a lethal dose of heroin and shooting himself)

Kurt Cobain
Jimi Hendrix
Jim Morisson
Janis Joplin
Amy Winehouse

And probably a whole lot more that I'm forgetting.