Long before Layne Staley succumbed to his demons he was one of the great icons of grunge, and before that he was a glam rock-loving kid.
In May 1986, when Layne was just 18 years old, he played a show with his first band, Alice ‘N Chains at Seattle’s University of Washington. The show was recently featured on LouderSound.com
To be clear: this is not Alice In Chains as we know them. (Think before Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney.) Along with Layne, there is guitarist Johnny Bacolas, bassist Nick Pollack and drummer James Bergstrom.
After Alice N’ Chains split in 1987, Layne got together with Jerry Cantrell in Diamond Lie and at some point they modified the name of Staley’s old group and recorded a demo called The Treehouse Tapes as Alice In Chains.
The rest, they say, is history. Check out the clip of Alice ‘N Chains from YouTube.
