Quote N°31: “When dad left, my world turned black ”
I´d been a nanny for 4 or 5 years for a little family whose mother had left and the oldest boy had trouble...I´d taken care of him since the time he was a baby...was having a lot of trouble at school and I was mentioning it to Layne because at that time I was still their nanny. That was in July, 1999 and I told him, “This little boy I.m taking care of is having such trouble,” and that´s when he told me, “Mom, I understand how he feels. When dad left, my world turned black, everything around me was black.”
Layne Staley, according to Nancy McCallum, Get Born Again
Quote N°32: “So I understand the way Layne feels. He´s so wounded”
Phil is so mad at Layne right now, because Layne wouldn´t call him much, and I said to him: “Dad you were gone for 15 years without a word. How can you even say you are mad at Layne? You left for 15 years. You are the dad; you should stand up and take care of him and not be this asshole. I left you a lot of nice messages over the years and you never fuckin´ called me”. So I understand the way Layne feels. He´s so wounded.
Liz Elmer, Layne´s sister, Get Born Again
One time I sent him to clean his room. I might like his style or not, but he was a master. He liked to have all his stuff all around him, all over the place and it.s not my style and I said: “clean the room.” When I came down to see how it was done...the top of his desk was just covered with stuff and, you know, I took my arm and just swept everything of the top of his desk and I just...I saw myself in this moment...how unreasonable. I mean I was irritated about something. I was tired, it
was something else and I regret that because it was really disrespectful of Layne...it was his room and it looked clean to him! It was an overreaction, and I regret that.
Nancy McCallum, Layne´s mother, Get Born Again
Quote N°33: “I took my arm and just swept everything of the top of his desk”.
He was one of the two smallest boys in the school and one time, years later, he told me this, I didn´t know at that time at all, when he came home in the afternoon from school. I was there and he would tell me about his day and we had a snack. The other boys and him had had a fight and they were having organized fights after school, like cock fights, using Layne, and Layne had turned into a pretty tough kid and he even broke a boy´s arm one day in a fight after school and I never hear this from Layne until his late 20s…so then after that, kids didn.t come home anymore. He was small like a doll, but he could figure out somebody´s weak point and he could also hurt them by saying something, he was good at that, I saw that happening a couple times. He has a razor sharp tongue.
Nancy McCallum, Layne´s mother, Get Born Again
Quote N°34: “He has a razor sharp tongue ”
Layne is so smart with his money and he actually was my saver. When he was 12 he went to a camp with $40 to spend, and he came home with $42! The way he did that was funny. He would buy gum in a package in the camp´s store, and then he would sell individual sticks to the kids for 10 cents or whatever it was!!!... (Laughs).
Nancy McCallum, Layne´s mother, Get Born Again
Quote N°35: “Layne is so Smart with his money”
There were so many rumors going on about Layne and his lifestyle at the time: “Layne has
gangrene and lost both of his arms.” “Oh, my God, he’s lost all of his teeth!” But the band never answered any rumor calls, because they didn’t think it was anybody’s business. There was a lot of speculation that the album would never happen. I heard rumors about some of the record executives betting against the record being made. I was like, Oh, really? Watch this.
Toby Wright, Everybody loves our town
Quote N°40: “There was a lot of speculation that the album would never happen"
A lot of the songs that Jerry and Layne wrote, you can hear what they have to say to each
other right there. It’s spelled out, in a roundabout way. It’s a way more malicious and brutal album than Dirt was.
Sean Kinney, Everybody loves our town.
Quote N°39: “It’s a way more malicious and brutal album than Dirt was.”
I had a special relationship with Layne. I had already gone through a phase of smokin’ weed and doin’ coke and heroin and all that kinda shit, so we could identify with each other and I kinda knew how to talk to him. Which I guess was one reason why I was hired to continue with them. I was able to really get down to some personal issues: “Here’s a piece of paper and a pencil. Write it all down. Make a song out of your pain, because pain makes for great music.”
Toby Wright, Everybody loves our town
Quote N°38: “I had a special relationship with Layne”
That was a really dark time. I look at the album cover — it was very grey, and I think that’s where we were at. Layne was going through the depths of his heroin addiction. It was really tough watching that, and it permeated into everything we did.
MIKE INEZ, Grunge is Dead
Quote N°37: “That was a really dark time"
I was in Mexico when Alice in Chains came out in 1995. What were my thoughts? That Layne’s life was in jeopardy, and that none of that other stuff really mattered.
Nancy McCallum, Grunge is Dead
Quote N°36: “Layne´s life was in jeopardy”
