...And We Die Young

A Tribute to Layne Staley

(1967-2002)

He came across to the world as quiet and mysterious, yet he left little mystery behind his addiction. He told us so much through his music.  He told us everything. At times, he boasted of his habit with songs like 'Junkhead' and 'Real Thing'. He made you think the user knew better than everyone else.  Other songs - he confessed he was really lost and trapped under the needle...and alone. He explained the paradox of feeling so high and yet so low better than anyone.

He once commented on the death of Kurt Cobain. He said he didn't know him well, but he noticed he had become so introverted before taking his own life. We watched as Layne did the same. Although rock stars have been known throughout the years to die untimely deaths such as theirs, Kurt didn't really die like a rock star and neither did Layne.  They died alone and by their own hands. His metaphoric lyrics have come true. You "denied your maker", Layne.

The opening song on Alice In Chain's first album, "Facelift", is "We Die Young".  It was both a narrative and a premonition. Layne lost his girlfriend, Demri Parrot to heroin. Wasn't this enough to make him stop? Or maybe the death of John Baker Saunders, bassist of Mad Season (another band Layne had fronted). Or others he knew and loved who had killed themselves the same way?  Instead, he followed the same path and forebode us about it the entire way.

When he was 28, he believed he was still young as we heard him sing in the song 'Frogs'. Now at 34, it's too late.

When I was 14, I used to dream of being the one to dig him out of that hole he was down in. I've never been a user myself, but I related to his words as though they were my own. Jerry Cantrell once said that Alice In Chains' music was about taking something ugly and turning it into something beautiful. I have grown up beautifully listening to his words of pain. He had touched my life with his voice and his music since I was 12, and 12 years later, I write Layne Staley this tribute.

Layne-

A person and a pain so private, yet you made it so public. We all knew your problems. You sang it loud and clear for the world. We couldn't save you, but we will always love you.

Cindy Mercurio © 2002