Alice In Chains lead singer found dead

The body of Alice in Chains lead singer and guitarist Layne Staley, 34, was found Friday night in his Seattle home.

The exact time of death and cause are yet to be determined, but the King County Medical Examiner positively identified Staley’s body Saturday after an autopsy, a spokesperson said.

Andy Kryza, a journalism sophomore and manager of Caffe Latte, 130 Charles St., was shocked to hear about Staley’s death.

“I grew up with Alice in Chains,” he said. “My brother and I were both in high school during the whole grunge movement and we were into it all.”

Staley had a reputation of being an avid drug-user and battled years of addiction, and he often described his dark experiences in his music.

In a 1996 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Staley spoke of how his drug use influenced his lyrics.

“I wrote about drugs, and I didn’t think I was being unsafe or careless by writing about them,” he told the magazine. “Here’s how my thinking pattern went: When I tried drugs, they were (expletive) great, and they worked for me for years, and now they’re turning against me - and now I’m walking through hell, and this sucks.”

“I guess you could see it coming,” Kryza said. “I always saw him as more of a Kurt Cobain suicide-style kind of thing, since he was always so self-destructive.

“It’s a total drag, because Alice in Chains was awesome.”

In the early ’90s, when the grunge rock trend was kicked into high gear, Alice In Chains was on the prominent list of bands in that category. Others included Soundgarden and Nirvana, whose lead vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in his apartment from a self-inflicted shotgun wound on April 8, 1994.

Alice In Chains released a solid list of records in the ’90s, including its debut, 1990’s “Facelift,” which was cradled by college radio with its hit “Man in the Box.” Other albums include “Dirt,” “Jar of Flies” and the self-titled “Alice In Chains.”

Ed Pniewski, a Lansing Community College sophomore and assistant manager of CD Warehouse, 228 Abbott Road, said he was bummed when he first heard of Staley’s death.

“I don’t really know the details and it didn’t hit me directly,” he said. “But no one likes to see that.”