Man In The Box - The Alice In Chains Story ┃ Documentary

[Music] I didn't expect you know to to chart where we did you know we thought maybe we'd chart that way down at the bottom and then climbing hold up yeah and like we did with the first record so to be in the top 10 right away was something we really didn't think was was going to be there that accepted you know [Music] in 1987 an American band from Seattle Washington called Green River released an EP called dry as a bone they were signed to sub-pop records a record label that achieved notable Fame in the early 90s for signing bans such as Nirvana Soundgarden and mud honey so pop would issue record catalogs to promote their artists and co-founder Bruce pavett described this EP as gritty vocals roaring martial amps Ultra loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation this is said to be the first time the word grunge had been used to describe a band from the Seattle Music Scene It a scene that would become the epicenter for the grunge movement during the late 80s a handful of bands would develop an underground following that would later be labeled under the grunge category malvin's would release their debut self-titled record Screaming Trees a Mother Love Bone along with Soundgarden would also join this alternative alumni grunge was seen as a mixture of punk and metal designed for the Common Man the now popular imagery of the plaid shirt and general scruffy dress style would become its demographic this new Seattle sound movement as some would call it later would see the surrounding youth flock to underground shows in often small sweaty beer soaked venues this didn't seem to be a genre that was going to fill an arena or top the Billboard charts anytime soon however in August of 1990 that would all change with the release of facelift a record that featured four budding Young Musicians Sean Kinney Mike Starr Jerry Cantrell and of course Lane Staley a year later facelift would be certified gold in the U.S after reaching number 42 in the Billboard charts the single man in a box taken from the Same album would receive wide commercial radio play across the states and bring the grunge movement to the masses as facelift would become widely regarded as the first big mainstream grunge album Sean Mike Jerry and Lane would become the faces of a new generation of musical Stars despite the fame and success some of them would spend years fighting a battle they would ultimately lose the dark side of their stories would be something that fans connected with on a deep level but it wouldn't be enough to save them Alice in Chains would be the name of the band that would dominate this new musical Revolution and this is their story [Music] and you know as people um you know back then we were kind of like like a gang you know all for one and one for all and you know one for the group and we were still we were still kind of searching around for what what our Niche was you know we had a good idea but it wasn't really set in stone yet Seattle Washington 1984 a group of kids attending Shorewood High School formed a group called sleaze and as the name suggests they were a band of Motley Crew wannabes mostly playing cover songs from some of the notable glam metal artists of the time sleaze were looking for a singer and although Lane had already taken up playing the drums his stepbrother Ken Alma thought he should audition so he spoke to the band's drummer to see if they'd be interested Lane Rutherford Staley was born on August 22nd 1967 at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue to his father Philip Blair Staley and mother Nancy Elizabeth Lane they lived in Kirkland a suburb east of Seattle and the pair had only been married six months prior with Phil being 29 and Nancy was just 19 years old Phil was a car salesman and Nancy was competing in beauty pageants just a few years later when Lane was only seven his parents were divorce and Nancy would remarry in 1975 to Jim Alma this didn't appear to affect Lane too much though as he would comment many years later no deep dark secrets there he was just like any other normal kid he loved art and drawing and just doing what kids his age did his love for music wouldn't kick in for another few years although he did attend his first big concert at the age of eight years old when Alton John came to town and his new stepfather Jim took him to the show during the late 70s and early 80s Lane would develop a taste for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne Twisted Sister and scorpions whilst also exploring Billy Joel and Fleetwood Mac with one of his favorite records being rumors Lane's next big influence though would be when he saw Van Halen live 1979. he'd already decided he wanted to be a musician in fourth grade and after trying out the trumpet cornet and drums he turned his sights to becoming a singer when he was roughly 15. I just knew that he loved music and so early on I enrolled him in a rhythm band in Bellevue he was under three and in his Dr Seuss book it says all about me and he said he wanted to be a singer so he was exposed to a lot of really great music and everyone in my family sings He auditioned for sleaze when he was around 17 years old the band recalled the first song they played together with Lane as a singer was looks that killed by Motley Crew in the rehearsal rooms sleaze wouldn't amount to much and unfortunately couldn't even win the high school talent contest that took place at Shorewood high in 1985. they would call it a day just two years later in 87. Lane though had already decided he wanted to become a rock star which would usher in the next chapter of his career Jerry Fulton Cantrell Jr was born on March the 18th 1966 and would develop early aspirations of becoming famous as a kid he wrote The Answer Rockstar when asked in a book what he wanted to be when he grew up his father was an Army veteran and his mother Gloria Jean wanted to be a professional musician in fact his family on his mother's side were all very musically inclined so you could say music ran in his blood like Lane Jerry's parents would also divorce when he was seven and he would be raised by his mother and grandmother in Tacoma Washington who would have to survive on welfare and food stamps I was heavily into rock you know like AC DC and kiss and you know all the all the English metal Zeppelin and you know kids make the Christmas list of what you want for Christmas and I cut out a picture of a Les Paul and I put it on my door and I and I wrote above it this is all I want you start seeing presence accumulate under the tree or whatever and I saw a case under there you know a kind of a wide bottom and then a triangular case and I'm like [ __ ] I got a [ __ ] guitar you know he got it for me I remember Christmas came and I opened it up and it was an acoustic guitar and I was so bummed I was the shitty kid that was totally pissed off that I didn't get the electric my dad was so mad because he bought me a guitar because I wanted one and I I'm like I'm like I wanted a Les Paul the first time Jerry played guitar was with his mother while she was playing the organ the guitar he would learn to play his first few chords on belonged to someone his mother was dating who showed him the basics soon after Gloria bought Jerry his first acoustic guitar it wasn't anything special but he was absolutely fascinated by the instrument and seemed to pick it up extremely quickly by the age of 13 he was heavily into AC DC kiss and Led Zeppelin and he knew exactly what he wanted next he wanted a Les Paul an electric guitar that was being made iconic by some of his Heroes such as Ace Frehley my mother had just passed away and I didn't really have any place to stay and I kind of was done with the comma anyway so I met this guy Tim Branham and and uh he invited me to come up and hang with him and I stayed in his basement for about a week and Mike Starr came over and we were jamming and then we both got kicked out after a week met Lane again at a house party kind of recently or pretty much right after that he kind of had heard about my situation and I didn't really have a place to live and so he invited me to up to uh Ballard where he lived at this place called the music bank which was [ __ ] awesome I mean for a bunch of young kids it was a 24-hour rehearsal Hall 50 rooms and just something going on all the time although Cantrell was mostly raised on country music thanks to his parents he would start to idolize other guitar players Tony iomi of Black Sabbath Glenn Tipton and KK Downing of Judas Priest and Eddie Van Halen he also shared Lane's early taste in music of Elton John and Fleetwood Mac when Lane was rocking out with sleaze Cantrell played in bands called Sinister and Diamond lie before seeing Lane perform live in 87 and he was impressed shortly after this Cantrell would have to leave his family home making him homeless they would meet at a party and Lane would invite him to come and stay at a huge rehearsal room called the music Bank this would be the start of a very close relationship between them what's going to be the next video from you guys we're gonna do a video call from a song called Angry Chair which is on dirt we're gonna do that in about two weeks Mike Starr and Sean Kinney would become the other half of Alice in Chains Jerry Cantrell project Diamond lie would come to a close which prompted him to form a new group by this time Lane had actually been singing for Diamond life the pair had become good friends after Jerry's mother passed away in the same year at the age of 43 from cancer Lane invited him to have Christmas with his family and even made sure Jerry had some presents to open so it seemed only natural that they would continue working together from a musical point of view as well yeah and I Sean and Mike were already jamming together and Jerry had previously played with Mike in a band called Gypsy Rose so they all gravitated towards each other despite this it actually took some convincing to get Lane to join this new band but as we all know he would of course become the singer and this would be the birth of Alice in Chains [Music] and uh just in the last segment we mentioned the Last Action Hero now how did you get involved with that film soundtrack I was dating Arnold Schwarzenegger at the time and uh he knew I played in a band um I don't know how'd that happen in 1989 Alison Chains would be signed to Columbia Records and made a top priority for the label Colombia was and still is one of the biggest labels a band could ever hope to be picked up by and it would be the pivotal turning point for not only the band's career but for grunge as a movement debut album facelift would hit the shelves in August of 1990 but wouldn't be an instant success it only sold around 40 000 copies in the first six months of its release and to put this into context the number one album on the US billboard 200 at the time was please hammer don't hurt them by MC Hammer which should amass sales of over 14 million in the first year spending 21 weeks on a top spot yo four man in a box and it's got this this guy with his eyes sewed shut right it's gonna go around and what does it all mean well I got the shades on because it's still got this guy was an actor named resin during the early 90s MTV would turn its gaze to alternative music and a music video for man in a box would enter into daily rotation this is said to be one of the main catalysts for facelift reaching number 42 on the Billboard charts a year later and also being certified gold on September the 11th 1991. so whilst it was a slow ride for Alice in Chains to gain some initial recognition when it finally came it would be unlike anything the band had experienced before I know that uh that the guys in this band would do anything for me and I'd do the same for them I know that I can trust him and I think now they know that they can trust me we've laid everything on the table and no matter what we're doing no matter what is accepted you know between the four of us we just kind of decided that you know we've all grown into into our individual lives and sometimes things we do don't agree with the others individual life but what we do now is we leave that at home and we accept it and concentrate on working grunge was about to become a global sensation it would give rise to now iconic artists such as Soundgarden Nirvana and Pearl Jam but with it came a very dark aspect of the Seattle music scene something that seemed to be built into the very heart of Seattle's darker side it had already claimed the life of singer Andrew Wood front man for Mother Love Bone in March of 1990 the term heroin Chic would become the name for a glamorized lifestyle of drug taking among celebrities and rock stars during the early 90s Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was famously a heroin addict and it would also be the downfall of Lane Staley Alice in Chains would begin touring with the likes of Megadeth Slayer and even found themselves opening for rock gods Van Halen and their lifestyle would change dramatically for Lane it would be the start of a Long Dark Descent into addiction Godsmack is is an angry frustrated trying to help someone out who's really strung out on heroin song his father was a drug addict leaving Lane when he was just a young boy but it would be his fiancee demry Perot who would introduce Lane to heroin sometime in the early 90s just as Alice in Chains were taking off Mark Lanigan singer for Screaming Trees a fellow grunge artist from the Seattle scene once said off stage it was an insane dark drug and alcohol-fueled frat party from start to finish with Lane and I raising Hal behaving like teenagers staying up for days on end we took whatever drugs came our way heroin cocaine painkillers anything heroin wasn't exactly a new drug to the music scene Ozzy Osbourne Motley Crew and Aerosmith were all heavy users during the 80s along with many others but now it just seemed more dangerous maybe this was just a characteristic of the Seattle mentality for Lane though this would be the beginning of the end foreign [Music] came out we've been negotiating with labels for probably you know from late 88 89 and we went to it was CBS at the time which turned into Sony but that just that negotiation with them to sign with them took like eight months so a lot of that stuff that was on facelift by the time that record came come out you know they'd signed us for a lot of those songs we'd already been had moved on from then you know so that record had come out so even like when we were touring on that album we were probably playing some stuff that was you know potentially going to be on dirt and stuff like that we'd moved on quite a bit September 29 1992 an incredibly powerful new record rocks the music world Chains would release dirt a record now seen as one of the most influential albums of an era and is still to this day considered to be a seminal record amongst peers and critics alike dirt would Peak at number six on the billboard 200 chart and by now grunge was in full swing Nirvana were riding high with nevermind featuring The Single Smells Like Teen Spirit excited in Soundgarden's third studio album had reached number 39. what would be an incredible reason to celebrate for most artists that had dreamed of this sort of success would become an open book into the chaos of Alice in Chains dirt featured songs written by both Lane and Jerry of which many of them addressed ongoing addictions depression internal pain and relationship problems this would also be the last record the four of them would record together as Mike's Starr would part ways with Alice just a few months later this was the first big indication that drugs and substance abuse had taken a serious toll on some of the band Sean Kinney and Mike were said to be struggling with serious drug and alcohol issues whilst Lane had already spent time in rehab at some point during or just before the recording of dirt but would soon quickly fall back into heroin use in 1994 Lane would tell Rolling Stone magazine it was just a difference in priorities we wanted to continue intense touring and press Mike was ready to go home but Mike would later claim that he was fired due to his drug addictions the irony of this is that over the next few years Staley would be unable to fight off his own addictions largely in part to his father re-entering his life while Staley had spent years trying to reconnect with his father he didn't hear a single word from him until he discovered that lane was now living the life of a rock star 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 I was trying to kick this habit out of my life and here comes this man asking for money to buy smack the incentive for Phil to get to know his son again was not one of compassion family nor was it one a financial gain he wanted one thing drugs Phil would essentially use his son like his own personal dealer never having to pay him Lane appeared to already be in a dark place before his father came along and now he was being pushed even further 1994 would also see the death of a grunge icon Kurt Cobain of Nirvana although he died from an apparent suicide involving a shotgun the fact that he was also a heavy drug user especially when it came to heroin was something that lane took note of and for a brief moment it seemed as if he saw something of himself in Kurt's drug addiction I saw all the suffering that Kurt Cobain went through I didn't know him really well but I just saw this real vibrant person turn into a really shy timid withdrawn introverted person at the end of the day or at the end of the party when everyone goes home you're stuck with yourself his bandmates and manager were hoping this might be the wake-up call he needed to try and kick his substance abuse habits for good it seemed though for Lane he had already gone past a point of no return and now it was causing real problems within the Alice in Chains Camp Staley's drug use during rehearsal had prompted the band to cancel a huge tour with Metallica that was due to take place in 1994. facelift and dirt had already given Alice in Chains rock star status within the alternative scene on a commercial scale 1994 also saw the release of their acoustic EP jar of flies that not only set them apart from almost every other grunge artist of the time but it attracted an entirely new audience for them the EP featured nutshell which many consider to be an extremely heavy song in terms of emotional depth of time and yet I fight this battle all alone if I can't be my own I'd feel better dead these paraphrased lyrics were written by Lane they highlighted a dark side to his thought process and possibly his State of Mind most likely referring to his ongoing fight with drug addiction the EP itself though would be a huge success it was the first EP ever to debut at number one on the American billboard 200 chart selling 150 000 copies in the first week however less than a year later during the recording of their self-titled third studio record sometimes referred to as the dog record then band manager Susan Silva said it was a really painful session it was horrifying to see Lane in that condition and sadly it would also be Lane Staley's last studio album with Alice in Chains in 1989 MTV launched a new show called MTV Unplugged it was an acoustic showcase that played host to prominent artist of the time it would often consist of a 40 to 50 minute live performance in front of a small intimate crowd usually with atmospheric mood lighting by the early 90s Eric Clapton Stone Temple Pilots and kiss had recorded live performances on the show as well as many others foreign November 18 1993 Nirvana were given the opportunity to host their own performance just five months before Kurt Cobain's death Alice in Chains releasing an incredible acoustic EP with jar of flies along with grunge taking over the mainstream it seemed only fitting for them to follow suit April 10 1996 Alice in Chains would walk onto the set of MTV Unplugged as fans erupted to the first few chords of nutshell a live recording would be released two months later Landing the band another billboard 200 chart topping record however this seems to be the year that would completely break Lane Staley mentally and physically July 3rd of the same year Alice was supporting kiss in Kansas City when Lane overdosed on heroin after the show nobody knew at the time that this would be the last live performance Lane would Grace the world with Jerry though was already preparing for something like this to happen as it seemed even he couldn't help his best friend overcome his demons I remember being surrounded by friends and that and the kiss shows I think that was it so I mean for a period of time and you know this knowing that my band's probably been over and you know knowing that my one of my friends might be committed to going out that way that's a tough thing to live with and still try to keep that internal if that's where somebody's gonna go then that's what they're going to do and we all went to through that to some degree and I don't think I was in great shape either I think I was not feeling too hot either by my own hand that's why all of that is in there because all of that background that I just described we were all living in that and knowing that we're coming to the end of it here unless something really drastically changes we're coming to the end really quick and I think part of that is in that performance shortly after this Lane's fiancee demry Perot would lose her battle with addiction she died following an overdose on October the 29th 1996. according to people that knew him Lane became a recluse and fell into a deep and dark depressive episode one that he wouldn't recover from although it was never officially announced Alice in Chains were basically on Hiatus any tours they were offered were declined and any work on future albums had almost entirely ground to a halt sadly by this point Lane seemed to be unborrowed time Lane Staley's final years are some that paint an incredibly dark and depressing picture during this time he would rarely be seen out in public as he locked himself away in his condo in Seattle and very little is known about his life during this period he didn't speak to anyone didn't answer his phone and often ignored anyone that came round to visit him the few people that did happen to see him on a rare occasion say that he was almost unrecognizable weighing well under 90 pounds appeared to be incredibly pale and was missing teeth it was clear that he had lost his battle with addiction and was most likely suffering from severe depression despite this Lane would make one final public appearance on October the 31st 1998 when he decided to go and support his best friend Jerry Cantrell at one of his after all they were now like brothers in March of 2002 Jerry Cantrell after working on his second solo album degradation trip whilst promoting the record he was asked about the future of Alison chains given they were on Hiatus he simply said we're all still around so it's possible we could all do something someday and I fully hope someday we will a month later Lane Staley would be found dead in his apartment an autopsy revealed he most likely died on April the 5th from a drug overdose his body wasn't discovered for about two weeks after his death Mike's star would be the last person to see laying alive a day before his death star said Lane refused to call 9-1-1 despite how sick he appeared to be for years after this Mike Starr would blame himself for Lane's death saying he wish he'd never left that day sadly Mike Starr would also lose his life some years later also to an overdose he was an amazing musician an inspiration and a comfort to so many he made great music and gifted it to the world we are proud to have known him to be his friend and to create music with him for the past decade Lane struggled greatly we can only hope that he has at last found we love you Lane dearly and we will miss you endlessly Alice in Chains [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: RAWMUSICTV

Views: 270,991

Keywords: rock, metal, news, rawmusictv

Id: w3PwGch4vPA

Length: 28min 51sec (1731 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2022