Setting the Alice in Chains Record Straight

A fact check of error-filled biographies of Mike Starr and Layne Staley

Photo credit: Ebet Roberts/Redferns

Author’s Note: This is an updated version of an article first posted on my now-defunct blog back in 2011, several years before my Alice in Chains biography was published. At the request of my friend Cindy Slade, I am republishing it here along with a few tweaks to include new information I’ve learned since its original publication. Otherwise, it remains the same.

During the past decade, two of the founding members of Alice in Chains – bassist Mike Starr and singer Layne Staley – have died from drug-related causes. In 2001 and 2003, books about both Mike and Layne were published. Both books were poorly written, not vetted, and have not undergone any critical review until now.

John Brandon’s book Unchained: The Story of Mike Starr and His Rise and Fall in Alice in Chains was released in 2001. Brandon interviewed Mike, his family, and a few of his close friends for the project. The book contains numerous inaccuracies, some the cause of sloppy research, others that are wildly off the mark.

At one point in the book, Mike tells the band and management during a trip to Brazil in January 1993 that he was taking time off and leaving of his own accord. The two shows played here during this tour were Mike’s last with the band. Multiple sources, including Mike himself later in his life, have said on the record that he was fired from Alice in Chains.

Among the most egregious claims in the book is the following unsourced assertion about the final days and death of Layne’s ex-fiancée Demri Parrott: “In Seattle, with doctors, a counselor and John Starr [Mike’s father] by her side – Demri passed away.”

Asked to review and comment on this excerpt, Kathleen Austin – Demri’s mother, who passed away in 2023 – said during a 2011 interview, “This is bullshit. Demri died at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland and there were two people there – me and my sister. And that’s the only people that were there. This is a lie, an out-and-out lie.” Demri’s death certificate – which I obtained by a public records request while researching the book – confirms she died at Evergreen

There is another error on the same page which some simple fact-checking could have avoided. Brandon writes that Alice in Chains continued working after Demri’s death – recording the MTV Unplugged special in the spring of 1996 and then opening four shows for the KISS reunion tour that summer, which were Layne’s final public performances. The timing for the Unplugged and KISS shows is correct, but Demri’s death certificate shows she died on October 29, 1996 – months after Alice in Chains had performed its final show with Layne on July 3 of that year.

In other words, she died several months after Alice in Chains stopped touring.

Brandon wrote the following unsourced statement about Layne’s family, “His father, Phil, had disappeared when he and his sisters were young.” The second part of this sentence is not correct. Phil and Nancy Staley had two children before their divorce: Layne and Liz. According to marriage and divorce records, his mother Nancy married her second husband Jim Elmer in 1975 and gave birth to their daughter Jamie in 1978.

Bottom line: Phil Staley only fathered one daughter with Nancy, not two.

At another point Brandon writes about how Mike was in a Houston jail cell “naked and dopesick from the pain” when he found out about Kurt Cobain’s suicide. He quotes Mike talking about listening to the radio hearing Courtney Love read excerpts of his suicide note at the memorial vigil at Seattle Center.

Again, a simple review of the facts proves this did not happen. According to Charles Cross’s biography Heavier than Heaven, Cobain’s body was discovered on the morning of Friday, April 8, 1994, and the public vigil at Seattle Center took place on the afternoon of Sunday, April 10.

According to Houston police records I obtained, Mike wasn’t arrested until the evening of Monday, April 11. Simply put, he couldn’t have been in jail when he found out about Cobain’s death or the vigil on Friday and Sunday when he wasn’t arrested until Monday night.

In John Brandon’s defense, it’s possible that Mike may have misremembered it in his telling, given the confluence of the two events in a three-day period. This mistake could easily have been avoided with basic due diligence on Brandon’s part. (Mike passed away in March of 2011, roughly five months before I started working on my book, so I never had the chance to interview him.)

There is a quote attributed to Mike in which he talks about legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen being impressed by Jerry Cantrell’s guitar playing. “Eddie was like ‘God, I wanna know how you’re writing this stuff right now.’ And tuning those strings down, you know, that no one else tuned down before – making different sounds.’”

Any serious musician, whether it be Mike Starr, Eddie Van Halen, or anyone else, would know this is laughably false. Tuning down guitar and bass strings to get a heavier, deeper sound had already been done decades earlier by Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix.

In Mark Yarm’s book Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil claims he was the one who explained to Jerry Cantrell the concept of dropped D tuning – in which the low E string on the guitar is tuned down a whole note to D – after Cantrell asked him about his guitar playing on the Soundgarden songs “Nothing to Say” and “Beyond the Wheel,” and if he was using a different tuning. Dropped D is a common alternate tuning used in the hard rock and metal genres, including bands like Queen, Tool, Rage Against the Machine and the Foo Fighters, among others.

Brandon writes briefly about the beginnings of Mike’s musical career: “At 12, John gave Mike his first bass guitar. He began taking lessons on it and improved dramatically.” In what was probably one of the last major interviews he gave before his death, Mike told Yarm an entirely different story: that he had a job as a dishwasher at IHOP when he was 12 years old, saved up money and bought a bass guitar for $50 off the brother of his future SATO bandmate, drummer Dave Jensen.

Adriana Rubio’s book Layne Staley: Angry Chair was released in January of 2003, less than a year after Layne’s death. For the project, Rubio did extensive interviews with his mother, Nancy Layne McCallum, and his sister, Liz Coats.

The book was poorly written, and its only news value was a series of quotes attributed to Layne that Rubio claimed were from an interview he gave her during a 3 a.m. phone call on February 3, 2002. It received coverage in Rolling Stone, MTV News, and Metal Hammer, among others.

Because the book was published posthumously, Layne was never able to challenge the veracity of Rubio’s reporting. This interview should be disputed after careful analysis.

On page 118 in the PDF file of the updated version, retitled Layne Staley: Get Born Again, Rubio wrote of her alleged conversation with Layne, “I did not ask many questions, he didn’t allow me to do so. It was him who was in charge of the situation and was clear enough about the way he wanted his story published. This phone call lasted for about 2 hours and a half.”

Later on, she writes, “I certainly know that the first publication of this book should have done completely the way Layne wished. And, that’s why I decided to go ahead and transcribe the whole conversation for this re-release,” and “Layne Staley’s words need to be known here and now without having any intentions of hurting anybody’s feelings, especially his mother Nancy’s, and to tell you all, in his own words, what he sadly had to say.”

The implications of these three separate quotes are clear – Rubio is saying she talked to Staley on the phone for two and a half hours and was going to publish the complete transcript of that conversation. (Note: I have both versions of Rubio’s book, so I was able to compare them to each other and notice the changes and discrepancies between the two.)

I have been in the journalism profession since 2002. In that capacity, I have transcribed dozens, if not hundreds of interviews with sources from video or audio recordings, ranging from five minutes to three hours in length. Based on what Rubio wrote in both versions of her book, it is obvious she did not speak to Layne for any extended period of time. The evidence strongly suggests that conversation didn’t happen at all.

In an email Layne’s sister Liz Coats sent to me after my original blog post, which is published here in its entirety with her permission, she wrote:

I personally have never read Adriana's book. I did meet with her and speak with her at length. I also talked with Layne when I was contacted by her, and let him know of her intentions to write a book about him. He let me know that he wanted no part of it. He said that he did not trust journalists, and that they had never been honest in his experience. He also said for me to tell her,and I quote, "Tell her if she wants to write a book about someone, she should write it about herself.". Any one who knew Layne would know that would be something he would say.

When I heard that Adriana claimed to have spoken to Layne, I knew the book would be full of lies, and I chose not to read it. The fact that she came out with that after his death made me sick. I regret that I ever spoke with her. In all of his wisdom, he was right again, and I unfortunately had to learn the hard way. She was not to be trusted.

You might wonder why I ever spoke with her in the first place. Imagine watching your big brother, this incredible man, trapped in his addiction, a personal hell on earth, for years and years. When I was first contacted by Adriana, I was so grateful that this woman from another country was so impressed by him, and wanted to tell his story, and honor him this way. I wanted Layne to know, or hear again, how much he was admired and loved, as he was such an extraordinary person. I even had the hope that a book written honoring him, might be one of the things that might change his course. You grasp at straws after you've watched someone you love go through such strife for so long.

I'm glad so many people realize what a joke this book was. I hate the thought of people believing her lies, but I know the truth, and that's why I will never read the book. No point.

The portion of the book detailing the full account of their conversation runs approximately six pages in the PDF file of the 156-page manuscript. In contrast, my interview with original Alice in Chains manager Randy Hauser—two hours and thirty-three minutes—runs 101 pages; with “Man in the Box” director Paul Rachman—one hour and twelve minutes—runs thirty-three pages; with “Rooster” director Mark Pellington—twenty-seven minutes—runs eleven pages.

There is no way that what Rubio published is anywhere near a two-and-a-half-hour transcript. There is also more evidence that she fabricated her Layne interview.

During my research, I have read or listened to Layne’s comments in many interviews over the years and obtained quotes attributed to him. In doing so, I became familiar with his way of speaking, his word selection, and the types of subjects he would and wouldn’t discuss.

If you set aside the substance of the comments in both versions of Rubio’s book, it is necessary to look at the language. It doesn’t read or sound like something he would have said. She quotes Layne at least ten times making specific reference to lyrics and titles of Alice in Chains or Mad Season songs.¹ They are:

In Layne Staley: Angry Chair – the first edition of her book – there is a quote attributed to Layne in which he speaks of Jim Morrison’s poetry, which is also worth noting.

Rubio quotes him saying, “Please do me a favor, go and read about Morrison and God, go and see how the government of all countries kill us, go and watch the news … then let me know if I’m wrong: Can I be as my GOD AM?”

In addition to the lyrical reference to “God Am,” Layne is alleged to have touched on a pet topic of Rubio’s. She wrote a book titled Jim Morrison: Ceremony—Exploring the Shaman Possession, and it should be noted that, for it, she tried to interview a man in Oregon claiming to be Morrison, who had allegedly faked his own death decades earlier. (Rubio sent me a free copy of this title after I ordered Get Born Again from her website.)

In the course of researching my book and in the years since, I have read or listened to Staley’s comments in several radio, television, and print interviews from over the years. I have also obtained and reviewed quotes attributed to him published in other books or articles, as well as through my own interviews with people who knew him at various points in his life.

In doing so, I became familiar with his way of speaking, his word selection, cadence, timing, and the types of subjects he would and wouldn’t talk about in an interview with a reporter or in a private conversation. Setting aside the substance of the comments attributed to Layne in the Rubio book, it is necessary to look at the language he used.

I have never found a single instance in which Layne ever quoted his own lyrics or song titles during an interview or a private conversation the way Rubio claims he did in her interview.

As was the case with John Brandon, there are also glaring errors in Rubio’s book regarding Demri’s death that don’t pass basic due diligence and fact checking. On page 71, she writes, “She [Demri] was declared dead because of an ‘endocarditic bacterial,’ In spite of the planned choice to keep some distance, Layne was at her side till the end.”

The correct name of the condition is bacterial endocarditis, which Austin confirmed her daughter was diagnosed with. The part about Layne being with Demri until the end is inaccurate.

Based on a review of the medical examiner’s report and my interview with Austin, Layne was not with Demri at all during the final day of her life. (I was unable to find the last time they saw or spoke to each other during any of my interviews or research.)

The medical examiner’s report erroneously describes the man who brought Demri to the hospital as her boyfriend. He was not her boyfriend, according to Austin, and Layne wasn’t the one who brought her to the hospital.

As mentioned earlier, she spent the last twelve hours of her life unconscious in an intensive care unit at Evergreen Hospital, with only her mother and her aunt by her side, before doctors turned off the life-support machines on the morning of October 29, 1996.

Moreover, Alice in Chains manager Susan Silver told journalist Greg Prato in his book Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music that she was the one who went to Staley’s apartment to tell him that Demri had died.

Layne’s stepfather Jim Elmer told me he got a call from Kathleen Austin the morning of Demri’s death. He went to see Demri at the hospital, kissing her goodbye on the forehead. He called Susan and the two of them agreed to go see Layne, who had already heard the bad news.

By the time Jim and Susan got to Layne’s home, he was waiting for Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan to arrive, who got there a few minutes after they did. (I was unable to get in touch with Lanegan to request an interview for my book. He passed away in 2022.)

Besides Austin’s on the record comment to me stating Layne wasn’t at the hospital, if he had been with Demri until the very end, Jim, Susan and Mark Lanegan wouldn’t have gone to see him at his home.

The other major error regarding Demri’s death is on page 119, when Rubio quotes Layne as saying, “Go and write a special chapter for Demri and make it clear that her cause of death was bacterial endocarditic. It wasn’t an overdose.”

This is inaccurate for two reasons: first, Rubio again misspells endocarditis; second, Demri’s death certificate lists her cause of death as “Acute intoxication,” and “Combined effects of opiate, meptobamate & butalbital.” In other words, she did die of an overdose.

Unchained and Angry Chair were both published by Xanadu Enterprises, a vanity publishing firm based in Iowa. According to Craig Chilton, the publisher who worked on both Brandon and Rubio’s books, his company is not responsible for vetting or reviewing the content. His company receives manuscript submissions, Chilton reviews them for grammar and spelling errors, and puts the manuscript into book form, after which the authors are responsible for marketing, distributing, and selling them.

“I did not review any tapes or transcripts. If they had such things, I never saw them. They wrote the book, I cleaned it up grammatically and spelling-wise. We don’t vet anything.”

Chilton can’t be blamed for following his company’s business model of publishing what his clients provide him. But it was the lack of editorial vetting which allowed Rubio and Brandon’s subpar quality books to be published and remain unchallenged for years.

According to a post on Rubio’s blog, she and Brandon later collaborated on a proposed biopic about Layne – based on and titled “Get Born Again” – with Rubio writing the screenplay and Brandon directing and contributing to the script. (This blog post and others on her site referencing Layne Staley, Alice in Chains, and her books about them were deleted sometime after the original publication of my blog post. Unfortunately, I did not take any screenshots beforehand.)

According to Rubio, one of the producers involved with the proposed film received a letter from King, Holmes, Paterno and Berliner, the law firm which represents Alice in Chains. (The firm has since changed its name to King, Holmes, Paterno and Soriano.)

The letter read in part, “The literary work upon which your project is based contains misleading information about our clients and portrays our clients in a negative and false light. Since our clients cannot be involved with your film and will not support any project based in whole or in part on any literary work written by Ms. Rubio and Mr. Brandon, our clients would prefer that you cease developing your project and move on to one that not requires our clients’ input or the literary work written by Ms. Rubio and Mr. Brandon.” (Rubio’s blog post quoting the excerpt has been deleted. Alice in Chains’ lawyer Peter Paterno declined to provide me with a copy of the letter.)

According to Rubio’s blog post, the project was derailed because “The Staley Estate did not authorize it.” If the screenplay was to be based on Rubio’s book about Layne, and presumably with some elements of Brandon’s book about Mike, the lawyers’ complaint that their works contained “misleading information” which portrayed their clients in “a negative and false light” is well-founded.

Rubio declined my request for an interview before the original publication of this blog post in 2011, citing her mother’s poor health. “With all due respect,” she wrote in an email, “both Layne Staley and AIC are not a priority in my life now.” Rubio’s book further contributed to the misinformation about Layne, enough that more than a decade later, her “interview” is still cited on his Wikipedia page as of this writing. Layne’s family has disavowed her book.

1. Two observations worth noting: First, Layne’s “My pain is self-chosen” lyric in “River of Deceit” was inspired by Kahlil Gibran’s book The Prophet. Gibran’s original text reads, “Much of your pain is self-chosen.”

Second, the song “Would?” is credited entirely to Jerry Cantrell – music and lyrics.