5/16/2023 0 Comments Layne staley mtv unpluggedI paid $150, but I didn’t care, I had this feeling that it’s now or never. I remember when they were announced on the lineup and tickets had already sold out. This was the first time I was seeing the band live since the Lollapalooza tour. There were a couple of us, but I didn’t know the others. “When you watch the video on YouTube, you can see me, I’m the guy pumping my fists to Jerry’s side of the stage. Joe Matthias was a die-hard fan of Alice In Chains, and he had traveled from New York City to catch the band in Kansas City. You’d think you were witnessing a 15 year gap between his performances from Dirt to now, and it was like three or four years. I remember their Dirt tour just a few years earlier, but you couldn’t believe this was the same guy. The guy was a professional, but it seemed to me like he didn’t want to be there. I’m watching the band from the side of the stage and they are really into it, and then Layne is just standing there. Palmer continues, “That’s the sad thing about drugs and what it can do to you, I was working in the profession but I was a music fan, I had my dream job. As much as we wanted it to be, this wasn’t the Layne Staley that we all remembered. Rooted to the spot where his microphone stand stood, every so often shaking his head to the music. Sean Kinney was fully committed to energizing the band, and then there was Layne Staley. Jerry Cantrell struck his chords of his guitar with everything he had, knowing that this could be Alice In Chains’ final show for some time. From what I saw they had the support of the folks from Kansas, no one was hiding the fact that they had their problems.”ĭuring set opener “Again,” Mike Inez jumped around, with his legs wide apart, and his head down and ferociously banging. “He was really happy, this was a KISS crowd for sure but the fans were into Alice, plus they had their own fans there. “Jerry went on stage and kind of looked back in surprise,” says Palmer. The lights went down and a huge roar greeted the band. I’m pretty sure one of their guys had to run down the hall and knock on Jerry Cantrell’s door to get it sorted, I remember there was panic at the time.” I remember having to ask one of their guys where are the setlists? That clearly wasn’t my job, but I didn’t want anyone to screw up. Usually you’ll have five, maybe ten copies lying around the stage – and there were none. “What I remember,” says Steve Palmer, an in house technician at the Kemper Arena that night, “is that they were coming on stage in like three minutes or so and no one from their crew had put out the setlists. Layne Staley’s final concert took place on an early Wednesday evening on Jin Kansas City at the Kemper Arena. Alice In Chains may have played just a small part of the tour, but for dedicated AIC fans the shows remain significant, as these were Layne Staley’s final live shows with the band. The Alive/Worldwide tour opened up in Detroit at Tiger Stadium on Jin front of 40,000 fans, and ended a year later after almost 200 shows. Layne Staley performing live with Alice In Chains at Tiger Stadium on June 28, 1996. But Alice in Chains were now ready to return to the road to support a band that they had grown up listening to, committing to four opening slots with KISS. This decision was shocked the music industry given that the record had shot to No. A couple of television performances followed, but Alice in Chains had not toured behind their self-titled record released in November 1995. The second was their high profile comeback show of sorts when they were invited to play on the prestigious MTV Unplugged series. The first was the lone show to promote Jar of Flies in Los Angeles in January 1994, a charity concert with Fishbone. Indeed, the band from Seattle had played just two concerts since then, and both had been acoustic shows. Staley’s heroin addiction had meant that Alice In Chains had in effect ceased touring since the Dirt tour ended in 1993. In came Alice In Chains, a band that also had problems with their enigmatic lead singer, Layne Staley. However, Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland entering rehab forced STP to pull out. It was no surprise that tickets sold out in minutes. Set to join KISS on tour were Stone Temple Pilots, who had once performed dressed as KISS in 1993. KISS were reuniting with their original lineup of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, the two former band members were joining Stanley and Simmons on stage for the first time since 1979. In 1996 the biggest story in rock music hit MTV News with a thud, and we all ran for tickets to what would surely be the hottest gig that summer.
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