Layne Staley Remebered: Alice In Chains’ Mike Inez Pays Tribute
Revolver Magazine; December 1st, 2013
(An Excerpt from the interview regarding Mike’s memories of touring with Layne)
Interviewer: How did he [Layne] handle time off on the road?
Mike: I remember one time when we had a few days off in Japan. And after a few days we couldn't find Layne anywhere. Me and Jerry and Sean we're just, like, traveling the streets of Tokyo, looking in all the bars for him. After a while, me and Jerry were like, "Ah, fuck it. Let's just go to this bar we heard of where models hang out."
So we're walking to the bar, and we look behind the bar and, true story, there's Layne blowing fire behind the bar and being a bartender. So we went up there and were like, "What the fuck are you doing?" And he was like, "I just wanted to feel normalcy." So he got a job at a bar for a couple of nights, just to tend bar and didn't even really tell people who he was. He just wanted to do something different. He was just that kind of guy.
Interviewer: Did he often get jobs on days off?
Mike: No, just that one, and it was wild, too. At that point, he just had bright green hair.
Interviewer: Had he blown fire before?
Mike: Never. We walked in the bar, me and Jerry, and we just see this big flame and we turn around and it's our singer we've been looking for just having a great time. And he had developed friendships with about 20 people there, a bunch of hot American models. Like, shit, I'm hanging out with the wrong guy! He was just really funny.
Interviewer: It sounds like he was a fun guy.
Mike: I would always be amazed by all the negative stuff written about Layne, because he had such a capacity for fun. He'd laugh his way around the world. He's still not only my favorite rock voice but probably my favorite laugh in the world. I think that was my one biggest memory of Layne, just his laughter. He was just a lot of fun to hang out with.
I remember this one time near the end of 1993, we were ending a world tour in Melbourne, Australia, I think, and we had a couple days off before we decided to chill out. I get a call from Layne, and we go down and have some Bloody Marys right on the beach. I sat there for, like, four hours with him. That guy had me laughing for four hours straight. That's my one thing: Whenever I go back to Australia or anywhere, we always take Layne with us wherever we go. His name and our band are always going be linked. And we wouldn't have it any other way. We just loved him so much. He was just one of our brothers.