Posted on 03/08/2011 5:38:53 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
Mike Starr's demons tragically caught up with him.
The original bassist for Alice in Chains was found dead Tuesday in Utah. He was 44. Cause of death has not yet been released.
Starr, who battled drug addiction, appeared on the third season of Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew in 2009 and gave a testimonial marking six months and seven days of sobriety during season four.
But his latest run-in with the law implied that he had hit a roadblock in his recovery.
GALLERY: Celebrity Deaths in 2011
* Mike DeStefano, Last Comic Standing * Jane Russell, The Outlaw * Amanda Seyfried, Gary Winick * Deadliest Catch, Justin Tennison * Len Lesser
Starr was arrested last month in Salt Lake City on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance for allegedly having six Xanax pills and six tablets of the painkiller Opana.
"Devastating to hear of Mike Starr succumbing to his illness. So very sad. Our prayers are with his family," Dr. Drew Pinsky tweeted this afternoon.
Starr, who was born in Honolulu, played in Seattle with Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney as the glam band Diamond Lie, which later morphed into Alice in Chains with the addition of Layne Staley.
Their first studio EP was 1990's We Die Young.
Starr left the band in 1993 while they were touring with Ozzy Osbourne and was replaced by Mike Inez. Starr mentioned during his time on Celebrity Rehab that he had been booted from Alice in Chains because of his drug problem.
Inez was the one to reunite with Cantrell and Kinney in 2005 for a benefit concert for victims of the tsunami in South Asia. Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002.
"I totally back Mike and I back his efforts to get clean and remain somebody that I and the band really care about—he's a friend of ours, you know, and we wish him the best," Cantrell wrote in the liner notes to the band's 2009 album Black Gives Way to Blue.
I used to love Soundgarden... to be honest, they’re in the same boat with rest now. There’s very little music from that decade that has stood the test of time to my ears.
They snuffed the rooster.
I never thought of it but it is very true.
Thank you for the info. I liked the song “Nutshell” but I never really followed their music, so I don’t know much about them.
Apparently, the song can only be sung by women named “Wilson.”
I agree. Soundgarden was the best.
Starr did write that bass line for Would? though ;) Very similar story to long time Bon Jovi bassist Alec John Such who became such a mess that he was screwing up entire shows due to the booze and pills.
‘Would?’ is on my top 5 favorite song list from the 90’s. I really love that bass line.
Regarding Pacific NW grunge... I finally got to see Queensryche about a year and a half ago... Geoff still has it (I tune out all his lefty bs and just listen to the tunes).
LOL! That works for me.
One of the most beautiful and poignant rock songs ever.
Oh I can listen to Would? 50 times in a row and still get chills from it. Brilliant tune.
R.I.P.
“Down in a Hole” will be played.
AIC are my favorite band out of the grunge-era, by far. “Would?”, “Rooster”, “Down in a Hole” ... “Dirt” is their best album IMO.
Found an interesting MTV spot on Jerry Cantrell (AIC guitarist). Touring around his family’s ranch in Oklahoma. Seems like a down-to-earth dude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJW77uMEHdI
“Rooster” is the best song ever about ‘Nam.
You can catch them now, they've reunited.
I saw AIC as part of Lollapalooza ‘93, but by then Mike Inez was already in the band.
My favorite was the one album supergroup Temple of the Dog. I can still go back and listen to that today. Very good music. Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden are the only other 2 that made it out of the ‘90s Seattle scene for me. The rest were just copies of each other, or media hyped flannel clad crap posing as pioneers.
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