This Just In From Seattle Music History!!! Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez discussed the loss of Layne Staley and Mike Starr to drug addiction in a new interview with the Lucas H Gordon Show.
“Drug addiction is beyond the music business. Whether you’re a washer, dryer, or repair man, drug addiction and alcoholism seems to go through all walks of life. It’s a pretty crazy business we’re in already, it’s just such a shame when your friends pass away so young, we’re supposed to grow old together.” He added, “It’s just sad.”
Inez also discussed the Seattle Grunge scene and Los Angeles music scene.
“The difference between the LA scenes and Seattle scene, is a band like Soundgarden was together for 10 years before they got signed by a major label, so they had a lot of time to get together and gel as a band.”
“Even all of the bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains in the early days, Pearl Jam, and Mother Love Bone they had a lot of time to jam before they release their music to the world. So I think that was very important, where here in Los Angeles they were trying to mix and match bands like, ‘Oh we need a bass player with long blonde hair, we need a singer with curly hair.’ They were just trying to do that, so the music started lacking I think because of it.”
“But I tell you one thing about the LA scene, there were more girls in the 80’s here than I’ve ever seen in my life, it was a really fun time to see that. I was very young at the time, but it was nice in high school to see a band like Van Halen play a backyard party, or Motley Crue playing the Whiskey. It’s really cool to see these bands. Me and Slash are the only two guys born and raised here, everyone else comes here, but we’ve been here the whole time, we’ve seen it come and go.”
