Alice In Chains’ Layne Staley Considered Fronting Audioslave

Sacado de // From: http://portalternativo.com/ – http://www.alternativenation.net/

De acuerdo a una entrevista que Alternative Nation ha hecho a un amigo de Layne Staley, el malogrado frontman de Alice In Chains, fue un firme candidato a ser el vocalista de Audioslave.

Morgan Gallagher recuerda encontrarse a Staley en 2001.

Hacía años que no le veía y no estaba preparado para ello. A esas alturas había dejado (Alice In Chains), había perdido la mayoría de dientes y pesaba poco más de 45 kilos. Hablamos un ratito y cuando nos despedimos lloré.

Hablando de un encuentro que mantuvo en una fiesta de la Super Bowl, el 28 de enero de 2001, asegura que el cantante le explicó la posibilidad de formar parte del grupo que estaban preparando los miembros de Rage Against The Machine (Tom Morello, Brad Wilk y Tim Commerford).

Dos semanas después (un amigo en común) organizó una fiesta por la Super Bowl. Al llegar, Layne abrió la puerta y volvía a ser el viejo Layne. Estaba a tope así que fuimos a la guerra. ¡Corríamos por ahí como dos niños! No hace falta que diga que nos perdimos el partido y hicimos que casi nadie lograra verlo.

Ese día estuvimos hablando y dijo que había recibido una llamada de los antiguos miembros de Rage Against The Machine, que andaban montando un nuevo proyecto y querían hacerle una audición. Me dijo que iba a volver a tratamiento y luego a Los Angeles para hacer la audición un par de meses después. No llegó así que Chris Cornell se hizo con el puesto.

Cuenta asimismo que cree que el vocalista había pasado página de Alice In Chains y buscaba enfrentarse a nuevos retos. Así tenía prevista una colaboración en el excelente segundo disco de Taproot, “Welcome”, producido por Toby Wright, pero no se pudo llegar a hacer al morir antes.

Gallagher era amigo de Staley desde 1986.

IN ENGLISH

While late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley was largely reclusive during his later years, the legendary singer considered fronting the band that later became known as Audioslave in January 2001. Zack de la Rocha had quit Rage Against The Machine just a few months prior, and his bandmates were looking for a new singer. Alternative Nation reporter, and early Staley collaborator, Tim Branom has connected us with Layne’s friend Morgen Gallagher, who told Alternative Nation this exclusive story.

Gallagher had been friends with Staley since 1986, even living with him and Sleze bassist Mike Mitchell for a period in the 80’s. By early 2001, it had been a couple of years since he had seen his old friend, so he was very surprised when he ran into him at a party.

“I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years and wasn’t prepared for it. By this point he had quit [Alice In Chains], he had lost most of his teeth, and weighed barley 100 pounds. We talked for a little and when we parted ways, I cried.”

This wasn’t the last time Gallagher saw Staley. On January 28, 2001, he saw Layne again at a Super Bowl party. “So two weeks later [our mutual friend] was having a Super Bowl party. When I got there, Layne answered the door and he was back to the old Layne. He had just gotten pretty much the entire Nerf arsenal, so we went to war. We were running around like two little kids! Needless to say, we missed the game and kept pretty much everyone else from watching it as well.”

“That day we were talking and he said he had gotten a call from the old Rage Against The Machine members and they were putting together a new project, and they wanted him to audition. He said he was going back to treatment and then going to LA to do the audition in a couple of months. He never made it, so Chris Cornell went and got the job.”

Staley also appeared to have moved on from Alice In Chains, according to Gallagher when Alternative Nation asked if Staley opened up at all about his status with the band, “Not really, he was pretty evasive about it, but it seemed like he was pretty much done with the band at that point. He hadn’t played with them for a while, and he was talking about auditioning for new projects.”

Staley was scheduled to record vocals for the band Taproot in 2002, but died before he could attend a recording session with producer Toby Wright, according to Mark Yarm’s Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge. Gallagher also told author David de Sola a shorter version of this Audioslave story, which is briefly mentioned in the upcoming Alice In Chains: The Untold Story book.