David de Sola's Blog, page 3
July 22, 2017
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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July 21, 2017
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July 2, 2017
Jim Elmer Remembered
Jim Elmer, Layne Staley’s stepfather, passed away in his home in Long Beach, Washington last week from heart failure, according to his son Ken. He was 72 years old.
He was born in Spokane, Washington on March 28th, 1945 at home, but spent most of his life in the Seattle area. Jim had Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in business and spent much of his professional career in the banking and appraisal industry. He also served in the army including being stationed in Germany in the late 1960’s, where his son Ken was born. He was married at that time to Wanda Wilson, and was later divorced in 1972.
He met the then-Nancy Staley after being introduced by a mutual friend at an office Christmas party in 1974. They were both working at the same bank at the time, where he was an appraiser and she was working as part of a public relations campaign. Asked if his initial reaction was love at first sight, he responded, “I don’t know if it was that, it was certainly interesting, I certainly took notice.”
Jim and Nancy would marry a few months later and form a blended family that included his son Ken and Layne’s sister Liz. Youngest daughter Jamie was born a few years later. He recalled the first time meeting Nancy’s children saying, “I met them at Nancy’s mom’s house, over in Bellevue one evening. We were going to go out, and the kids were there and at that age, they’re just real delightful and so forth, and nothing spectacular happened, but that’s when I first met them.”
When asked about the new family dynamic, Jim said, “We kept our visitation up with Ken, so when he was over at our house, we all made sure that the kids got to see each other and we’d do family things and that sort of thing, so there was a lot of interaction with Ken at that same time. And so we made a conscious effort to do family things to and be a family and not try to split kids up.”
“I think they became reasonably close. You’ve got three little kids. You’re always going to have some type of dynamic and so forth. But by and large, we did things with the three of them and kept everybody involved.”
Though Layne’s serious interest in music wouldn’t develop until a few years later, it was Jim who took Layne to his first concert in October of 1975: Elton John at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Layne had just turned eight a few months earlier. “I’m an Elton fan, and so I don’t know what precipitated that, other than he was coming and I wanted to go,” he recalled. “And so I’m not sure what started it with Layne, but it seemed like the right thing to do and he seemed to enjoy it.”
A few years later, he took Layne – who was in junior high school at the time – and some friends to see Van Halen, a band Layne would later tour with in Alice in Chains. As he recalled the show, “We were down in the general seating area. We didn’t have real seats, so we were down kind-of in that mosh pit area, and so when things started, I got off to the side and the two neighbor boys and Layne were all about the same age, so they stayed down there and I can remember I stayed down there with them for just a little bit.”
“Even in those days, I was the oldest person down there, but some gal came up with her boyfriend, and she says, ‘You know, you’re really brave being down here,’ and I took that as a compliment, because I mean, it was action packed. I mean, it was just a great concert, so I think they stayed down there the whole thing, the whole time.”
Once he became more serious about pursuing music as a career, Jim and Nancy never discouraged him from his career choice in favor of a more traditional path, like going to college and becoming a lawyer or an accountant. Not long after Layne first met Jerry Cantrell and Alice in Chains was probably in its infancy, he invited Jerry to spend Christmas of 1987 with him and his family – the first since his mother’s death the previous April. As Jim recalled, “I just remember that Layne had – it was his friend Jerry, and he was kind-of homeless, didn’t have a family, and so we started talking, ‘Can Jerry come over here and have Christmas with us,’ and so forth, and we made sure that Jerry had some gifts and some clothes, because he didn’t have a whole lot, so we bought him an Army coat and a couple of other things that were kind-of trendy at the time, and Layne got that, as well.” After Alice in Chains became successful, Jim traveled with Layne and the band for a few days during the Lollapalooza 1993 tour.
Jim was also there with Nancy when Layne’s body was discovered in his Seattle condo in April of 2002. He would later recall his comments at Layne’s memorial service, saying, “I had made comments to the effect that if there was one thing to remember Layne by it was his courage to be himself, and he was no phony. That was the word that I typically thought of, of Layne, not as a little child—I mean, as a little child, he had courage. As he grew up, he knew what he wanted to do somewhat, but he had the courage to go for it, and that was my word of the day; that’s how I’ll always remember him.”
According to his family, Jim was an exceptional amateur photographer, and he had a deep heart for underprivileged children. But his real passion was running. He completed many marathons across the globe during his lifetime. Up until his death, he was running 30 to 40 miles per week, and was planning to participate in a hard sand marathon to hopefully take place this fall in Long Beach, Washington.
Plans for a memorial service are pending.
Official Family Statement:
James (Jim) Kenneth Elmer passed away last week (the week of June 25th) at his home in Long Beach, WA. He left us peacefully, as it appears he passed away in his sleep at the age of 72. Jim was an avid runner and deeply engrained in the community of Long Beach, and well-loved wherever he went. He had a big heart for people, travel and photography, and a deep love for charities and organizations benefiting underprivileged children.
Jim is survived by three of his children – Ken Elmer in Charlotte, NC; Liz Coats in Seattle, WA; and Jamie Elmer in Colorado. He outlived his oldest son Layne Staley, who passed away in 2002. Also, he has a brother Robert Elmer who lives in the Seattle area. Jim also had many grandchildren, including Liz’s two sons and Ken’s four children.
A memorial service has not been planned at this time, but the family is looking to have a gathering later this summer to celebrate his wonderful life.
Send any questions or comments to Ken Elmer at kenelmer7@gmail.com. Thank you.
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June 7, 2017
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June 6, 2017
The Story Behind the Story: Was Layne Staley Going to Audition for Audioslave?
I recently read this article by Michael Christopher regarding the 15th anniversary of Layne Staley’s death and it got me thinking about something I reported in my book two years ago: that Layne told a friend of his about a year before his death that he wanted to try out for the band that would become Audioslave, a position that ultimately went to the late Chris Cornell.
Here’s how it happened: on November 14, 2012, I was doing an on the record interview with Morgen Gallagher, a friend, former roommate, and former bandmate of Layne’s in Alice ‘N Chains – his pre-Alice in Chains hair metal band. During the course of the one-hour conversation, this exchange came up almost as an afterthought, which has only been edited down for brevity to focus on Gallagher’s key quotes. From my transcript:
Morgen Gallagher: And I saw him again at a Super Bowl party and he was more himself. He put a little weight on and he was – he said that he was going to be – that he had to get a call from the basically from Audio… because we’ll turn into Audioslave, that they wanted him to audition and shit like that.
He said that he was going to clean up and then go to rehab or like that and go do the audition.
David de Sola: They wanted him to audition for Audioslave?
Morgen Gallagher: Yeah, but since he ended up dying, Chris Cornell went down and auditioned instead.
…
Morgen Gallagher: [inaudible] Rage Against the Machine, shit like that and they were looking for a new singer. And Layne said that they had asked him to come and audition, but he needed to get his shit together first before he could do it.
…
David de Sola: So, Layne told you that they were – that he had been invited to audition for Rage Against the Machine, basically. Is that what he said?
Morgen Gallagher: Yeah. Exactly, yeah.
David de Sola: His exact and wow… Did he go or not?
Morgen Gallagher: No, he never made it. He didn’t because he wanted to go rehab first and clean – and to basically clean himself up and get his shit together before he did it.
David de Sola: But he was interested in the project? He was interested in doing it?
Morgen Gallagher: He was thinking about it, yeah.
Needless to say, I knew right away that if it could be verified I’d have a pretty significant scoop on my hands. Over the next two years, I made several attempts at requesting an interview with Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello through his representative at the time, who told me he was busy, touring, or not doing any press at one point or another. With a few weeks to go before the deadline to submit my final draft of the manuscript to the publisher, I tried reaching out to Morello again, though by that point he had switched representatives. I told his new representative that I was on a tight deadline to submit a book manuscript and that I wanted to interview him for it, or at the very least get guidance or comment about the Layne Audioslave tip. I sent his representative a specific question about that, with the verbatim quotes from my interview transcript (see below). She got back to me and said he had turned down my request for an interview. I sent a follow up email asking if I could even get some kind of off the record guidance from her, but never heard back. Ultimately, I chose to err on the side of caution and reported this story in my book using a neutral but skeptical tone:
Morgen Gallagher ran into Layne at a Super Bowl party in January 2001. Layne told Gallagher he was going to clean up and go to rehab so he could audition for the newly vacant lead singer position in Rage Against the Machine. Based on accounts of Layne’s final studio sessions in 1998, it is unlikely this was anything more than his talking or thinking out loud.
I should also point out that I had to edit it down into this brief paragraph for two reasons: first, the initial draft of the manuscript I submitted to my publisher was too long, and I had to make a lot of rewrites and cuts to it before getting to an approved final draft for publication; and second, because I thought the claim was unlikely to be true, but was still worth including in the text. (If I thought it had been true, I would have written a lengthier and more detailed account and provided the evidence to support it.)
In the runup to the book’s release date, the publicist I was working with sent Alternative Nation an advance copy for press review and they wrote several stories based on my reporting. They wrote a lengthy story about the Layne/Audioslave audition tip by doing their own on the record interview with Morgen and hyped it aggressively, and the story subsequently made the rounds in other publications (with attribution to Alternative Nation, not to my book – not that I’m upset about it). Alternative Nation apparently made no effort to independently confirm the claim with anybody else, but when a fan asked Tom Morello about it via Twitter, he denied that they were going to audition Layne.
I had several reasons to be skeptical of the claim when I heard it, an instinct which ultimately proved to be correct.
First, I already had very detailed accounts of Layne’s final recording sessions in 1998 based on extensive on the record interviews with people who were also there in the studio and involved with those sessions. The last three songs Layne recorded were for the Alice in Chains box set Music Bank, and a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” for the soundtrack of The Faculty. My sources were consistent in their description of Layne’s physical appearance, health, and his ability to perform. He was already in bad shape in 1998, and based on other accounts, his health and physical appearance had continued to deteriorate by the final year and a half or so of his life, which is when he made his comment about wanting to audition for the band that would become Audioslave. Tom Morello was not present for Layne’s recording session in Seattle, but he did become aware of the fact that Layne was in poor health. He described working with Layne on the project as “Mostly sad. He was not well bless him.”
In short, Layne wasn’t in any condition to do much of anything by 2001, let alone start a new band that was about to write and record its debut album and go on an extensive worldwide touring and publicity schedule. This latter point is especially important because Layne essentially became a recluse for the final five years or so of his life following the death of his ex-fiancée Demri Parrott in October of 1996. But going back even further than that, it is necessary to note Alice in Chains had not done any significant touring since 1993 after they finished the promotional cycle for the Dirt album. Layne himself did very few interviews or public appearances during the 1993-1996 period for Alice in Chains or Mad Season, and keep in mind at that point he was still somewhat healthy and able to function. Layne was in such bad shape he couldn’t even show up to do vocals for Mad Season’s second album in 1996-1997. Layne’s mother and stepfather estimated he went to rehab 12 or 13 times over the years, efforts that were ultimately and tragically unsuccessful.
The second reason I was skeptical of the claim is a simple one: addicts lie, with nearly the same certainty as death and taxes. They are also not the most reliable sources when it comes to memories. I found out very early on in my research that comments attributed to Layne, Demri, Mike Starr, or others had the occasional tendency of not checking out. On a few occasions, they sent me on a few fishing expeditions to try and verify something I had heard, that wound up being a waste of time and energy. I had also caught Layne blatantly lying to the press in an interview on at least one occasion.
I didn’t doubt that Layne had this conversation with Morgen – the other details about it (Layne’s appearance, the location and host of the party, descriptions of his appearance and personality, etc.) were all consistent with other things I had discovered from other sources during my research. Beyond that – Layne was a fan of Rage Against the Machine, having toured with them on Lollapalooza 93. (Morello described himself and Layne as “Metal bros.”) Despite his poor health, his desire to create remained, mainly in his art projects at his home. He accepted an offer to sing vocals on a Taproot song called “Spacey,” a recording session that was scheduled for around the time Layne’s body was discovered in April of 2002.
Based on all of this evidence, I think it is entirely possible that Layne – having heard that Zack de la Rocha had quit Rage Against the Machine and with Alice in Chains on indefinite hiatus at the time – in his mind imagined or saw himself taking over that position in the band. I think his comments about it to Morgen were ultimately hypothetical or aspirational to the part of him that still wanted to create and perform music, while at the same time acknowledging the reality that his drug addiction and his health problems associated with it were impediments to him returning to being in a band and all the responsibilities that come with it – writing and recording new material, touring, and self-promoting.
Bottom line: Did Layne say he was going to audition for Audioslave? Yes.
Was there any truth to it? No.
Hopefully this will clear up some of the confusion that has been out there, as well as shed more light on who Layne was and what his life was like during this period.
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May 18, 2017
Chris Cornell Remembered
A post shared by David de Sola (@daviddesola) on May 18, 2017 at 7:35am PDT
I was shocked and devastated when I received a news alert from a friend late last night informing me Soundgarden singer/guitarist Chris Cornell had passed away a few hours after performing a show at a Detroit theater. It was even more shocking and devastating to find out today that the coroner concluded Cornell had committed suicide. His passing marks the loss of another iconic figure from Seattle’s grunge scene which upended and dominated popular music in the early 1990s. It also means that three of the iconic voices of Seattle’s “Big Four” are gone: only Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder remains.
Cornell was a supporting character in my Alice in Chains biography, for his role as AIC manager Susan Silver’s boyfriend and husband over the years. Most of what I wrote about him or Soundgarden in the book is (usually) seen through the prism/perspective of Susan or Alice in Chains. I never got the opportunity to meet or interview him, but through my research over the course of several years, I felt as if I did know him, to a point.
I was fortunate to be able to see him perform live four times over the years. The first was in Virginia when Audioslave co-headlined the Lollapalooza tour in 2003. The second was also in Virginia when Soundgarden did their first headlining tour in 2011 after reuniting the previous year. The third was in London in 2014, when Soundgarden were on the British Summer Time bill in Hyde Park along with Black Sabbath, Faith No More, Motorhead and Soulfly. Not only was it a killer bill, but they performed Superunknown live in its entirety.
The last time I saw Cornell was at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles on January 20, 2017. Prophets of Rage had booked the venue for an “Anti-Inaugural Ball” benefit show that coincided with Donald Trump’s swearing in as President of the United States earlier in the day. The bill for that show teased an Audioslave reunion, what would be the band’s first live performance in almost 12 years.
In the middle of the set, B-Real and Chuck D left the stage and stood off to the side as everyone knew what was coming next. Tom Morello started playing that choppy helicopter introduction for “Cochise” and when the main riff kicked in, Cornell ran onstage and took his place behind the microphone. The crowd went nuts. They performed three songs, all from Audioslave’s debut album: “Cochise,” “Like a Stone,” and “Show Me How to Live.” Cornell looked and sounded great, and he appeared to be in a good mood. He even crowdsurfed, as if he were a young man again. He hugged every one of his Audioslave bandmates, and they all seemed genuinely happy to be performing together again.
April 14, 2017
Dispatches from Kansas
A post shared by David de Sola (@daviddesola) on Apr 9, 2017 at 2:39pm PDT
I was in Wichita the past few days covering the final stretch of the special election to fill Mike Pompeo’s former seat in the House of Representatives. Here’s all my reporting on the subject:
Ron Estes Wins Kansas Special Election
Republicans Make Last-Minute Push to Defend Kansas Seat
Down to the Wire in Kansas
Kansas Democrat Faces Uphill Battle to Win Congressional Seat
Bernie Sanders Group Endorses Democratic Candidates in Kansas and Montana
I will be traveling to Montana for the home stretch of that special election as it winds down in late May. Stay tuned…
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November 11, 2016
Morning After Election Analysis
I put together this document the day after the election based on the data available at the time to try and make sense of what happened and how/why so many people (myself included) got it wrong. Feel free to read and share. I’d also be curious to hear your feedback.
America in the Age of Trump: What Happened, What Happens Next
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October 31, 2016
Demri Parrott Remembered
This past Saturday was the 20th anniversary of the death of Demri Parrott, Layne Staley’s ex-fiancée. I wrote the following tweetstorm to remember her (and him) for the occasion:
.@AltNationNet @JeffGorra @AliceInChains People who knew both of them well generally agree (and told me) that he never got over her death. Layne was already pretty reclusive in 1996
— David de Sola (@daviddesola) October 30, 2016
.@AltNationNet @JeffGorra @AliceInChains He was supposed to record guest vocal for a song by @FollowTaproot but his body was found shortly before recording session was to take place
— David de Sola (@daviddesola) October 30, 2016
.@AltNationNet @JeffGorra @AliceInChains @FollowTaproot Austin got that bear back after it was found in Layne's things after his death. She also has Demri's engagement ring that Layne gave her
— David de Sola (@daviddesola) October 31, 2016
.@AltNationNet @JeffGorra @AliceInChains @FollowTaproot @KianaLodgeWA That's why the private invitation-only memorial service for Layne's family and close friends was held there in 2002.
— David de Sola (@daviddesola) October 31, 2016
.@AltNationNet @JeffGorra @AliceInChains @FollowTaproot @KianaLodgeWA Thinking about both of them yesterday and today, and what might have been. RIP Layne and Demri.
— David de Sola (@daviddesola) October 31, 2016
Most, if not all of that material was in my book, where Layne and Demri’s relationship and her passing is covered in much more depth.
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July 8, 2016
A Death in the Eternal City
I wrote a few thoughts about the sad and senseless death a few days ago of an American college student in Rome – my old stomping grounds.
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