#Layne staley unplugged driver#
#Layne staley unplugged series#

Kinney and Cantrell seem hellbent on defeating the opposing team, which consists of friends and bassist Mike Inez, who somehow didn’t wind up on the Alice squad. Alice’s drummer, Sean Kinney, came up with the idea of giving WhirlyBall a whirl, and although the other band members were initially reluctant, right now they’re all smiles. Before enduring the grind of formal interrogations, including Staley’s first major interview in more than two years, the band wants to have a little fun. Although WhirlyBall didn’t catch on as quickly as the Hula-Hoop, today a dozen or so such facilities dot the country, including this one, which is about a half-hour outside of Seattle. It's a special record.The game is WhirlyBall, a bizarre hybrid of basketball, bumper cars and lacrosse that was invented in 1962 by a Utah automotive-shop owner who received divine inspiration after watching his son improvise a game of hockey while driving a golf cart. It's timeless and has affected me in many different ways at many different points of my life. And as far as Nothing goes, there's definitely been times where I'd listen to Dirt and try to rip it off without getting caught.ĭirt has been following me around since I was a kid and it still just reaches me no matter where I am. I fuck with all of it, even some of the post-Layne stuff. Me and Kyle (Nothing's drummer), we get sucked into everything from Mad Season to the rest of the AIC catalog trying to find hidden gems. It definitely always gets put in the rotation. I go back to Dirt at least once a year, or maybe once a tour. He said Layne Staley was wheeled around from show to show during that time because he wouldn't stop performing even though he was in such terrible shape.

So he's wearing those black gloves in the Unplugged video to hide the track marks on his hands. Apparently, Layne Staley wore gloves on stage because he couldn't shoot into his arms or feet anymore because they were fucking rotted away.

He was telling me crazy stories about them all, but the darkest was about Layne Staley.

#Layne staley unplugged driver#

The bus driver was the driver for Alice in Chains during that last round of dates. I was on tour with Hatebreed for a little while, riding the bus when they were doing the Ozzfest thing.

#Layne staley unplugged series#

These words were a really intricate series of SOS's. I've always been into the lyrical side of songwriting and I could really tell from 'Down in a Hole' that Layne wasn't playing a role.

It was only a couple of years after Dirt came out that I started going down the drain and started getting fucked up. Pretty much the only time I touch a bass is to play that. I heard that song and was like, 'Holy fucking shit.' It's crazy that after a million listens and 25 years later, when you hear that bass line coming, it's just like, 'Oh my god.' Actually, I play that 'Would?' riff every time we soundcheck. The first song I heard from Dirt was 'Would?' which was also on the Singles soundtrack. So it was strange to me that all of a sudden it was so mainstream in music. I was watching a lot of family, friends and people around the neighborhood fall into it, and I learned at an early age what it's ugly potential was. In the Nineties, Philly was the heroin capitol of the country. Dirt was the complete opposite of what my brother was trying to mold me into. So I was completely against the grain of heroin-addicted long-hair hippies. At that point, I was mostly listening to a lot of hardcore stuff - NYHC and youth crew, and Oi! stuff, a lot of skinhead music. For me, it was hard not to like that record. It was weird that bands like Alice in Chains attained pop status, but it made sense that punks hated it. He made fun of me whenever I listened to any popular bands back then. My brother was bummed out that I liked that record. I bought Alice in Chains' Dirt when it came out. Domenic Palermo is the singer, guitarist and founder of the band Nothing.