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Susan Silver: “I’m in Exploration Mode Right Now”

Seattle attorney Joleen Hughes recorded an interview with Alice in Chains manager Susan Silver for her podcast. She and Susan talk about the early days of the Seattle music scene, her way of doing business, and Susan’s possible plans for the future. The most newsworthy part of the interview in my opinion begins at around the 21:54 mark:

I’m an exploration mode right now. My sweet daughter went to college last month and, so this is really the first month of a new chapter. I had hoped that it, I would have a clearer picture, but I think between getting her ready to launch and a difficult year that we all had last year and also lost both my parents the year before that, that it’s, I haven’t really had the mental bandwidth to think about next career moves.

…

We are a family, they’re my brothers. And I trust them with my life and will always be there to offer whatever guidance I can. They’re pretty self sufficient at this point. They’ve been at it a long time and I have terrific partners in La who have a terrific company name that really fits what we’re talking about to the Velvet Hammer. Next chapter is writing itself now.

…

I’m not going to go down that road [management] again. It was on the one hand Kismet when it happened and incredible amount of blood, sweat and tears as you know, it was a 24/7 and beyond. Don’t think starting over and doing it over would be as soul satisfying as it was. I think I need to take my collective experiences and parlay them into something else. And I don’t know what that is. I really don’t, I don’t even know if it’s in the music business. I think it is because that’s what I know. But maybe not, looking into getting my meditation teacher certification. It sounds funny, but it’s true.

Listening to all those comments, it sounds as though she is thinking about retirement, or to be more specific, of getting out of the music business to do something else – whatever that may be. Her only client these days is Alice in Chains, who she describes as “pretty self-sufficient at this point” which she co-manages with David Benveniste from Velvet Hammer Management in Los Angeles.

Keep in mind, she already shuttered her management business once back in late 1997 when both her main clients at the time (Soundgarden and Alice in Chains) had either broken up or were on an indefinite hiatus. Fortunately for her, at this point in her life, the circumstances are very different and much better than 21+ years ago.

The whole thing runs for just shy of 32 minutes and is well worth listening to.

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Sirius XM Radio Interview on December 4

Mark your calendars…  I will be on the Sirius XM Volume show “Feedback” on Tuesday, December 4 talking about Alice in Chains: The Untold Story. Turn on Sirius XM channel 106 at around 9:20 a.m. Eastern time to listen.

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Alice in Chains Paperback Edition Is Here

Happy Black Friday! If you’re looking for a stocking stuffer for that special someone, the paperback edition of Alice in Chains: The Untold Story is available now at all book retailers.

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Bohemian Rhapsody Fact Check

I saw the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody a few weeks ago and wrote this article assessing the film on its factual/historical accuracy.

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Product Placement

My brother sent me this screenshot.  Here’s the link to the original source.

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Some Thoughts About Chris Cornell's Death and the Seattle Grunge Scene

I was interviewed several weeks ago by Paste Magazine for a story about the death of Chris Cornell in the context of the Seattle grunge scene.

You can read it here.

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Some Thoughts About Chris Cornell’s Death and the Seattle Grunge Scene

I was interviewed several weeks ago by Paste Magazine for a story about the death of Chris Cornell in the context of the Seattle grunge scene.

You can read it here.

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The Origin of Layne Staley's Middle Name

Nancy McCallum – Layne Staley’s mother – did an interview with Northwest Music Scene recently.  This particular exchange caught my attention:

Early bands:

“In 5th grade, he borrowed his Uncle Bob’s trumpet, so that was his first instrument. Then, our family friend Fred loaned him a drum set, and he loved the drums. He wasn’t really into the trumpet but the drums he loved. And then, our neighbor sold him a drum set and he changed his middle name to Thomas, because he admired Tommy Lee (Motley Crue).”

The subject of Layne’s middle name at birth and its subsequent change to Thomas was covered in my book.

Layne was born Layne Rutherford Staley on August 22, 1967.  I stumbled onto this fact completely by accident when, during the course of an on the record interview with his friend and former bandmate Nick Pollock, he mentioned that whenever he wanted to get under Layne’s skin, he would refer to him as “Rutherford” in some variation of his name or another.  In Nick’s words, “It would make him madder than fuck. He would get so angry at me, he would be ready to get out of the goddamn moving car.” At the time of the interview, Nick had no recollection of what the name was or what it meant to Layne.  I assumed – correctly – that in order to have provoked that kind of a response, it had to have some meaning to him.

It was a very touchy subject for him, one that he swore his teenage bandmates in Sleze/Alice ‘N Chains to secrecy about.  According to James Bergstrom, “I think he confided in us. I think we were having one of our band talks. I don’t know if it was just him and I, because I don’t think I told anybody because he asked me not to.” Ultimately, I was able to confirm this information through five on the record sources (Jim Elmer, his stepfather; Ken Elmer, his stepbrother; and Johnny Bacolas, Bergstrom, and Pollock, his former bandmates) and a court document from Layne’s parents’ divorce, which identified him as “Layne R. Staley.”

The next question I attempted to answer in my book was when and why Layne changed his middle name to Thomas.  None of Layne’s relatives or close friends who spoke to me knew why, beyond his dislike of Rutherford. I filed a public records request to get a copy of his birth certificate. The document I got identified him as “Layne Thomas Staley” and was a modern printed document, not a copy of the original document from after his birth 1967.  I was later told that when a person legally changes his or her name, then the person’s birth certificate is updated accordingly and replaces the previous version of the document.   I couldn’t find any court records or other documents showing when the name change took place either.  My best guess was that he did it at some point after he turned 18 – legal adult age.

This interview with Nancy – who declined requests to be interviewed for my book – finally answers part of the question of why Layne chose Thomas as his middle name. Beyond that, her explanation also suggests the name change may have happened sooner than I originally thought, potentially during his teenage years while still living at home with his parents before he switched from drums to singing.

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